Commercial Usage Linux

[Andy Lynch]

Hi,

The company I work for are looking at the possibility of moving from a Microsoft environment to a Linux one

At a high level we have about 30 Microsoft VMs split into 

1. Workstations for processing, 
2. SFTP Servers for receiving data
   
3. Multiple MSSQL DB Servers
4. Webservers

We understand this wouldn't be an instant transformation.

We were hoping to talk to some one regarding what Linux Enviroment to run CentOS, RedHau, Ubuntu and what DB server to use. We have limited experience of Ubuntu and Redhat alongside MySQL.

Would anyone be available to have a chat with us?

[Russell Hyer]

Hi Andy,

There's probably enough people to answer your queries, but no-one can
really say use distro X over Y as it's your choice.

Secondly, there's no real difference between distros in some sense as
it's just a selection of free software in the main. The issues that
arise relate to:
a) whether you are philosophically ok still running non-free software
even in a GNU/Linux environment
b) whether the hardware you own would allow you to run completely free
software (or whether it's hardwired only to be supported by non-free
software. Typical scenarios for this include Intel's WiFi chips and
basically all modern Intel chips since the (unprounceable) Intel Core
2 Duo days (ie: from 2009 ish to date).
c) the minor issues relate to what kind of software packaging system
you are most fond of and whether you're interested in running the
latest, most up to date software, or whether as a business you'd
prefer to run tried and tested (but slightly out of date software).

So, Debian (debian.org) is a popular distribution available in
non-free as well as fully free mode (but they do kinda provide support
for installing non-free software). Trisquel is a fully free/libre
distro. Hardware wise is probably the biggest issue. There is a new
set of computers being released next year (2017) which will address
these issues, and it passed the crowdfunding stage already, see:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

As I deliberately don't use Microsoft tools in my development work, I
can't really comment as to the transition between non-free
database/virtual server tech and free software, as I don't know the
requirements of your systems/tech, but perhaps someone else on the
list will have the required experience. Failing that, you could just
cheat and do testing on the various systems and see if it can run your
software ok. (That being said: if you start to need to run things like
https://www.codeweavers.com/products/ to run your GNU/Linux systems,
it doesn't begin to make much sense philosophically. On the other
hand, if you as a business want to be able to run free software to
help you develop your own products and services, then, a fully free
distro would be the way to go. (Since if you decide to compromise,
there's no real reason to switch, and you could instead just switch
from Windows to Mac, or from a specific Windows system as there's no
difference to how you work if the software your work depends on is a
corporate secret))

Hope that helps a little,

Best regards

Russell
Just a developer/translator/mathematician and human

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[Phil Weir]

Hi Andy,

On 22/10/16 18:56, Andy Lynch wrote:
> ...

> We were hoping to talk to some one regarding what Linux Enviroment to
> run CentOS, RedHau, Ubuntu and what DB server to use. We have limited
> experience of Ubuntu and Redhat alongside MySQL.
>
> Would anyone be available to have a chat with us?

Just to follow on from Russell's comments - there are at least a few of
us who would be able to have a chat about tactics and considerations.
You're very welcome to drop in on the Monday Meetup social (reminder to
the group, especially if you aren't on Meetup!), it's pretty free-form
and a good chance to talk through ideas and meet a few people who could
help (at the Sunflower from 7pm). Alternatively, I'd be happy to catch
up with you during the week - feel free to drop an email to work out
timing, if you'd prefer that.

However, on the questions you mentioned - as Russell says, specific
distros should not make a huge amount of practical difference, it's
often a choice of familiarity with layout, rather than functionality, or
how cutting edge (or long-term tested) you are targeting.

Also hope that helps!
Phil

[Andrew Gallagher]

A bit late to this conversation but...

On 2016/10/22 19:09, Russell Hyer wrote:
> Hi Andy,
>
> There's probably enough people to answer your queries, but no-one can
> really say use distro X over Y as it's your choice.

What I would advise is that if you don't have much in-house experience,
using one of the more common distros will give you less of a support
headache.

Will you be running any particular third-party software? They quite
often have strict distribution support requirements, e.g. Oracle only
support RedHat Enterprise, SUSE and their own distro (Oracle
Unbreakable, which I would advise against because it's so niche). Third
party vendors quite often make this decision for you, in which case you
may not have to read any further.

But if you are still free to choose, the big question is then: do you
want to pay for vendor support? If you do, then RedHat Enterprise or
Ubuntu is probably your best bet. Otherwise, go for CentOS or Debian.
The differences between each pair are mostly in the package management
system and the arrangement of system configuration files. Debian/Ubuntu
are much easier to keep up to date long term, as there is proper support
for continuous upgrades that RedHat/CentOS specifically don't do (they
recommend backup and reinstall between major versions). On the other
hand, RedHat have much more extensive long-term support for old software
(over ten years if you pay them enough!).

As for database technology, MySQL and Postgres are both worth looking
into. Beware though that migrating from MSSQL to either of these will be
non-trivial, as SQL is not so much a standard as a set of strongly
worded suggestions. ;-)

Andrew.

[Lee Braiden]

I'd second that advice, with one addendum in a similar vein: if you're free to choose the DB, go with postgresql rather than mysql.

--
Lee

--
Lee