6 Reasons for Start-ups to Install Ubuntu on their Servers

I work for a small Web 2.0 start-up company that recently had to build a server stack to run its latest Java-based application on. Previously we ran CentOS on all our servers but we chose Ubuntu's Server Edition for the new servers.

Naturally, being an enthusiastic Ubuntu user I pushed for this change. But enthusiasm alone doesn't convince most people (nor level headed programmers). After several arguments discussions with my colleagues, the reasons for running Ubuntu for our web application came down to the following points:

1. Ubuntu is available free of charge;
2. Ubuntu periodically releases Long Term Support versions (3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server);
   
• Ultimately we installed the latest release (at the time, the LTS version did not have simple Sun Java installation or other key features we liked), but this was definitely a strong talking point and helped ease the concerns of my colleagues that thought Ubuntu was just a hobbyist OS.
  
3. Commercial support and administration tools can be purchased if you need them;
   
• This is huge, since you can take the OS you downloaded and installed for free and suddenly make it "enterprise worthy" (I hate that term too but couldn't think of a better one). Correct me in I'm wrong but I don't think you can do that with Fedora or OpenSUSE.
  
4. Ubuntu is Debian based and, therefore, quite mature and stable;
5. Ubuntu also releases a Desktop Edition;
• This allows the developer's development environment to be almost identical to the production environment
• Knowledge gained from administering and configuring your desktop system is transferable to the server environment. I mention this as often the developer uses Windows or Mac OS on the desktop, and then something completely different on the servers - leading to a steeper learning curve with respect to server administration.
  
6. The latest versions of the Sun JVM are available in a timely manner;
• Although other Linux distributions and Windows also get the latest JVM quickly, Mac OS does not.
  

Many Linux distributions possess some of the characteristics above, but I think Ubuntu is unique in possessing all of them. Most commercially supported distributions are not available free of charge and most freely available distributions do not have commercial support.

Hopefully this reasoning was sound and applicable to anyone else advocating the use of Ubuntu on the server. If you see any flaws in logic, or have more reasons to add to the list, please post a comment and I will edit the post if it makes sense.