Why Debian?

Linux vs Windows as a Server Platform

When choosing a desktop operating system for personal use the usual advice is to use the operating system all your friends are using, that way you'll be able to get help and support from people you know.

Similar advice applies when chosing an operating system for server use. If the majority of people you have to work with develop on and support Linux, it makes sense to use Linux. On the other hand, if everyone in your IT team uses Microsoft products then they will already be used to configuring Microsoft Windows, backing up Windows machines and dealing with security patches etc. I such a circumstance Linux might not be quite such a good choice.

Beyond the thinking above, if you are operating in a mixed environment or are setting up an entirely new team without any existing infrastructure you will have to make the decision based on other factors including:

• How easy it will be to recruit a team familiar with the technoloy
• The level of support you will get from the company/community
• The cost of the software
• How easy it is to integrate the software with other tools
• Whether the software is able to meet changing needs in the future

If you are a knowledgeable person or a smaller company Linux and mainstream open source software will usually tick all the boxes the best. There are already large communities behind the main components. Even if you are a consultant on a large project and are looking to be able to pass the responsiblity on to a third party by paying for software from Microsoft in expectation of a lower risk I'd still advocate choosing Linux for these reasons in particular:

• You can get commercial support from large compaines like Oracle, IBM, RedHat etc anyway
• Just because you pay for something, it doesn't mean it is better
• When something goes very badly wrong, being able to access the source code can be invaluable, if you've bought a commercial product and depending on the clout you have with the vendor you may have no choice but to wait/pay for an update and there is no guarantee the update won't break other parts of your product
• The software world is changing so fast that tieing yourself into products produced by just one company is likely to be restrictive in the future

Why Debian?

Choosing the flavour of Linux your team is familiar with and which your IT department support is a sensible decision. If you have paid for commercial support from a large company like Oracle, IBM or RedHat, choosing the version of Linux they support is a sensible choice.

Beyond this, the most important thing to be aware of though is that the people you work with aren't the only people you will interact with in the course of your use of a particular Linux distribution. You will also use forums, mailing lists, articles, tutorials, documentation and software from the wider community and you'll rely on the wider community to provide timely updates, make good decisions on the future of the distribution and to properly package and maintain all the software you require. You should therefore choose a strong community whose values are as close as possible to your own.

The Debian community is very strong and very knowledgable. If you are doing something unusual there is almost always someone who has trodden a similar path before and documented it. The wealth of information about Debian in blogs, forums and wikis proves invaluable.

Debian is also stable, reliable, predicatable and well-respected. It doesn't contain bleeding-edge software in the stable distribution so you can be sure that everything it does contain has been well-tested and works will with other components you are likely to install.

Unlike many other distributions, Debian is not controlled by a commercial company behind the scenes. This means that the distribution isn't affected by any pressures the commercial company might be subject to. Debian also has very stringent community values of stability and strict adherence to open source values. This means you can be sure that Debian is truly free and will remain so in the future.

These factors make Debian an excellent choice.