Which is the Linux OS of the Future?
It’s often difficult to find an unbiased opinion in the technology world, especially when it comes to operating systems. Personally, my preferences include convenience and affordability; I own and use daily a combination of Mac OSX, Windows 7 and have toyed around in the past with Ubuntu when NetBooks first came out. Professionally, as Product Manager for NetBenefit, I also think efficiency and cost should be the focus, so we take into account which Linux distribution will offer our customers the most up-to-date features, is best supported and is also cost-effective.
When I first joined NetBenefit in 2008, the Linux distribution de jour was Debian and CentOS, whilst for customers coming from the Enterprise market, Red Hat supported Fedora. There was back then, a marked difference in price when opting for a Windows Server operating system with Microsoft SQL, against a Linux server using an open sourced version of SQL. Strong loyalties and opinions about OS and Microsoft have always existed, but there was also the further issue of using an OS that had an official support mechanism behind it. Unless customers were opting for Windows, RedHat was the only supported OS with an official organisation behind it that NetBenefit worked with.
Today is not very different. Microsoft has become a bit more affordable with Web editions of the Server Operating System and an excellent fully featured Web edition of SQL, coupled with the economies of scale that the NetBenefit Cloud can pass on to customers, an entry Windows Server with an MS SQL Web edition installed has never been so affordable. However, supporting both a Windows and Linux environment has always been part of NetBenefit’s strategy, our customers still want this and many of the new emerging Content Management Systems, such as Drupal and Joomla which are used by our customers, are preferably run by them on a Linux OS.
So which is the Linux OS of the future?
Red Hat:
There is no question that Red Hat will remain as part of the portfolio. It is solidly supported and is excellently managed commercially. For Enterprise customers that want the benefits of an open source system and a fully supported product, Red Hat offers the best combination and a very viable alternative to Microsoft.
CentOS:
When NetBenefit first used CentOS, it offered the closest Linux distribution to Red Hat, albeit without the subscription fees, and was binary compatible. CentOS virtualisation capabilities have been praised by the open source community and Microsoft also recently announced the compatibility of CentOS on its Hyper-V platform, claiming that it run as a “first class citizen” on Windows Server R2 Hyper-V, and pledging commitment to developing the way CentOS runs as a guest operating system in Microsoft’s Windows-centric hypervisor stack. That said, CentOS can be a challenging and time-consuming system to manage. With updates being far and few between and no guaranteed release schedule.
Ubuntu:
Ubuntu seems to be the new darling of the Open Source world, particularly with developers that work in the Digital Design Agency space. They are also backed by Canonical which are committed to developing and supporting the OS, albeit on a paid subscription basis. Ubuntu is also deployable without a subscription and therefore also available as a free replacement to CentOS. It also has consistent releases, no need to rebuild the server with each upgrade, patch monitoring server management portal.
So it seems that each of these operating systems is responding to the various demands of the OS market. The market needs a Linux OS that can sit in between CentOS and Red Hat, that is fully supported, but yet at a price that is less than Red Hat and certainly less than Windows. Ubuntu appears to be working towards this with Canonical, Red Hat will continue to grow and support its key Enterprise markets and devotees of CentOS will still always exist.
Michael Green, Product Manager, NetBenefit
16 years ‘experience in Hosting & Product Management
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michaelgg
August 11th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Hi
I agree with most of this article but rather than CentOS, which as you point out is not very responsive, I would take a good look at Scientific Linux. The aims and methods are very similar to CentOS, but they seem far more dynamic. It is basically run by Fermilab, CERN and other scientific institutes. It is therefore very stable, RHEL compatible and reacts to updates far quicker than CentOS.