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Re: Best distro for enterprise use (Ubuntu vs. Red Hat and SuSE)

  • Subject: Re: Best distro for enterprise use (Ubuntu vs. Red Hat and SuSE)
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:32:25 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: schestowitz.com / ISBE, Manchester University / ITS / Netscape / MCC
  • References: <1158000942.269738.27820@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
  • Reply-to: newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • User-agent: KNode/0.7.2
__/ [ djpackmann ] on Monday 11 September 2006 19:55 \__

> Our web developer would like to deploy our web sites on an Ubuntu
> server.  I've been reading a lot of good reviews about Ubuntu.  Every
> article praises the enthusiasm of the community, it's ease of use,
> rapid patch development, and it's performance.  On the surface, it
> seems like a good fit for our business.  My concern is support: These
> are transactional sites and downtime will cost us both sales and
> customer loyalty.  Canonical in North America does not seem to be
> well-organized:   they are still hiring support personel, the support
> page of their website has out of date information, and the service
> level agreement that they sent to me last month was only a draft and
> 'under revision'.  I have requested
> 
> This leaves me with an uneasy feeling.  Although our web developer has
> significant Linux experience (including Ubuntu), this is our first
> Linux adventure.  Red Hat and SuSE have a much longer history of
> providing enterprise support and I can easily find out what support
> they offer.  My instinct is to go with an established company, despite
> the web developer's desire to use Ubuntu.


I concur with your opinion. Go with one of the large vendors until Canonical
matures and Ubuntu on the servers, which should be fine by the way [1], is
established in terms of reputation.


> Has anyone else worked with Canonical support?  Are my fears justified?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your time.


Business support from Canonical is quite new. In fact, it was possibly
introduced this year (?). What's noteworthy is that you will get IRC and
forums support for free if you use Ubuntu. It's less likely that you will
get similar level of support and dedication (read:' exploit' volunteer work)
once you enter a RHEL or SUSE forum. People are less inclined to support
rich corporations.

I might as well add that you chose the wrong newsgroup to address. Not
because people will be unwilling to help, but because there are anti-Linux
'creatures' hanging about, seeking to deter you from choosing Linux, which
is by all means the optimal route.

Best wishes,

Roy

[1] Review: Ubuntu Server Edition (6.06)

,----[ Conclusion ]
| In general, I found Ubuntu 6.06 Server to provide a good range of
| software for use on production machines. The various packages
| generally seemed to be in a much more ready-to-run state than I've found
| for comparable Linux Enterprise distributions; there's certainly much
| less messing around to get the system going.
`----

http://nepotismia.com/review/ubuntu/server/6.06/part1.html

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |    Useless fact: Every polar bear is left-handed
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