[clug] Debian Sarge or Ubuntu for a server?

[Martin Pool]

On 15 Jun 2005, Ian Matters <ian at iristech.com.au> wrote:

> I recognise that Ubuntu is largely targeted at the desktop user  
> although with minimal work it seems that Ubuntu "Hoary Hedgehog" can  
> (almost) deliver the goods as a simple server.  A couple of things  
> make me wonder if this is the "true path" though.  The first one is  
> that Ubuntu has two upgrades per year which is great if you are after  
> glitz I suspect that biannual upgrades might get to be a bit tedious  
> after a while in a server application.

Just because there's an upgrade doesn't mean you have to apply it.
Old releases are supported for at least 18 months.

> The second is that as a server I would prefer to run the machine
> "headless" i.e. with no monitor, keyboard or mouse.  It seems that
> CUPS is broken in Ubuntu to the degree that remote web-based CUPS
> administration is disabled.

This can be fairly easily fixed by changing the cups configuration
file to allow web access.  I forget exactly where it is but I have
done it before (on the lca print server) and I'm sure Google knows.  I
think you just need to change the <Location /admin> settings.

> What do others think about this?  Would I be better to stick with  
> Debian and move from Woody to Sarge?  Or would I advised to use  
> Ubuntu this time around?

I work at Canonical so people may think I'm biased, but I used Ubuntu
before I worked here.

-- 
Martin