I never feel limited at all by Ubuntu Server, in fact I find it usually has great performance. There’s also great stuff out there like e-box that basically lets you fire up an AD replacement with only a few commands post Ubuntu Server install. I understand not everyone wants to be a command line guru and they’d rather have a gui, but once you learn the command line, you won’t really want to go back for most of those mundane tasks.

I agree that Red Hat and Suse have some areas they are beating Ubuntu in, and things like FreeIPA are massively cool. However, they fall short in places too (try snagging things from the repos from… say… Asia… nightmare… not so with Ubuntu there are repos everywhere). I think Ubuntu will keep growing in the 10-300 employee businesses and NGO areas where it seems to shine.

Rewind to 1993. Most of the established world was laughing at Microsoft’s Windows NT Advanced Server efforts. Critics said the would didn’t need another server OS. But Microsoft lined up ISVs and resellers for the low-cost general-purpose OS, and NT Server eventually caught on.

Fast forward to 2008. The world is saying we don’t need another server OS, and desktop servers don’t ever move to the server. Oh no? The VAR Guy disagrees. While Novell and Red Hat pound away with enterprise messaging, Canonical has the opportunity to sneak onto departmental servers. Canonical doesn’t have MSFT’s marketing dollars. But a community of fanatics will surely help Canonical’s cause.

This is going to be a multi-year effort. No quick wins. Just lots of hard work.

Sadly, Ubuntu still isn’t know for its server product. Truth is it started as a community driven desktop distro with the focus on bug #1 focuses on desktop dominance. Actually I gave a presentation at the Florida Linux Expo on Ubuntu server and you wouldn’t believe how many knew so little about it. I actually heard things like, “Ubuntu has a server?” =P http://www.evolutionaryit.com/node/17

Personally I see Ubuntu server garnering much more of this market in the future. If we use the marker of the current success on the desktop there should be a bright future for it on the server. =

> RedHat Cluster Suite in Ubuntu (main):
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/redhat-cluster-suite

Have you ever tried to use this Sir ? I had tried once and it was buggy like hell(not the latest one of course !). Where on redhat it has been there for a very long time and with latest one, it has really matured to a point where it can be used in production for mission critical uses.

> Something like FreeIPA coming up:
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/identity-management

COMING UP right? but Freeipa has come up and development is very fast. The current version is very stable and can be used for centralized authentication perfectly. They are planning to release the version 2 in a couple of months or so and it will have even group policy editing ! it will be a total AD replacement. What about ubuntu identity-management ? if I am not mistaken its nowhere near to that.

> LibVirt in Ubuntu (main):
> https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libvirt

Regarding libvirt, I should have been clearer in my post. Actually ubuntu doesnt have anything like virt-manager GUI of redhat atleast default(Correct me if I am wrong in this.) .Also my stand on virtualization especially XEN (have not tried others much) on ubuntu is same. Its not matured and buggy. On redhat , you can do 95 % of the work with a GUI and setup virtual instances very quickly. Can you say the same about ubuntu XEN ? Don’t take my word, Please do one thing. Install RHEL/CentOS 5.2 on a machine and try to setup a virtual instance of the same on it with XEN and virt-manager. Then install K(u)buntu hardy and try to setup a virtual instance of the same on it. See the difference by yourself(I have done this many times and felt it). Just go through ubuntu forums XEN posts and see how much problems people face on the same.

Let me repeat, Ubuntu is very good for desktops/laptops and I will continue to use it and recommend it for everyone out there. But until and unless the above mentioned technologies are available and matured on ubuntu, its not going to satisfy most of the server side users. Also redhat seems to have a better vision and focus regarding enterprise requirement (the same way ubuntu has a better vision and focus regarding desktop) and et.redhat.com is a proof for this. Just go through the projects hosted there and see the PROGRESS they have made on the same. I always go through ubuntu launchpad and see the progress of the enterprise projects there. I have to say its not at all great. For e.g their enterprise firewall project.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Joe Panettieri
Editorial Director
Nine Lives Media Inc.
joe [at] ninelivesmediainc.com

I’m writing this message on an Ubuntu Hardy VM running on an Ubuntu Hardy system via libvirt (virt-manager)… I’m not sure what you’re talking about regarding virtualisation flakiness… We also use Xen and VirtualBox (we no longer see a need for VMWare, although that works, too) on Ubuntu… Seems pretty solid to us.

With the exact same problems when turning a desktop OS into a Server: buggy code and focus on features and release often instead of stability.
I mention this, because I run all my servers on Debian and use (K)ubuntu on my laptop and some workstations and comparing it to Debian, I find it much more unstable and buggy. Kernel panics, random program crashes, a thing I have never seen on Debian.

I would never dream of runing Ubuntu on a server, because I expect to garner only problems, instead of benefits.

Or can somebody enlighten me, what are the benefits of running Ubuntu on a Server compared to Debian? Ubuntu has always been very strong in the frontend and GUIs. Now, which GUIs do exist in Ubuntu that are relevant for a server setup?

Different distros are focused on different plattforms, as Debian is focused on the server, Ubuntu is on the desktop.

Something like FreeIPA coming up:
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/identity-management

LibVirt in Ubuntu (main):
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libvirt

– They don’t have any decent cluster(HA) solution like this(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Cluster_Suite)

– They don’t have anything like Freeipa(www.freeipa.org) coming up for cetralized management and authentication in an enterprise environment.

– Their virtualization implementation is buggy like hell and doesn’t have any decent GUI front end like libvirt of RedHat

Just go to et.redhat.com and see what brilliant technologies Redhat has in pipe line. Ubuntu has a lot of improvements in desktop and thats why they have a lot of adoption in that space. But enterprise, NO way. Atleast for anytime in the near future. Free availability is not enough to push it in the enterprise.

But Canonical will have a few victories. Similar to Microsoft’s move from the desktop to the server in the 1990s, The VAR Guy expects Canonical to make the same type of move — though on a much smaller scale — with Ubuntu Linux.