Today Canonical, the company responsible for the popular desktop Linux operating system called Ubuntu, also released their latest server edition, version 10.04 LTS. The “LTS” stands for long-term support, which Canonical will offer for five years (Normal Ubuntu versions are released every six months).

In the Linux server web hosting market, Red Hat (or derivatives like CentOS) has dominated. But Ubuntu promises many new features in an effort to lure business clients from the enterprise server arena.

Among the new features are:

More cloud computing support in Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud
Support from Dell on the PowerEdge-C server line
Five years of free security and maintenance
AppArmor security
Kernel hardening
Virtualization enhancements
Advanced storage capabilities
Mass deployment tools
and more.

Source: Ubuntu.com

Continue reading: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server Edition Released

When one thinks of cloud computing in business terms, it is usually because he or she is considering a move to a cloud offering from Amazon or Google. But some organizations need to offer some cloud applications internally to their customers or employees. While those with large IT development staffs might be comfortable building their own clouds, others need a packaged solution.

Canonical, the company responsible for Ubuntu Linux, is offering a private cloud product called Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. This is something you can run on your own server and offer as an internal service. The projects website explains:

“Using Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, you can experience the benefits of cloud computing behind your firewall. Deploy workloads and have them running immediately. Grow or shrink computing capacity to meet the needs of your application.”

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is available through Ubuntu Server Edition, and the website includes instructions for installation. Ubuntu was originally specifically for desktops, but they have been pushing their server edition for quite some time. It is still not clear exactly how many Ubuntu servers are connected to the Web.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Continue reading: Ubuntu providing home grown clouds

Many web-based organizations depend on the ability to communicate and share files easily. Even if you already have a website, however, you might not have an easy way to share files and folders, aside from giving each user FTP or SSH access.

There are proprietary solutions, such as Dropbox or even the new Ubuntu One, but if you want to run such a system on your own server, the clear winner here seems to be iFolder by Novell. By default iFolder server is designed to run only on Novell’s SUSE Enterprise Server or an OpenSUSE server, but because it is open source, some have had success building and running it on CentOS and Ubuntu servers.

On the client side, iFolder supports Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, making it an ideal cross-platform solution. To run iFolder, your server needs to be running Mono, an open source alternative to .NET, which it already should have if it is a SUSE server. If not, it is available for installation on most Linux distributions. iFolder is free software released under the GNU GPL.

Source: kablink

Continue reading: Share file folders on a Linux server

When most people think of Ubuntu, they think of the award-winning community-driven desktop Linux distribution created by South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth and his army loyal supporters. But Shuttleworth is still a businessman, and part of his investment is making sure people who use Ubuntu at the server level have support.

Don’t worry. Despite how it sounds, this is a good thing. It means those who use Ubuntu at the server level are not up a creek if something goes wrong. Most server-ready Linux distributions are backed by companies that will offer support for them. Ubuntu offers a service called Landscape that helps you monitor and manage your server.

Landscape has two versions: Hosted Edition, which is hosted remotely and accessed over the web and Dedicated Server Edition, which you install directly on your dedicated server. Canonical currently offers a free 60 day trial, and a subscription to Landscape is $150 per node per year.

Source: Canonical

Continue reading: Managing your Ubuntu server

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.

Continue reading: Linux server round-up

Question: What is the difference between apt-get upgrade and apt-get dist-upgrade?

Answer: Apt-get upgrade is designed to update your Linux server packages to their latests versions. It will only upgrade the packages that are currently installed. Apt-get dist-upgrade will not only upgrade the current packages but will also install any new packages that may be needed or that were added to the distribution.

In a real-world situation, let’s say you have an Ubuntu server. Ubuntu releases updates, fixes, and security patches on a routine basis. To get those updates, you would run APT:

sudo apt-get upgrade

This would bring your server up to date with all patches and fixes, but you would still essentially have the same version of the distribution. On the other hand, every six months, they release a complete new version of the distribution that sometimes has new packages and new dependencies for packages. To do a complete in-box upgrade you would enter:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Both are useful and needed, but for different reasons. Make sure you know which one you need before you try them.

Continue reading: How to perform upgrades with apt