I have recently switched webhosts (both are cloud based, full shell access linux hosting accounts).

Consequently, I've gone from Ubuntu to Centos5, and the stuff that I'd taught myself (such as using apt-get etc) seems to be undone, and I can't even seem to bring my PHP up to date without jumping through 'yum' hoops.

I've got an option of reimaging the server with Ubuntu, but that doesn't include an install of Plesk for administering it, so I'd probably be causing myself more issues.

There is an option of OpenSUSE with plesk - so my question, really, is would I find OpenSUSE better than Centos given my previous comfort with Ubuntu?

Any thoughts most welcome!

Frankly, I'd urge you to just stick with CentOS and Plesk (for now):

1. There really isn't that much difference between ANY package manager (for the most part, apt == yum == rpm == deb). It's really helpful to have at least a passing familiarity with each of them.

2. CentOS basically is Redhat; and Redhat, Centos and OpenSuSE are basically all RPM-based. So you really wouldn't gain anything by switching to OpenSuSE (at least not in terms of package management)

3. It seems that many (most?) VPS providers have "standardized" on the combination of Plesk/CentOS. I know my VPS provider has. So if you run into problems, tech support (and the VPS community at large) will probably be most familiar with this configuration.

So stick with what you've got. At least for now.

IMHO .. PSM

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Even though I a strongly dislike Suse, I have to say that on a server it is a good choice - if you intend to administer it via commandline. Yast, run without gui, I believe is the best/easiest administration tool you can find.

On the other hand, if you use Plesk or similar you shouldn't really need to bother about the distro.

Ubuntu is primarily targeted to the desktop even if they do have a server version.
I would not put Ubuntu on a server - not even Ubuntu serverversion - but choose between CentOS and Suse.
Or, possibly, pure Debian with Plesk?
Of course, to administer Debian you need knowledge - not many tools there - but then you have Plesk for most things.
And Debian is very stable & in my opinion the easiest distro to update.

Possibly true, but there is the additional option of Zypper for command-line package management, if you don't like Yast.

For me, the case against OpenSUSE (not SLES) versus Centos on a server is the amount of time for which it is supported.