

What Linux distro are you using for your servers ? - mhidalgo

Just curious to see what the most popular linux os the ycombinator community is using to launch their sites.
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robmnl
Usually debian, security patches are regular. Cons: packages can be a bit old.

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agranig
Which might not be a problem for servers in most cases.

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cperciva
FreeBSD. (Ok, not a linux distribution, but it's an alternative to using a
linux distribution.)

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jsnx
I would like to hear more about why you use it. I _used_ to use FreeBSD for
everything, but it's my understanding that the once significant differences in
performance and stability between Linux and BSD no longer amount to anything.
I switched to Gentoo (can not give up source builds!) two years ago.

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rkts
It typically has less to do with performance or stability than with ease of
use. While Linux is piling on features, BSD focuses on clean design and
quality of code and documentation. Linux is "do it now," BSD is "do it right."

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jsnx
I hate to press you on this point -- the wreckage of many a flame war has
barely had time to grow moss -- but can you point to a specific feature? I
assume you mean OS level features -- system calls and such.

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rkts
I don't understand your question. Do you mean you want an aspect of FreeBSD
that's easier to use?

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jsnx
Sure.

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rkts
Hmm... well, BSD init is easier to use than SysV init. The ports system is
also known for its simplicity. The source code is contained in a single CVS
tree and the entire OS can be built with a few commands. The man pages and
handbook are consistent and well written.

Much of the difference is subjective. FreeBSD feels coherently designed,
whereas Linux is a patchwork of programs written by different people with
different styles and philosophies.

I don't know a lot about Gentoo (most of my experience is with Debian and
Slackware) but from what I understand, its purpose is to be as flexible as
possible. That's a legitimate goal, but it seems to conflict with ease of use.

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tx
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS 64-bit. It is beyond me why so many people use non-LTS release
of Ubuntu _on their production servers_.

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bilbo
What does LTS have to do with production? Unless you plan to leave your
servers still for 7 years I don't see why you can't use the latest and
greatest. It isn't as if LTS if the only one that gets patched, it just gets
patched for the longest.

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kirubakaran
Debian Stable

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RyanGWU82
CentOS 4.4. (I'd upgrade to 5, but it's a huge pain on SliceHost at the
moment.)

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ivan
Why is it pain?

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gibsonf1
Amazon EC2 Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy AMI built using code customized by Eric Hammond
<ehammond@thinksome.com> For more information: <http://ec2gutsy.notlong.com>

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ivankirigin
Ubuntu 7.10 server

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jmzachary
Same here. Easy to admin and stable.

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patrickg-zill
Solaris whenever I can, CentOS5 otherwise. Solaris has excellent threading and
some apps I run for customers therefore run better on Solaris.

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eelinow
Not linux.. FreeBSD

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ojbyrne
Debian

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jbyers
RHEL4, though the site's a few years old. Would do RHEL5 if it was today.

Personally, I run Debian. But RedHat really does a good of not breaking stuff
at the cost of less frequent updates.

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ezmobius
Gentoo all the way.

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rhaygood
You're Ezra Zygmuntowicz, right? (If not, sorry.) So why so little about
Gentoo in "Deploying Rails applications"?

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rms
CentOs 5.0, for the easy Virtualmin GPL install

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bayareaguy
rPath ( <http://www.rpath.com/corp/> ) with custom patches.

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cheponis
I need reliability, with a bias on using source code to produce my running
binaries.

Of course, I run NetBSD.

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Cald
Slackware

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voldern
I use FreeBSD (not GNU/Linux), Debian and Ubuntu on my servers.

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enmand
Gentoo on two, ArchLinux on one

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goncha
Gentoo, both desktop and server

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kashif
Debian Etch

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fedoramadera
Fedora core 8 Solaris Ubuntu

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icky
Why the heterogeneous environment?

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polar
Slackware.

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mattmaroon
CentOS 5.

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yqiang
I use Ubuntu 7.10 64bit.

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elad
CentOS 5

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ochiba
Centos

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inklesspen
Debian testing

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brianr
Fedora 8

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etheriau
OpenSuSE

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jsnx
Gentoo

