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which linux operating system to choose on vps


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hi all

 

i m present at shared hosting and want to move to vps hosting.

 

My server vps hosting provides me with different operating systems as

 

under

 

1) Centos

2) debian

3) fedora

4) gentoo linux

5) opensuse

6) slackware linux

7) ubuntu

 

i would like to what all difference these operating systems have and

 

what all impact will i have on my php scripting files.

 

will i have to create my php mysql website again according to operating

 

system i choose.

 

vineet

PHP is generally very independent of operating system.  There are some extensions that require a certain OS, but all of the major/official ones either work as is or can work under any OS that supports PHP.

 

As for which distro, perhaps some linux guru can give you advice on that.  I personally would probably go with Fedora Core, since it and Ubuntu are the only two in that list that I've used.  So, I'm pretty much useless on your first question ;p.

PHP is generally very independent of operating system.  There are some extensions that require a certain OS, but all of the major/official ones either work as is or can work under any OS that supports PHP.

 

As for which distro, perhaps some linux guru can give you advice on that.  I personally would probably go with Fedora Core, since it and Ubuntu are the only two in that list that I've used.  So, I'm pretty much useless on your first question ;p.

 

hi corbin

 

like u said u have used fedora and ubuntu.

 

so what diference do u find between them

 

vineet

Most Linux distros offer the same functionality, often just wrapped within a different set of tools.

 

CentOS, Fedora and Suse for instance all use the Yum package manager, while Debian and Ubuntu use apt*. Both Gentoo and slackware have there own tools for this same task. Gentoo however is a little different to most distros as it compiles all software from source. I probably wouldn't recommend it for a vps as some things will have trouble compiling within a limited amount of memory.

 

Your package manager is your interface to software installation. So it really is the tool you need to get to know. Personally I hate Yum, though I work with several servers that insist on using Distros that use it by default.

 

apt-get is my favourite package manager (this can be found in both Debian and Ubuntu) as it is quite simple to use yet extremely powerful. To be honest though, you just need to pick one and get to know it well. They all offer much the same functionality.

Most Linux distros offer the same functionality, often just wrapped within a different set of tools.

 

CentOS, Fedora and Suse for instance all use the Yum package manager, while Debian and Ubuntu use apt*. Both Gentoo and slackware have there own tools for this same task. Gentoo however is a little different to most distros as it compiles all software from source. I probably wouldn't recommend it for a vps as some things will have trouble compiling within a limited amount of memory.

 

Your package manager is your interface to software installation. So it really is the tool you need to get to know. Personally I hate Yum, though I work with several servers that insist on using Distros that use it by default.

 

apt-get is my favourite package manager (this can be found in both Debian and Ubuntu) as it is quite simple to use yet extremely powerful. To be honest though, you just need to pick one and get to know it well. They all offer much the same functionality.

 

hi thorpe

 

i wil keep these things in mind and wil search on it more.

 

vineet

Most Linux distros offer the same functionality, often just wrapped within a different set of tools.

 

CentOS, Fedora and Suse for instance all use the Yum package manager, while Debian and Ubuntu use apt*. Both Gentoo and slackware have there own tools for this same task. Gentoo however is a little different to most distros as it compiles all software from source. I probably wouldn't recommend it for a vps as some things will have trouble compiling within a limited amount of memory.

 

Your package manager is your interface to software installation. So it really is the tool you need to get to know. Personally I hate Yum, though I work with several servers that insist on using Distros that use it by default.

 

apt-get is my favourite package manager (this can be found in both Debian and Ubuntu) as it is quite simple to use yet extremely powerful. To be honest though, you just need to pick one and get to know it well. They all offer much the same functionality.

 

 

Just of curiosity, what do you not like about Yum?

 

 

I don't feel allegiance to either yum or apt-get, just for the record.

  • 2 weeks later...

CentOS has the advantage of a very long support life, 5.2 is said to be in the support life cycle until 2014 or so. So it's very nice to not have to upgrade your O/S every year or so as is the case with Fedora and Ubuntu.

 

Pfff. If you maintain your Ubuntu system properly it is updated in intervals. You should never need to reinstall your operating system using any Linux if you know what you are doing.

CentOS has the advantage of a very long support life, 5.2 is said to be in the support life cycle until 2014 or so. So it's very nice to not have to upgrade your O/S every year or so as is the case with Fedora and Ubuntu.

 

Pfff. If you maintain your Ubuntu system properly it is updated in intervals. You should never need to reinstall your operating system using any Linux if you know what you are doing.

 

Yeah, I have never heard of that, at least with Ubuntu.  The updates and packages come almost everyday.  I've never had to re-install, the software sources and update managers take care of everything.

CentOS has the advantage of a very long support life, 5.2 is said to be in the support life cycle until 2014 or so. So it's very nice to not have to upgrade your O/S every year or so as is the case with Fedora and Ubuntu.

 

Pfff. If you maintain your Ubuntu system properly it is updated in intervals. You should never need to reinstall your operating system using any Linux if you know what you are doing.

 

Yeah, I have never heard of that, at least with Ubuntu.  The updates and packages come almost everyday.  I've never had to re-install, the software sources and update managers take care of everything.

 

I think the desktop version of ubuntu has more updates than the server version because of the different packages. I believe you can set it to only get security updates.

I would stay away from gentoo as installing software is a pain in the arse unless you are familiar with it.

Our hosts installed this on one of our servers that I was going to use for video streaming. Couldn't get any of the packages I needed installed properly! Got them to reinstall with CentOs and I had it all setup and working in about 20 minutes.

 

CentOs and Fedora are the easiest to work with. Most Linux books I have use Fedora to demonstrate with.

CentOS has the advantage of a very long support life, 5.2 is said to be in the support life cycle until 2014 or so. So it's very nice to not have to upgrade your O/S every year or so as is the case with Fedora and Ubuntu.

 

Pfff. If you maintain your Ubuntu system properly it is updated in intervals. You should never need to reinstall your operating system using any Linux if you know what you are doing.

I say this in the sense that at least Fedora no longer receives updates after it's life cycle is done, which is once a year. I am not certain it is the same with ubuntu, but given it has a similar life cycle, I suppose it is the same. And I intentionally said 'upgrade' not 'update'. Updating in linux has never proven problematic for me (unless I screw a kernel module), seeing as I never have to restart the server. But for someone who is new, or is looking at different O/S's for a server, not having to upgrade the OS to keep in a life cycle is something to take into consideration. Given the choice, I may have chosen CentOS over Fedora had I looked at all my options. Not whining about it, I love Fedora, but I also like to just dive into it without regard to think ahead, at least in Linux I like that.

Errr, but when you update the OS to the next revision (or what ever they call it), doesn't the life span of the new version of the OS increase?  lol

It does, but for an inexperienced user, once every 5 years may be easier to deal with than 6 months or a year. Besides, when you upgrade from release version to release version, there is always enough of the updates that it could break what you've worked hard to set up, especially if it's special settings not just defaults. So it may be daunting for someone to set up the server every six months, but it could be great for job security. It tends to be a lot easier to set it up once and just maintain it for a number of years.

Errr, but when you update the OS to the next revision (or what ever they call it), doesn't the life span of the new version of the OS increase?  lol

It does, but for an inexperienced user, once every 5 years may be easier to deal with than 6 months or a year. Besides, when you upgrade from release version to release version, there is always enough of the updates that it could break what you've worked hard to set up, especially if it's special settings not just defaults. So it may be daunting for someone to set up the server every six months, but it could be great for job security. It tends to be a lot easier to set it up once and just maintain it for a number of years.

 

 

 

So basically you want to manage a server without managing a server?  ;p

So basically you want to manage a server without managing a server?  ;p

Maintaining a server includes updating it...

But maintaining is not just upgrading, maintaining involves administering to it as well. Upgrading is not the only thing to do when maintaining a server.

We never said it was.

When I explained why it may be easier to upgrade the OS only once every 5 years, not every six months, your reply was:

So basically you want to manage a server without managing a server?  ;p

indicating that the only type of 'maintaining' to be done is to upgrade the OS.

Perhaps I should have said, "So basically you want to manage a server without fully managing a server."

 

 

I consider updating stuff part of managing a server, but of course it's not entirely what managing a server is about.

 

 

 

When did this thread get all nit-picky literal?

This thread is more than a year old. Please don't revive it unless you have something important to add.

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