All in one linux server distro

10 Best Linux Server Distributions of 2020

Linux is free and open-source, this has emanated into the low total cost of ownership of a Linux system, compared to other operating systems. Although Linux operating systems (distributions) are not entirely doing well on desktop computers, they are commanding the stats when it comes to powering servers, mainframe computers as well as supercomputers in data centers around the world.

There are several factors attributed to this: the first and most important that you might have thought of, is the general freedom associated with it, stability, and security among others.

In this article, we will list the top 10 Linux server distributions of 2020 based on the following considerations: data center capabilities and reliability in relation to supported functionalities and hardware, ease of installation and use, cost of ownership in terms of licensing and maintenance, and accessibility of commercial support.

1. Ubuntu

Top on the list is Ubuntu, an open-source Debian-based Linux operating system, developed by Canonical. It is, without a doubt, the most popular Linux distribution out there, and many other distributions have been derived from it. Ubuntu server is efficient for building top-performance, highly scalable, flexible, and secure enterprise data centers.

Ubuntu Distribution

It offers remarkable support for big data, visualization, and containers, IoT (Internet Of Things); you can use it from most if not all common public clouds. Ubuntu server can run on x86, ARM, and Power architectures.

With the Ubuntu Advantage, you can get commercial support and services such as a systems management tool for security audit, compliance, and the Canonical livepatch service, that helps you to apply kernel fixes and many more. This is coupled with support from a robust and growing community of developers and users.

2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Second on the log is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), an open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat, for commercial use. It is based on Fedora, which is a community-driven project: a great deal of software that is available on RHEL is first developed and tested on Fedora.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

RHEL server is a powerful, stable, and secure software for powering modern data centers with software-oriented storage. It has amazing support for cloud, IoT, big data, visualization, and containers.

RHEL server supports 64-bit ARM, Power and IBM System z machines. The Red Hat subscription enables you to get the latest enterprise-ready software, trusted knowledge, product security, and technical support from engineers.

3. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is an open-source, stable, and secure server platform built by SUSE. It is developed to power physical, virtual and cloud-based servers. It is well suited for cloud solutions with support for visualization and containers.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

It runs on the modern hardware environments for ARM System on Chip, Intel, AMD, SAP HANA, z Systems, and NVM Express over Fabrics. Users can get technical support and services under various categories including priority support, dedicated engineer among others, with SUSE Subscription.

4. CentOS (Community OS) Linux Server

CentOS is a stable and open source derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is an all-round community-supported distribution and is therefore operationally compatible with RHEL. If you want the use of RHEL without paying a considerable amount of money via subscription, then you have to use CentOS.

CentOS Linux

Since it is free software, you can get support from other community members, users and online resources as well.

5. Debian

Debian is a free, open-source and stable Linux distribution maintained by its users. It ships in with over 51000 packages and uses a powerful packaging system. It is being used by educational institutions, business companies, non-profit and government organizations.

Debian Linux

It generally supports a larger number of computer architectures including 64-bit PC (amd64), 32-bit PC (i386), IBM System z, 64-bit ARM (Aarch64), POWER Processors and many more.

It has a bug tracking system and you can get support for Debian by reading through its documentation and free web resources.

6. Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux is a free and open-source Linux distribution packaged and distributed by Oracle, intended for the open cloud. It’s remarkably engineered for small, medium to large enterprise, cloud-enabled data centers. It offers tools for building scalable and reliable big data systems and virtual environments.

Oracle Linux

It runs on all x86-based Oracle engineered systems and the Oracle Linux Support program enables you to get top-rated support with premier backports, extensive management, cluster applications, indemnification, testing tools, and plus so much more, at a reasonably lower cost.

7. Mageia

Mageia (a fork of Mandriva) is a free, stable, secure Linux operating system that is developed by a community. It provides an enormous repository of software including integrated system configuration tools. Importantly, it was the first Linux distribution to replace Oracle’s MySQL with MariaDB.

Mageia Linux

In case you need any support, you can contact the Mageia community which is made up of users, makers, and advocates.

8. ClearOS

ClearOS is an open-source Linux distribution derived from RHEL/CentOS, built by ClearFoundation and marketed by ClearCenter. It is a commercial distribution intended for small and medium enterprises as a network gateway and network server, with an easy-to-use web-based administration interface.

ClearOS Linux

It is a smart, full-featured server software which is highly flexible and customizable. You receive premium support at an affordable cost and get additional software from the application marketplace.

9. Arch Linux

Arch Linux is also a free and open-source, simple, lightweight yet secure Linux distribution. It is flexible and stable; provides the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release pattern and uses both official package and community-supported package repositories.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux is a general-purpose distribution that is optimized for the i686 and x86-64 architectures. However, because of decreasing popularity among the developers and other community members, support for i686 has now been dropped.

It has a formal bug tracking facility and you can get supports from a thriving community and other online resources.

10. Slackware Linux

Last on the list is Slackware, a free and open-source, powerful Linux distribution that strives to be most “Unix-like” in design simplicity and stability as well. It was created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993 and is best suited for Linux users who aim at technical proficiency.

Slackware Linux

It doesn’t offer a graphical installation method, has no auto-dependency resolution of software packages. Additionally, Slackware uses plain text files and a number of shell scripts for configuration and administration. And has no formal bug tracking service or public code repository.

It has a wide range of development tools, editors, and current libraries for users who want to develop or compile supplementary software on their servers. It can run on Pentium systems and the latest x86 and x86_64 machines.

Slackware has no official support term policy, however, you can find help from comprehensive online documentation and other related resources.

That’s it! In this article, we have listed the top 10 Linux server distributions of 2020. Which distribution are you or your company using to power servers out there? Let us know via the comment section below.

If You Appreciate What We Do Here On TecMint, You Should Consider:

TecMint is the fastest growing and most trusted community site for any kind of Linux Articles, Guides and Books on the web. Millions of people visit TecMint! to search or browse the thousands of published articles available FREELY to all.

If you like what you are reading, please consider buying us a coffee ( or 2 ) as a token of appreciation.

We are thankful for your never ending support.

Источник

9 Best Linux Distros for Small Business Servers- 2019

Are you looking for a free Linux server for your small business? Then you stumble upon at the right place. Although, Linux servers are open source and come at free of cost still they are the most powerful servers in every aspect whether you need to create own cloud, hosting, web server or something more. Even big businesses like Google, Facebook and Amazon use the Linux server to power their customers need. The best thing about the Linux small business server is that they can easily run on the modest hardware with stability, reliability and can upscale in future according to growing needs.

Using Linux, the SMEs will not only get the server OS free of cost but also have the complete range of server functionality, security, and networking. Some of them are designed with a great user interface so that less experienced IT administrator can easily understand, whereas, some are for greater control and designed for advanced IT staff.

So, here we are with a list of best general-purpose Linux servers for your small businesses.

All-in-one Linux server for small business and Enterprises

NethServer

NethServer is an open-source a nd free to download CentOS-based Linux distribution for servers. It has a modular design like ClearOS and can use as a web server, firewall, mail server, and filter, web filter, IPS/IDS or VPN server or more… It is designed for small offices and medium enterprises and has a web-based user interface. To extend the server functionality there are several pre-configured modules that can be disabled or enable with one click. You can download this Linux small business server and can install it on any commodity hardware.

NethServer Linux server Features:

• Support by community
• Full Data Backup
• Manual upgrade
• Stateful Inspection
• Advanced Firewall Rules, Port Forward, Web Proxy
• Transparent Proxy HTTPS
• OpenSource URL Filter and Cloud-based URL Filter
• QoS
• SMTP Proxy
• Cloud Backup and Cloud Configuration Backup
• LAMP Software and Print Server
• DHCP/DNS/TFTP/NTP
• Bandwidth Monitor
• Mail Server
• FaxServer
• Fax Web Client
• Webmail
• File Server
• FTP Server
• KVM and KVM Web Interface
• And More…

ClearOS

ClearOS is a CentOS-based Linux operating system and a browser-based platform. It comes with an integrated network, gateway and server function with minimal deploying complexities. It has an inbuilt firewall, Bandwidth management, content filter, file servers, VPN server, intrusion detection, domain controller, mail server and much more… It features more than 25+ integrated open Source projects. It also offers media server apps such as Plex server and Serviio Media Server. (Also See: Best Open source Media server software ).

The ClearOs is available in four versions: ClearOS community (free to download and use), ClearOS Home, ClearOS business and ClearOS Hosted. The hosted on is for those SMEs those don’t want to spend money on costly server hardware. It also offers ClearOS Marketplace Apps place from where you can install the free apps to extend the server functionality.

ClearOS Linux Small Business Server Key Features:

• Antimalware rules
• Content filter blacklists
• Dropbox sync
• Custom Firewall
• DNS server
• Multi-Van
• Gateway Antiphishing
• Intrusion Detection System
• Back up and Restore
• Bandwidth viewer
• Smart Monitor
• And more…

Zentyal Linux Small Business Server

Zentyal Server ( download ) is another great all-in-one Linux server available in two versions developer edition which free to download and use and another is commercial version. You can use the developer or community edition for small and medium businesses. It is based on Ubuntu and natively supports the MS Exchange protocols and Active Directory support which allows to join Microsoft clients to a domain and manage them easily.

Zentyal Linux Small Business Server Features:

• Webmail
• Native MS Exchange protocols and Active Directory support
• Calendars and contacts
• Mobile device email sync
• Antivirus/antispam
• IMAP, POP, SMTP, CalDAV, and CardDAV support
• Central domain and directory management
• Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication
• Web-based UI
• Multiple virtual mail domains
• DNS Server, DHCP Server, and NTP Server
• Network configuration, Routing, Gateway, Firewall, HTTP Proxy, WAN failover and Traffic balance
• And More…

Koozali SME Server

The Koozali is also Centos based Linux server and as Centos based you will get the stability and common server functionalities out of the box. SME Server is an Open Source Linux Server distribution web-based interface which allows it to access from any web browser on the internal network. It is password protected and can access remotely via SSH or PPTP. The server is set to automatic updates and get security updates from Redhat/Centos.

By using this server for small offices you need at least 2 cores min 2GHz with PAE support, 4GB of RAM and 30GB + required space to store data.

Koozali Features

• Qmail mail server
• Supports extensions
• IMAP, POP3, and SMTP protocols
• Firewall for Intrusion Detection
• Directory Services
• Raid and Backup
• Automatic Updates
• Samba file and printer sharing

Other Best Enterprise Linux Based Server Distribution OS

Above mentioned all-in-one Linux small business servers come with lots of pre-installed server applications such as web server, firewall, native Microsoft AD support, Media servers, Mail server, File server, Intrusion Detection System and more… But if you want to install and use a Linux server for some particular task and doesn’t need anything else then you can use these best Linux servers given below. The all-in-one- Linux servers for small businesses given above are also based on one of the servers given below.

These Linux servers can install and use with minimal packages or as full-fledged GUI server. All applications and features mentioned in the above-given server list can also be installed in these too, but manually one by one.

Ubuntu Server

Both Ubuntu Server and desktop are the most popular Linux operating systems. It is Debian based server and simple to install due to its excellent hardware driver discovery and support. And comes with great commercial support. Due to its ease of usage, excellent community and a wide range of hardware support make it an idle choice for Small to larger business to use it as business Linux Server.

Apart from server edition, Ubuntu also offers various versions of desktops such as Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu, and Lubuntu. The good thing is that software repositories are the same for all and also they are compatible with each other. It is also a best Linux server os for beginners.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat is the most stable and enterprise-class opensource Linux server powered world’s top companies server hardware. Grown as a small company and now becomes a giant one in the data centre world. Redhat is Fedora driven and offers stability and high quality of commercial support. RHEL features a file system that can scale up to 500 terabytes and supports Docker container also called Linux containers. The Linux containers allow operating-system-level virtualization. The commercial version is paid while the development version of RedHat is free to download so that beginners or developers can develop their Linux skills.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is another stable opensource server Linux distro based on OpenSUSE. Also can consider as the best alternative to RehHat due to its leading-edge features and support. It features Linux containers (to build, deploy, and manage applications), Full System Rollback, skip service packs functionality, Open vSwitch with DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) support, ARM AArch64 and Raspberry Pi support (See: Best Linux OS for Raspberry Pi ) , Salt -Advanced Systems Management module, Full support for KIWI and more…

CentOS

CentOS is a Redhat based Linux server operating system and used by a lot of web hosting companies. The CentOS is a fork of Redhat but not paid like the RedHat commercial version. You can also leverage the commercial support for it.

It is a community driver Linux server a.k.a Community Enterprise Operating system. This community has driven this project from the RedHat code and removed all the trademarks to freely distribute. If you want RedHat like functionality you can use the Centos. Overall the CentOS is the best RedHat alternative and also fairly beginner-friendly Linux server as it has a package manager.

Fedora Server

As we know the REHL is based on Fedora then why not consider the Fedora server ( download) itself. Personally, I really like its Desktop version interface which is GNOME-based. Also, the Fedora is maintained and run by the RedHat company which gives surety to get regular updates. Fedora is available for both personal desktops and workstations. The default Fedora server is headless server software, however, you can install the GUI manually. This Linux comes enterprise-class features but can be used in the small business environment but get hands on to it if you know how to handle the advance servers.

The Best Linux Server Operating Systems

You can use any Linux server operating system given above to full fill your business need. Its all depends upon your requirement and skills to handle the Linux server, means how to perform advance level task you want to perform. If you want pre-configured modules with a single click to disable or enable the functionalities then you can go for all-in-one servers, however, want to build something from scratch then the Ubuntu, REHL, SUSE and other Linux operating system servers are there.

Источник