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.