this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
36 points (97.4% liked)

Linux

65441 readers
247 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I am about to set up a cloud instance with linux operating system, and the common choice here normally would be ubuntu. But since they failed their newest release, and I have the option of going fedora or debian. What would you guys recommend for server?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SpicySquid@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Best fit is always dependent on how you're planning to use it. Find out what your requirements before you set up a server.

Generally Debian is chosen very often, but I'd wager pretty much any distro will do. Your own experience goes a long way in making a distro a good choice.

[–] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It is going to run af .go application that is the backend for my website. Handling user logins, database translation etc.

[–] SpicySquid@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

Go applications are statically built. So you don't really need anything special on the server for that. Anything will do. Debian would be fine here.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] FourThirteen@lemmy.world 21 points 2 weeks ago

Debian is a great pick. It's stable and has a great support community.

[–] tirateimas@lemmy.pt 16 points 2 weeks ago

Debian would be the most obvious choice. Perhaps Alma is also a good option. If you would like a european option, OpenSUSE leap can also do the job.

[–] erebion@news.erebion.eu 12 points 2 weeks ago

Denian Stable. It just works.

[–] lsjw96kxs@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago

Can't say anything for professional use, but debian is rock solid, always a strong choice for servers.

[–] Arcanoloth@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 weeks ago

I personally favour Alpine Linux for its minimalism, but Devuan or Debian are fine, and more familiar choices, too. Depending on what you intend to run, especially appliance-like things, OpenBSD might be a good alternative.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 weeks ago

Debian & Alma of course!

[–] SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 weeks ago
[–] placebo@piefed.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Professional as in an organisation? You should probably start by gathering functional and non-functional requirements from stakeholders.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Debian or Fedora

I personally go with Fedora Server with automatic security updates.

[–] pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr 7 points 2 weeks ago

I usually have Debian on all my servers for stability, and run almost everything inside containers for convenience. The few things that run directly in Debian are nginx for reverse proxying to container services, fail2ban+firewall, and wireguard for everything that moves data between servers/computers/devices I own

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Rhel if you are using professionally. Their enterprise support staff are wizards when it comes to finding the cause of random issues.

[–] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Not an option on Scaleway unfortunately

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago
[–] omgboom@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.today 5 points 2 weeks ago

debian, but i prefer devuan personally

[–] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

If you are choosing between Fedora and Debian, definitely go with Debian. Fedora evolves too rapidly for professional use, and its administration requires excessive effort.

[–] pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr 4 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

What's failed about their newest release ?

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Mostly the uutils.

  • MIT license isn't nice.
  • They have way more CVEs than the core utils they replace.
  • They don't have feature parity yet, so if you use some rare flags in your scripts, those will break.
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Depends on what you mean by professional and your needs.

Debian (stable) is rock solid but (because) slow changing, if your application is slow (or not) changing it's probably the better choice, but if you need new things before it's ready for a new version it'll be pain. It's the professional sysad's choice because they'll likely not have to do anything.

Fedora is faster moving (think cutting edge, not bleeding edge (e.g. Arch) as opposed to Debian's blunt safety) so if you're in active development it's likely a better choice. It is also sort of the testing arm for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is the quintessential professional Distro, so you'll learn some of that along the way.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] HumbleBragger@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'd go with Debian but it's just a personal preference. I had some difficult to set up a samba server the other day in one of my laptops that was running fedora because of firewall configs that I don't use in Debian like adding context or something. Besides that, I kinda think dnf is better than apt in some ways but still use Debian on my home server. I just works

[–] Egonallanon@feddit.uk 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've used rocky Linux on a couple of boxes and it's been very good to me though I've since rationalised everything to Debian for the sake of simplifying my setup.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My first choice would still be Ubuntu, however if you don't like them RHEL is available for free for homelab's by jumping through some hoops.

Might also take a look at NixOS. Been running it for a while with no issues.

[–] Remus86@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

I believe Rocky Linux is also a free clone of RHEL.

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

How did Ubuntu fail their newest release?

[–] digdilem@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

SME here, moving around 300 vms from Rocky to Debian.

But your question is really too vague. Our workflows are quite traditional, but the world is a big place and there is no single right answer here.

[–] consequential@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Do yourself a favor and go with Nixos. Dive head first into to the rabbit hole and set up a repeatable and immutable system. You'll thank yourself later when so many maintenance tasks become a GitOps workflow: update config, commit, push, build, deploy, rollback if it fails

[–] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago
[–] Goingdown@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I would use Ubuntu LTS (free) or Redhat Enterprise Linux. If paying is not an option, some RHEL derivate would probably also work.

Care to elaborate how Ubuntu failed newest release?

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

yea, ubuntu 'failing' is news to me, too. their infrastructure has been hammered by bad actors, and pre-release daily spins were at-times a bit rocky, but the release itself (barring a few potential issues on the desktop with all the changes) seems to be solid.

[–] tapdattl@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Rocky and Alma Linux are both Red Hat Enterprise Linux

[–] f3nyx@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Github has zero 9's so at this point just use Arch for everything fuck it

(I would personally recommend Debian)

[–] stoicEuropean@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

I think there are many right answers, and in the end it's dependent on your personal likings. I am self-hosting using Fedora, and I couldn't be happier.

[–] SlicedPotato@feddit.dk 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Both Debian and RHEL-like distros are solid choices. Both are super stable. Debian tends to not always have the newest packages, so if you want that I'd steer away from Debian. Personally I use Rocky Linux for my servers. It's based on RHEL, meaning each new major version benefits from Red Hat's 10 years of software support. Debian (and derivates) have better community support I think, but RHEL has very solid documentation (which for the most part applies directly to Rocky, Alma etc.)

Here's a great article outlining the differences between Alma and Rocky.

But for something simple like running a Go application, both should work just fine, so choose what you're most comfortable with.

Rocky is available at Scaleway too.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Professional? And you're just switching vendors because you "want to"?

load more comments
view more: next ›