Linux: Commercial vs. Community Distros

Your server is your baby. You have worked hard to nurture it and prepare it for the world. Now, the question you need to ask yourself is: Do I want my baby to wear brand name clothes or generic ones? Commercial Linux distributions offer the “brand name”, but is that really what your server needs?

Companies like Red Hat, Novell, and IBM offer commercial Linux support with their servers, and many customers could not be happier, but whether or not you should purchase that type of support depends largely on your individual and business needs. Paying for support of a Linux server can be expensive, but it can sometimes be just as expensive or even more so to have a Linux expert on staff.

If you are flying solo or have a small staff that is comfortable supporting Linux alone, you may be just fine with a community distribution like CentOS, Fedora, OpenSuSE, or Debian. If not, you might strongly consider paying for support, which will save you in the long term, even if it seems like a financial loss in the beginning.

What is Mono?

As its website describes it, Mono is a “cross platform, open source, .NET development framework.” .NET is a framework originally created by Microsoft, and the Mono developers from Novell created Mono to be interoperable with .NET applications. The result is .NET compatibility across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

With Mono, developers can create C# and .NET applications that will work on almost any platform. What this means for server administrators is the ability to provide their services to various clientèle without having to make multiple versions of their applications. It is also a way to distribute their content even in virtualization environments.

Mono is free and open source software and is available for most Linux distributions, although its Novell origins mean that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server supports it out of the box. To install Mono on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora, simply open a terminal, login as root, and type:

# yum list mono*

You can then see which mono applications you want to install or install them all with:

# yum install mono*

Source: Mono Project

Linux server round-up

Over the past year, we have discussed many different schemes for Linux servers, which included many Linux distributions. Here is a quick overview of the major players in the Linux server market.

Redhat Enterprise Linux – With the biggest financial revenue in the Linux market, Redhat is a force to be reckoned with, but whether they are right for your web hosting company depends on how much you can afford. If you like Redhat, you might consider CentOS.

CentOS – A free alternative to RHEL, based on the same source code, minus Redhat’s guarantees, technical support, and logo artwork.

Fedora – The cutting-edge testbed for RHEL. This is a community driven OS with a lot of community support but not paid technical support.
Read More >>