Follow
LinuxServers

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

4
Options 
Considered
14
User 
Recs.
Last 
Updated
Related Questions
Activity
Ad
Have feedback or ideas?
Discord logoJoin our community
on Discord
Here’s the Deal
Slant is powered by a community that helps you make informed decisions. Tell us what you’re passionate about to get your personalized feed and help others.

4 Options Considered

4 Options ConsideredPriceDefault Desktop EnvironmentBased On
CentOS
GNOME 3Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Debian
CLI, GNOME(Xfce on non-Linux Ports)None
Ubuntu
GNOME(various editons with MATE, Xfce, LXDE and other)Debian Stable
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
GNOMEFedora
See Full List

CentOS

Add Video or Image
Endi Sukaj
Seokho Seo
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...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Seokho Seo
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 wh...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 3 more ProsSee 3 more Pros

Debian

Add Video or Image
UpbeatRaweno
Top Pro

Very stable

•••
Fabian Peter Hammerle
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.
Fabian Peter Hammerle
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 g...
Chloe Montanez
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Vanilla packages

•••
Provides mostly vanilla packages so there is no huge customization/branding from the distributor.
Chloe Montanez
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.
Fabian Peter Hammerle
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.
Chloe Montanez
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).
Chloe Montanez
Endi Sukaj
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.
Chloe Montanez
Endi Sukaj
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 7 more ProsSee 7 more Pros

Ubuntu

Add Video or Image
Endi Sukaj
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".
Endi Sukaj
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...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Add Video or Image
Endi Sukaj
ReveredThallo
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 a...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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 5 more ProsSee 5 more Pros

14 Community Recommendations

Barbara Glowa
Fabian Peter Hammerle
Stéphanie
Seokho Seo
Endi Sukaj
Iwan Kelaiah
EmbiggenedPeitho
ReveredThallo
UpbeatRaweno
GenerousApoLaki
PhilosophicalHunChowen
+1
Request recommendations from the community
No highlighted recommendations.
I Recommend...
Help millions of people make better decisions.
Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.
undefined