

Ask HN: Debian or Ubuntu for Web Servers? - merrick33

I have been using Debian for a while now and love it, wondering what advantages Ubuntu may have over it?
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olefoo
The heuristic I use when choosing between them is: What is the server
supporting?

If it's legacy PHP apps (like SquirrelMail, or SugarCRM) that need specific
versions of PHP and mysql to be happy; then debian.

If it's more modern apps, or things that are currently in development Ubuntu.
Ubuntu's python and postgresql support are excellent.

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merrick33
Interesting, that seems exactly what my situation is. Legacy apps are on
Debian and considering moving to Ubuntu for new app using Python / Postgresql.

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tdavis
I use Debian for most of my servers and the only complaint I really have is
that the repos are extremely outdated when compared to Ubuntu. Ubuntu's main
strength, at least as I see it, is the fact that the packages are updated more
frequently and there are more of them than for on Debian (even Backports).

~~~
merrick33
Yeah I can always count on Debian to be dated but for the most part I have
been able to work with it despite that.

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kqr2
Also, Ubuntu has LTS (long term support) versions. The server versions are
supported even longer.

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dmaclay
I favour ubuntu on servers mainly because it's what I use on my desktop, and
it's handy to be able to write & test scripts on your desktop and deploy to
the servers only once everything works.

