Debian vs. Ubuntu

[Dan Falconer]

I have two new Linux servers that I'm going to be putting into production soon, they're HP DL365's (a G1 and a G2).  They've got Debian 5.05 (Lenny) installed after a bit of work with installing the proprietary drivers for their network cards.

Most of the previous servers I've worked with have run Ubuntu of some sort, with the older ones running OpenSuSE... as I think about it, I am wondering if straight-up Debian is the best OS, or if Ubuntu would be better.  I've dealt with Ubuntu a lot, both server and desktop, and I've only dealt briefly with straight-up Debian.

The main purposes of these servers are as follows:

1. The main web server will be running Apache 2.2+ with PHP5 and PostgreSQL 8.x.  It has 8G RAM, 2xdual-core AMD Opteron (64-bit) processors and a pair of SAS drives.  This server is expected to be hit the hardest.
2. The secondary server will be for backup purposes and will run the less intensive services like DNS.  It has 2G RAM, 1xdual-core AMD Opteron (64-bit) processor and 8 SAS drives (2 for OS, 6 for storage).

Any thoughts/experiences would be awesome.  I'll be installing the servers sometime tonight with any luck, and they would be put into production by the end of the week.

--
Best Regards,


Dan Falconer
http://www.CrazedSanity.com || http://www.Buzzkill.org

[Robert Hart]

I ran Debian for on my home desktop 6 years before Ubuntu came along. I
loved it. I moved to Ubuntu because Debian development had stagnated for
a while back then and for the eye candy in Ubuntu :-).

The core technologies of Debian and Ubuntu is pretty much the same
(obviously, as Ubuntu is a Debian derivative). I think you won't have
any issues there.

When it comes to proprietary software, the Debian community leans more
towards the free end of the continuum than the Ubuntu community
(although the relaxation of that made them lose the RMS seal of approval
back in 2006). The lack of a company in the Debian community means the
politics are closer to Gentoo then Ubuntu, Fedora or SuSE.

Historically, end-user documentation and support for Debian has lagged
behind the others - that has most likely changed. Most Ubuntu recipes
work anyway.

Dan, I think you would be happy with either one. The Debian ethos is
probably closer to your OSS world view, but i think you would love the
bling and bleeding-edge toys in Ubuntu.

There is also CentOS - if it is good enough for Facebook, then I bet you
could make that work too ;-)

Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Falconer <dan.fa...@gmail.com>
Reply-to: bism...@googlegroups.com
To: bismanlug <bism...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [BisManLUG] Debian vs. Ubuntu
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:29:14 -0500

I have two new Linux servers that I'm going to be putting into
production soon, they're HP DL365's (a G1 and a G2). They've got Debian
5.05 (Lenny) installed after a bit of work with installing the
proprietary drivers for their network cards.

Most of the previous servers I've worked with have run Ubuntu of some
sort, with the older ones running OpenSuSE... as I think about it, I am
wondering if straight-up Debian is the best OS, or if Ubuntu would be
better. I've dealt with Ubuntu a lot, both server and desktop, and I've
only dealt briefly with straight-up Debian.

The main purposes of these servers are as follows:

1. The main web server will be running Apache 2.2+ with PHP5 and

PostgreSQL 8.x. It has 8G RAM, 2xdual-core AMD Opteron (64-bit)
processors and a pair of SAS drives. This server is expected to
be hit the hardest.

2. The secondary server will be for backup purposes and will run

[Dan Falconer]

Robert,

I'd considered CentOS, but I really like the package maintenance works in Debian (and derivatives like Ubuntu).  I've never been a fan of Red Hat or CentOS, especially when compared to Debian-based distros.

The main reason I had started to debate between which to use was just because of my familiarity with Ubuntu, whereas I have very little experience with straight-up Debian.  I was somewhat worried after installing Debian 5.05 when there appeared to be no updates of any sort; I know it is the most recent release, but Ubuntu always had security & bug patch updates immediately after installing (that could be due to it being more "bleeding-edge").

The other issue I've run into is with PHP and the fact that Ubuntu always adds the "Suhosin" patch, which has caused me more than a few headaches.  Maybe this isn't an issue, or at least not with Debian?

[Robert Hart]

IIRC the debian security repo needs to be manually enabled in your
sources list (if you didnot pick it as a repo during install. I am going
on old memories here so could be wrong.

[Dan Falconer]

Just for future information, it seems the reason I wasn't getting any updates is because I needed to do a refresh (i.e. "aptitude update") before changes were noticed.  It seems that Ubuntu somehow gets these updates automatically whereas Debian doesn't.