[CentOS] Redhat vs centos vs ubuntu

[Bob Hoffman]

Just to throw out the background on the thread...

It was started questioning whether redhat is going to actively try and 
make it harder over time to
clone it, thus making any derivatives of it untenable.

I tried ubuntu and that is what this sub thread is about.

I tried ubuntu from the standpoint of a non-developer, non-it-worker, 
hobbyist web site owner
putting together a stand alone webserver.

Ubuntu vs centos in this regard goes fully to centos. Having to get a 
degree in grub, iptable scripts,
etc just to do a out of the box install of a virtual host is rather much 
in that regard.
Centos had a much easier and somewhat more intuitive installer and 
installed a firewall
that limited input to a bridged device and port 22.
Ubuntu opened the virtual host to the entire lan, all ports, and added 
forwarding to non existent
virtual bridge that had not been built yet.

Ubu had forced me during the install to download packages and get on the 
net. Centos did not.

 From what I now understand of debian derived ubuntu is they are quite 
an excellent desktop system
and are working on an interesting cloud infrastructure.
I understand now that ubuntu command line stuff (non desktop) is for 
someone with much more knowledge
of linux and all its programs than a person using centos would need to know.

In that regard, not coming from a bank of servers and knowledgeable 
university background, ubuntu
is a massive learning curve far beyond the pre-set-up nature of centos.

I did want the ability to get newer programs in regards to web stuff 
like php. I may try to install some ubu
as web servers, but not as the virtual host. It seems to require too 
much time and knowledge to properly secure it.

With centos I can lock the virtual host down and access solely through 
the ipmi interface
ensuring that as the only fail point. Right out of the box. Easily. I 
like the security and ease of it.

As a virtual host, I found ubu install tedious, slow, and demanding way 
too much knowledge and skill
to just simply start adding guests and go. Ubu virtual host is 
definitely requires much more configuration
skills than centos. Something I do not feeling like having to learn when 
centos comes with it set to go.

If you are from a university background or have worked with many types 
of linux for a long time, then
maybe it is simple for you to take a few minutes out and configure the 
scripts for network, iptables, secure
the box, check all the pre-installed stuff. But for me it would take 
much longer and I would never know what I missed.