I see centOS is very popular option with VPS hosts, however i have never used it... I am more familiar with Ubuntu and have founds a few hosts which allow that OS.... Is ubuntu too resource intensive to be a good VPS solution?

I'm going to be running a few blogs, each with their own domain names, and getting shared linux hosting for each one individually is getting to the point where 1 VPS will be saving me money.


I mean i guess since all I will be doing is hosting blogs and a couple websites and not really doing anything else with the server so I guess just the least resource intensive solution would be best? (setting this up should be pretty similar across all linux distributions right?)...

Which VPS OS would you recomend and why? Which ones are least resource intensive? (I have never used a VPS before)

CentOS is considered to be the most reliable and stable OS for VPS's.This is recommended by most of the web hosting providers as well.

I concur with Stanley Jones. I'd recommend centos as well. I've been using it for a while now and I can't find any problems. Very stable and scalable. What do you plan on hosting?

Originally Posted by boon4376

I see centOS is very popular option with VPS hosts, however i have never used it... I am more familiar with Ubuntu and have founds a few hosts which allow that OS.... Is ubuntu too resource intensive to be a good VPS solution?

I'm going to be running a few blogs, each with their own domain names, and getting shared linux hosting for each one individually is getting to the point where 1 VPS will be saving me money.


I mean i guess since all I will be doing is hosting blogs and a couple websites and not really doing anything else with the server so I guess just the least resource intensive solution would be best? (setting this up should be pretty similar across all linux distributions right?)...

Which VPS OS would you recomend and why? Which ones are least resource intensive? (I have never used a VPS before)

We have had a quite few servers running various *nix flavours and CentOs has definitely been the best (up to now) for stability and scalability.

There are (at least) 2 very important points to consider:

1. You know how to use it properly (familiar with its package management tools, security schemes etc.)
2. The OS version installed will be stable and supported by the OS vendor for a reasonable period of time (relative to your project)

CentOS is a repackaged version of an "upstream vendor"'s Linux distro (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), and support for each major version lasts for a number of years. Since its binary compatible with RHEL, it means the vast number of resources (RPM's and tutorials etc.) are equally applicable to CentOS as well. These are some of the main reasons why it has such popularity within hosting - where of course stability (i.e. not needing to re-install the OS, or conduct a major version upgrade) is a key factor.

Another popular but less sensible option is Fedora (effectively Red Hat's development branch). This receives frequent updates but is really a "bleeding edge" OS by design - hence not really a good choice if (service) stability and security are your foremost concerns...

Debian/Ubuntu are also popular options (although less so), with Ubuntu derived from Debian, again there is a certain amount of compatibility between them (e.g. you can install .deb packages on Ubuntu). In the case of Ubuntu, they offer an LTS and a regular version. The LTS release is supported for a long period of time (hence LTS: Long Term Support) in a similar manner to RHEL/CentOS, so this makes it potentially a good choice for hosting. The regular version runs on a 6 month release cycle, so in this case it's probably not a good option... but some still use it for hosting of course.

In terms of resource usage, this mainly comes down to what you install, and how you compile/configure it. There isn't a huge amount of difference between many of the linux flavours with respect to the underlying system - it's the management utilities (service/user/package/security etc.) which are the main differentiators in day-to-day usage.

centOS because you cant use Cpanel on ubuntu. your going to have issues if you have clients creating VPS'. And if you know ubuntu you wont have a problem with centos

Centos will be best for you.

Windows is alright, but the setup config of PHP / MYSQL etc with IIS is a pain. Most VPS setups with Linux will include cpanel setup as well which I'm sure most webmaster are fimillar with.