So Im moving to Debian and Ubuntu servers

[w1z4rd]

For a long time now, CentOS has been my production server Linux distro of choice. All my big servers are CentOS.... well until now. I had to reinstall a server the other day in Germany and I decided to give Debian a try. Having an Ubuntu desktop I am pretty familiar with how a debian based system works.

I find it easier to manage than my CentOS servers. I wont say its more stable, theyre about the same there, but its easier to add and remove stuff. I have less dependcy issues. For some reason I always find myself in rpm hell with CentOS for some of the more fun things I want to do. I always feel I have to jump through two extra hoops to get any development task done. I find apt-get better than yum. For me its easier to fix when it breaks. Yum can be painful. Trying to find the right repo for the right 64bit package can be very frustrating.

As I upgrade each server Ill move to Debian and Ubuntu servers. Good-bye RPM dependency hell Though seriously is there any reason I should stay on CentOS over Debian based systems?

 

[Tinuva]

Nowadays I can't think of any. I personally also nowadays throw on Ubuntu LTS for all new servers, purely because 99% of the time its easier.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Good-bye RPM dependency hell Though seriously is there any reason I should stay on CentOS over Debian based systems?

Sorry to break it to you, but you're still posting here, therefore you're still well entrenched in RPM dependency

 

[ponder]

Why ubuntu and debian? Why not pick one and stick with it?

 

[hawker]

Sorry to break it to you, but you're still posting here, therefore you're still well entrenched in RPM dependency

Bahahaha.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I'll throw in my two cents.

1. If you still talk about "rpm dependency hell" you're probably doing something you're not supposed to. At work we manage tens of thousand RHEL servers. We don't have dependency problems. Ever.

2. I agree with your choice. I'll take Debian over RHEL 99% of the time.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

I've been using Ubuntu for 5yrs now this month and I'm moving to Debian. Ubuntu LTS is great for servers but I'm too old to be bothered with new distros every few months. I just want to install an OS, tweak it and then forget about it.

But this what makes Linux so awesome, you get to decide what you want on your machines

 

[macxsanity]

I personally used to Use ubuntu LTS for server deployments for Clients but now i am hooked on Centos and for me Centos rues the lot .....

 

[w1z4rd]

Sorry to break it to you, but you're still posting here, therefore you're still well entrenched in RPM dependency

lol

Why ubuntu and debian? Why not pick one and stick with it?

Im not that brittle in how I deploy. I want to try both. Debian for its orsmness, and Ubuntu for its LTS (I actually had an issue with a SUSE server that only has 2 years support on packages).

I'll throw in my two cents.

1. If you still talk about "rpm dependency hell" you're probably doing something you're not supposed to. At work we manage tens of thousand RHEL servers. We don't have dependency problems. Ever.

Yeah, I fiddle a lot, often with bleeding edge stuff. CentOS is great if your server is only doing XYZ and nothing else. Trying to do anything that requires something different (like rinetd) causes major headaches. Also, a bunch of my servers are CentOS 5... you try install 64 bit python-twisted and python 2.6 on it.... with ubuntu it was one command, with CentOS... you cant upgrade officially past 2.4 (apparently centos is tied into it or something?). There are hacks to get 2.6 installed, but as python26, not as the main python, and for some reason Im having major issues finding the 64bit packages.

2. I agree with your choice. I'll take Debian over RHEL 99% of the time.

You are clued up, so thats good to know it looks like I am making the right choice.

I personally used to Use ubuntu LTS for server deployments for Clients but now i am hooked on Centos and for me Centos rues the lot .....

Why? What does it do better?

 

[koffiejunkie]

Im not that brittle in how I deploy. I want to try both. Debian for its orsmness, and Ubuntu for its LTS (I actually had an issue with a SUSE server that only has 2 years support on packages).

You're comparing desktop (short life-cycle) distros to server (long life-cycle) distros. "SUSE" as opposed to SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES) is in the same category as Fedora, and regular Ubuntu releases. CentOS is nothing more than RHEL srpms rebuilt with the branding removed, so it will follow the regular RHEL support cycle, i.e. 5 years. SLES has the same 5 years, as do Ubuntu LTS.

Yeah, I fiddle a lot, often with bleeding edge stuff. CentOS is great if your server is only doing XYZ and nothing else. Trying to do anything that requires something different (like rinetd) causes major headaches. Also, a bunch of my servers are CentOS 5... you try install 64 bit python-twisted and python 2.6 on it.... with ubuntu it was one command, with CentOS... you cant upgrade officially past 2.4 (apparently centos is tied into it or something?). There are hacks to get 2.6 installed, but as python26, not as the main python, and for some reason Im having major issues finding the 64bit packages.

The reason why you can't mess with Python 2.4 is because things like yum and rhn is based on it. There are excellent 3rd party repos that provide newer packages that follows the RHEL structures, and in the case of Python 2.6, installs separately so that they don't break what you already have. Check out http://iuscommunity.org/ for updated versions and http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL for things that are not included in RHEL/CentOS. But remember, when you mix repos, you do get conflicts (yes, on Ubuntu/Debian too).

With regards to my comment about using Debian 99% of the time, that is mostly because Debian has most of the packages that I want included, and apt-get distupgrade works better than any other distro's upgrade methods. One particular exception: I'm about to deploy a MySQL server that will run MySQL 5.5. Because this is not yet in any of the Debian repos, and I don't want to be responsible for installing tarballs to keep it up to date, I'm going with CentOS + the IUS iuscommunity builds. This server will run nothing else though, so there are no other considerations.

 

[ponder]

lol
Im not that brittle in how I deploy. I want to try both. Debian for its orsmness, and Ubuntu for its LTS (I actually had an issue with a SUSE server that only has 2 years support on packages).

Well LTS support is for 18 months and a Debian stable release is good for about 2 yrs or so. If it was me I would just go with Debian.

 

[BigAl-sa]

Well LTS support is for 18 months and a Debian stable release is good for about 2 yrs or so. If it was me I would just go with Debian.

+1