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I am going to order a Virtual Private Server soon from a very skilled and experienced company in my country. They deploy Debian server (latest ver.) on the servers.

My question is, though, which is better, Ubuntu server or Debian server?

Because they offer an option to install whatever OS a customer wants, but I wouldn't like to "force" them to install Ubuntu for me if I'm wrong and it would be a bad choice.

I know Ubuntu has become quite popular lately, but I believe it's mainly because of their "desktop" OS, which is very user-friendly, easy to use, etc, but this isn't the server matter at all, therefore I come to question the OS for server purposes, when faced with Debian.

Can anyone bring me on the right track here?

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closed as not constructive by techie007, RedGrittyBrick, studiohack♦ Apr 13 '11 at 16:40

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3 Answers

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'better' is relative. With debian you have very very long support cycles - you can use the same release for quite a while - since 'oldstable' 'stable' and 'testing' are supported at any one time. With ubuntu you have known release cycles, and can plan ahead. In both cases you get a well tested, standardised system, and switching between them should be simple.

Personally, i tend to rebuild my server setup every 2 years or so so i prefer ubuntu. If i wanted a server i wanted to set up, and forget, i'd go for debian testing, and keep it up until testing reaches oldstable.

YMMV, but both are equally good options.

In the case of a VPS, it shouldn't matter - just keep the system up to date, and your provider should probably handle the nitty gritty,

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up vote 1 down vote

Ubuntu is based on Debian. They use the same package management system and infact share alot of the packages between them.

There is very very little to choose between the two.

The only real difference is that Debian is completely community driven, whereas Ubuntu has the backing of a big company (Canonical).

  • Both distributions perform pretty much the same and are pretty much the same for configuring.

  • If you want business-grade support then Canonical can provide that for Ubuntu.

I am not sure which of the two distributions is better for providing updates, and which is the more stable of the two as regards testing of packages before they're released for updates - perhaps someone else can fill us in on this?

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up vote 0 down vote

the Debian stable is much more stable then Ubuntu but if you need support then Ubuntu will be good choice. Ubuntu provide updates quickly then Debian also. you can choose according to your preference.

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"the Debian stable is much stable then Ubuntu" - is that much more stable or much less stable? – Majenko Apr 13 '11 at 12:25
@Matt Jenkins ..hey Matt sorry for that but there in India we use "much" as "much more" and also my English is not that good. – kaykay Apr 13 '11 at 12:38
That's ok - just wanting clarification for the masses. – Majenko Apr 13 '11 at 12:57
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