What are the best Linux operating systems for high performance and availability servers?

7

Options
Considered

37

User
Recs.

Jun 22, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

7 Options Considered

Best Linux operating systems for high performance and availability servers	Price	Default Desktop Environment	Based On
-- CentOS	-	GNOME 3	Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
-- Debian	Free	CLI, GNOME(Xfce on non-Linux Ports)	None
-- Arch Linux	Free	CLI	N/A
-- Ubuntu	FREE	GNOME	Debian Stable(core) Testing/Unstable(universe/multiverse)
-- Gentoo Linux	-	CLI	None

CentOS

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Top Pro

Greatly favours stability over anything else

CentOS favours stability over being up-to date. For this reason it ships with packages that may be up to two years behind in order to ensure stability over everything else. Using older versions for packages means that they have been thoroughly tested and used in production for quite some time, and are ensured to play well with each-other. This strategy has paid off quite a lot in the past. One example is the Heartbleed bug which left CentOS unaffected since it was using a two-year old OpenSSL library which did not have the bug. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME 3

Based On:Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Release Schedule:Concurrent with RHEL

Current Linux Kernel:3.10.0-514

Top Pro

Built-in disaster recovery solutions through clusters

CentOS has several built-in solutions for disaster recovery. For example, it comes with pacemaker which can be configured to manage multi-site and and stretch clusters across multiple geographical locations for disaster recovery and scalability. It can also be configured to trigger notifications when the status of a managed cluster changes by using enhanced pacemaker alerts. See More

Top Pro

Applications don't have to take into account potentially breaking changes in libraries

Since CentOS backports all updates and bug fixes to older versions in order to maintain package compatibility across releases, applications hosted on Red Hat Linux don't have to worry about potential breaking changes in libraries they use, especially language libraries. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for containers

Comes with built-in management tools for containers (Atomic CLI, Cockpit) and a container runtime in the form of Docker engine. See More

Debian

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Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages: https://packages.debian.org/en/source/sid/nvidia-graphics-drivers See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:CLI, GNOME(Xfce on non-Linux Ports)

Release Schedule:2 Years / Rolling

Init-System:Systemd(SysVinit on non-LinuxPorts)

Top Pro

Supports many CPU-architectures

Besides Intel-based CPUs, you will also find official ports for ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and more. There are also some ports that use the GNU Hurd or the FreeBSD kernel instead of the Linux kernel. A full list can be found here. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices: for example it is very hard to use a different Sound system than ALSA like OSS4, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Vanilla packages

Provides mostly vanilla packages so there is no huge customization/branding from the distributor. See More

Top Con

High quality standards that hinder adopting new software

Not really a bad thing, however, it takes some time until new applications find their way to the official repository. If you plan to add a package by yourself, you first need to become a Debian maintainer. After that, you need to follow the Debian package guidelines and so on. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon install of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why it's so commonly used. See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Pro

Painless updates

Unlike some other Distributions you can ignore several updates without breaking the system. Debconf can also almost do anything for you like: updating and restarting services, replace obsolete configurations and warn you about possible conflicts. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

Three releases available

Offers three releases/branches from rock stable over testing up to the unstable branch(which can also be extended with the experimental branch). See More

Ubuntu

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Top Pro

Lots of support

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default GNOME desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low end systems and older hardware. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. See More

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Based On:Debian Stable(core) Testing/Unstable(universe/multiverse)

Release Schedule:5 Year LTS / 6 Month Releases

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

Top Con

Unstable

Some people pointed out that updating Arch is a high risk affair. And one should carefully read forums before doing it. The same is true about Ubuntu. Making system updates (like it was with 10.04 to 11.04) that screw so many things up became a routine. Even LTS releases should not give confidence that it will work. See More

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

Lots of support for hardware, lots of pre-installed software, and a smooth install process means less time downloading drivers, less time digging through configuration files, and less time deciding on software to use just to get up and running. It also means less time digging through forums looking for support. See More

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (2 years)

This allows for users to always have a new supported release available without long unkown wait times in between. See More

Gentoo Linux

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Top Pro

Can by optimized to any given CPU by using proper compile flags

Since everything is being built on your PC you can fine-tune the code to make use of your CPU. And all it requires is two lines of string variables in a global config. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:CLI

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:OpenRC

Top Pro

Portage's emerge is powerful

Top Pro

Fully customizable

The usage of advanced features like USE flags makes it more customizable than any binary distribution. See More

Top Pro

Can be officially systemd-free

Gentoo's default init system is OpenRC. Gentoo also officially supports systemd-free Gnome and udev. Users are free to choose any init system they want. See More

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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Top Pro

Greatly favours stability over anything else

RHEL favours stability over being up-to date. For this reason it ships with packages that may be up to two years behind in order to ensure stability over everything else. Using older versions for packages means that they have been thoroughly tested and used in production for quite some time, and are ensured to play well with each-other. This strategy has paid off quite a lot in the past. One example is the Heartbleed bug which left RHEL unaffected since it was using a two-year old OpenSSL library which did not have the bug. See More

Top Con

Vender lock-in looms

RH is built on open source, naturally, but they've been accused of upselling and offering products in a way that leads their customers to a point of no return (vendor lock-in). Of course, you can always find a way out, but not without significant costs and time spent. Companies exist to make money, so it's understandable, but be careful. See More

Elias Van Ootegem's Experience

If you're looking for a flavour of linux, and availability is the top concern, then I'd have to say you'll probably want to go for RHEL. They're still king when it comes to enterprise (ie HA) solutions. Yes, they're expensive, and yes IBM bought them, but they have a proven track record for reliability, support, and they respond fast to security issues. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:GNOME

Based On:Fedora

Release Schedule:Varies/10 Year LTS

Top Pro

RHEL is a bundle: linux + support

If you want to guarantee high availability, you may want to consider some support. this is exactly how RHEL's business model works: the kernel is free, but the support and tools is what you're paying for. See More

Top Con

You need to buy a license

RHEL is a commercial Linux distributions and it's rather expensive as well, the cheapest license costs $349. See More

Top Pro

Rapid security updates

Top Pro

Each version is supported for a really long time

Each released version of RHEL is supported for around ten years by Red Hat with constant bug fixes and security updates. See More

Top Pro

Built-in disaster recovery solutions through clusters

RHEL has several built-in solutions for disaster recovery. For example, it comes with pacemaker which can be configured to manage multi-site and and stretch clusters across multiple geographical locations for disaster recovery and scalability. It can also be configured to trigger notifications when the status of a managed cluster changes by using enhanced pacemaker alerts. See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for containers

Comes with built-in management tools for containers (Atomic CLI, Cockpit) and a container runtime in the form of Docker engine. See More

Top Pro

Applications don't have to take into account potentially breaking changes in libraries

Since RHEL backports all updates and bug fixes to older versions in order to maintain package compatibility across releases, applications hosted on Red Hat Linux don't have to worry about potential breaking changes in libraries they use, especially language libraries. See More

Top Pro

Best support as far as hardware goes

This distro is by far the one with the largest number of certified server-class hardware. See More

Manjaro Linux

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Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install. See More

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

LivelyAusrine's Experience

Years and counting; excellent OS. See More

Specs

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, GNOME and XFCE

Based On:Arch Linux

Release Schedule:Rolling Release

Init-System:Systemd

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

PersistentShivini's Experience

Very powerful distribution See More

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch. See More

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