90% of the world’s cloud infrastructure runs on Linux, which means that it – Linux – is not going anywhere. The fact is that it has already won the confidence in the business sphere with its robust performance as well as by bringing in the ideal cloud-based solutions.
Indeed, the demand for highly-advanced solutions among big and small business enterprises that drive their business towards immense growth is on a surge. This means the platforms, majorly Linux, are also in high demand.
If you are thinking about switching to a Linux server or starting with one, we have prepared a list of the best options of this server from which you can choose accordingly. But, what is Linux? Let’s understand it first.
Linux Server – Overview
Linux is a Unix-like open-source operating system developed on the Linux Kernel for mobile phones, desktops, cars, and home appliances. It is the most trustworthy, safe, and scalable operating system.
The operating system handles communication between computer hardware and software. Although it is also a platform of choice for desktop computers and application development, Linux is better-suited for powering servers, supercomputers, and mainframe computers worldwide.
10 Best Linux Servers
Being the world’s most popular web server that Linux is, servers running it is chosen over other operating systems because of their security, flexibility, and stability.
In this blog post, we will detail the top 10 Linux servers based on their capabilities, like the ease of installation and use, reliability with regard to supported functionalities, and hardware and accessibility of commercial support.
1. Ubuntu
It is an open-source Debian-based Linux operating system built by Canonical. No doubt, Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions, which is truly efficient for building high-performance, flexible, secure, and scalable enterprise data centers.
Canonical reports that more than 55% of the OpenStack cloud operates on Ubuntu. They even release the latest versions of Ubuntu at similar timing as desktop distribution.
Ubuntu offers outstanding support for big data, visualization, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This type of Linux server can easily run on x86, power architectures, and ARM.
With the benefit of using Ubuntu, you get commercial support and solutions like a systems management tool for security audit, compliance, and the Canonical livepatch service that assists you with Kernel fixes and lots more.
2. SUSE Linux Enterprise
The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is an open-source, secure, and stable server platform. It is built to power physical, digital and cloud-based servers. Previously, it was known as SUSE Linux. It is built for developers who intend to run their own servers.
This server runs on a modern hardware environment for the ARM system on Chip, SAP HANA, Intel, zSystems, and AMD. Using this Linux server, users also get technical assistance for several categories, like top priority support and dedicated engineer among others with SUSE subscriptions.
3. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is an open-source OS developed by Red Hat, intended for commercial use. It is solely based on Fedora, which is a community-driven project. The software which is available on RHEL is first built and tested on the Fedora project.
It is a powerful, secure, and stable platform for powering the latest data centers with software-oriented storage. The server OS provides great support for IoT, cloud, visualization, containers, and big data.
The Linux server allows you to get state-of-the-art enterprise-ready software, product security, and excellent technical assistance from experienced engineers. RHEL supports 64-bit ARM, IBM System z machines, and Power.
4. CentOS
CentOS is an open-source and stable derivative of RHEL. CentOS Linux is a 360-degree community-supported Linux server and is compatible with RHEL. If you want to use RHEL without sparing the subscription amount, then CentOS is the ideal option for you.
Because it’s free software, you can get technical support and assistance from other community members, online resources, and users as well.
5. Debian
Debian is also a free, secure, and stable open-source Linux distribution. The server ships in with more than 51,000 packages and uses a solid packaging system. It is being widely used by business corporations, educational institutions, government enterprises, and non-profit companies.
The Linux server also has a bug tracking mechanism and one can easily acquire the knowledge and assistance for using it via free web resources and other related documents.
6. Oracle Linux
It is yet another free and open-source Linux server, intended for the open-cloud. Oracle Linux is magnificently developed for corporations of all proportions and cloud-enabled data centers.
Oracle Linux provides software for building secure and scalable big data systems and a digital environment. It operates on all x86 Oracle engineered systems.
The Oracle Linux support system allows you to get excellent support and premium extensive management, indemnification, cluster applications, and testing tools at an affordable cost.
7. ClearOS
ClearOS is an open-source Linux server, designed and developed by ClearFoundation and marketed by ClearCenter. ClearOS is built for commercial use by small, medium, and big-scale enterprises as a network gateway and server with a simple-to-use web-based admin interface.
It is an all-inclusive, feature-based server OS that is highly customizable. You get premium support at an affordable price and get the extra software from the application marketplace.
8. Mageia
Mageia is a free, secure, and stable Linux operating system. It provides an ample repository of software that consists of integrated system configuration tools. Mageia was the first Linux distribution to replace Oracle’s MySQL with MariaDB.
For any technical assistance, you can get in touch with the Mageia community of users, developers, promoters, and professionals.
9. Slackware Linux
Slackware is a free and open-source Linux distribution that endeavors to offer Unix-like instability as well as simplicity. It was built by Patrick Volkerding in 1993 and purposely designed for Linux users who strive for technical knowledge.
The server has an extensive range of development tools, libraries, and editors for developers who want to develop a supplementary tool on their servers. It can operate on Pentium systems as well as the latest x86 and x86_64 machines.
The OS for servers provides no official support term policy and has no formal bug tracking or monetary service, however.
10. Arch Linux
It is another reputed open-source and free Linux distribution. Arch Linux is secure, stable, and easily customizable and uses both official package and community support package repositories.
Arch Linux is optimized for i686 and x86-64 architecture. It has a formal bug tracking facility and you easily get support from online resources and the community out there.
Conclusion
With security and scalability as the primary features of Linux servers, it has firmly stood out among the competition. Because of its popularity and so many variants, it will remain the ideal and the most preferred solution for operating servers.
We are hopeful that this list of top 10 Linux servers will help you make the right decision for keeping your company data secure.
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