Lamar Owen wrote ----------------------------
If you doubt the speed at which a non-locked-down system can be exploited, take a 1990s vintage copy of , say, RHL 6.2, go ahead and pre-download the last set of updates for that distribution, do the install on a public IP with no firewall appliance in front of you, and see if you can get the updates installed before you're pwned.
------------------------------ Completely agree. I noticed upon a new datacenter install with new ips a large number of very strange traffic hits my firewall logs are full of it. I feel, and I could be wrong, that scripts run that just check ips that usually never answer. Then one day the ip answers. The script knows it is probably a new install and they send it all at once.
Ubu and centos, different animals. However, the ubu server is touted as an enterprise ready system with commercial support. I found the initial install lacking in that regards and the commercial support sales never answered my mails. I think ubu is all about the desktop and really getting into the cloud. But for a standalone webserver the initial setup is not ready for prime time.
I think a company with some good techs can build a nice system that can then be passed along to their servers. However, for the small operator I would take a pass on ubu at this time.
The newer stuff is cool, but it lacks the polish of a ready to go system. Centos has the polish, but lacks the new stuff. sigh.