Linux Server: Debian or Ubuntu?
 

Hi,

I would like to ask what's your recommendation for a server which will be used for database, file sharing and ftp? Debian or Ubuntu?


Thanks,
Jassim

Ubuntu server is based on Debian Server. If you want 5 years of support use Ubuntu LTS, if you want rock solid stability use Debian.

server = debian stable.

Ubuntu server left a rather bad taste in my mouth when one of the LTS versions (I forgot if it was 10.04 or 12.04) would install but refuse to boot if /var was on a separate partition from the root partition. This is pretty common amongst server installs, and it led me to believe that Canonical did not really "grok" server usage (as they're primarily desktop-focused). I don't know if the situation has improved since, but it's turned me off from Ubuntu server in a big way. Debian stable or one of the free RHEL clones are my preferred server distros these days (with a slight preference for Debian, the only thing in the favor of RHEL or its clones to me is the well-defined long life cycle).

Which one are you more familiar with? Are you comfortable with the command line or are you more comfortable working in a GUI? There are as many differing opinions on this as there are registered members on LQ. No one answer is going to be "the right answer" for you.

I have used Ubuntu as a desktop client and kind of liked it. I am currently using debian as a desktop client on my laptop and like it just a bit more than Ubuntu. I have not even installed Ubuntu server so would have no basis of comparison for you, but I don't see that it would be any different from Debian server simply because I don't put GUIs on my servers. I install them as command line only, and usually headless at that (headless = no video card, keyboard or mouse attached directly to the server).

That is my opinion. It works for me, but might not work so well for you. "What would work for you?" is a much better question. If you want to know what the best distro is for a server, it's the one that you are the most comfortable working with. Start by playing with virtual machines using the distros that you want to try to get a feel for. Then go with the one you like, rather then going with the one I like.

Ubuntu server is now the most popular, especially in the cloud. Debian is a close second.

It appears to me that Ubuntu server is setup more securely from the first install.
On Debian, you need to have greater knowledge of running a server in order to set things up correctly.

Debian has a lifecycle of about 3 years. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which was fairly recently released, has a life span of 5 years and is good until April 2019. So if the server is going into production, you can get the most return on Ubuntu at this point. Debian might have a few more packages, but all the main ones are also in Ubuntu's repositories. You'll have to check to be sure about which programs you will use, but odds are they are in both. So my recommendation is Ubuntu.

Just to add a little bit of information that may influence choice Debian now has LTS as well. The current LTS is Squeeze (oldstable) and is now past the "3 years" of previous releases.

Debian 6 (squeeze) LTS will get you to February 2016. The statuses of Debian 7 and Debian 8 in regards to LTS are not yet decided.

Greetings.

In consideration of your stated intended usage it really matters not which distro you choose to use. MySQL, samba and vsftp or whatever ftpd you plan to use all function basically the same on both. Personally I like Debian. Ubuntu does offer a landscape if you were wanting to use that. Debian is completely open source, where Ubuntu is not (firefox) for example. As others stated with Ubuntu being based from debian you are basically getting a heavier version of debian. The only difference you may experience although with your intended usage probably not is if you ever had a broken package on debian which is highly unlikely, you could wait a little longer than you would on Ubuntu to see it fixed. Outside of that I personally cannot stand the unity desktop. Debain offers the wonderful Gnomes for gui. If you are going CLI only then both will perform similar.

My 2 cents.

debian stable.
but i am use centOS.

Thanks

You could use either and find tons of support for both. I use and recommend Debian tho...

why don't try slackware
:cool:
i'm just kidding, i prefer debian because it's more stable than ubuntu :D

If I had to choose between debian and ubuntu, then denian. However, if the primary consideration is a stable MySQL server - CentOS 6.x

One of the nice things about CentOS is the long term support cycle. Debian is catching up with its LTS support of squeeze, though/