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Home > Hosting > Linux Distributions

Distro Options

Get the Linux Distribution of Your Choice

The software you run on your VPS depends on the Linux distribution you prefer.  We offer a selection of Red Hat/RPM-based distros and a Debian option.

Choosing a Distro

Which is the right distro for you?

Want to have Java hosting?  We can install a recent JDK on any of our distros, as well as the latest Tomcat Servlet engine or JBoss J2EE server.  Just mention that when you order.

Looking for a stable, proven distro?  Choose Centos5, Debian or Ubuntu.

Looking for the latest versions of software and don't mind upgrading frequently?  Choose the latest Ubuntu distro.

Unsure what you need?  Choose Centos5.  Or tell us what you need and we'll send you a recommendation.

For more information about each of the distros, read on...

Centos5; Centos4; RimuHosting Enterprise Linux 4

The Red Hat-based distros (Centos, White Box Enterprise Linux, RimuHosting Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core) have a very similar setup. Primarily they differ by RPM versions and support policies.  RedHat do not warrant or directly support the Red Hat Enterprise Linux- or Centos-based distros we offer.

Red Hat released Red Hat™ Enterprise Linux 4 in March 2005.  It includes some nice updates over RHEL3.  For example, MySQL 4.1.10 (cf. MySQL 3.23) which introduces many new database features and improvements.  And it uses postfix and dovecot as its mail servers, which makes email very easy to set up.  The full rpm list for RHEL4 is here.

RimuHosting have created the RimuHosting Enterprise Linux 4 distro based on the RedHat™ source RPMSs.  We operate our own apt repository.  We update the repository when RedHat make errata announcements.  Because we can produce the RPMs from RedHat's SRPMS, we do not depend on a 3rd party (e.g. Centos or Whitebox) timings for updates.  This enables us to offer a distro that we can better support for our customers.

On dedicated servers we offer CentOS4, rather than RimuHosting Enterprise Linux.  Centos4 is also based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 sources.

Centos5 will continue to have support for the next several years.  Choose Centos5 if you want a popular enterprise distribution that is stable, widely supported, has recent RPMs and will get updates to fix bugs and security issues for the next several years.  Centos5 is our default and recommended distro.

Debian: Preferred By Hardcore Linux Users

Debian is a highly regarded distro.  And is the most commonly used distro among the Linux 'elite'.  It can be a bit intimidating for new users.  Debian has stable, unstable and testing repositories.  So you can choose to run a 'stable' box or one with the latest versions of software.

We offer Debian Sarge (3.1) and the 2007-04 released Debian Etch (4.0).

Ubuntu: A Popular Debian Offshoot

Ubuntu is is based on Debian.  It will feel very similar to a Debian server.  It puts out regular releases every six months (cf. Debian every 1-5 years).  So it should generally have newer package versions than Debian.

Ubuntu have committed to producing security updates for each new release for 18 months after that release.

Ubuntu also make LTS (long term support) releases.  These releases receive errata updates for up to 5 years.  So these releases are good if you do not wish to do frequent, major distro upgrades.

We offer Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake, the LTS version), 7.04 (Feisty) and 7.10 (Gutsy).

Fedora Core: The Latest and Greatest Software Every 6 Months

Fedora Core has very recent versions of software (November 2006).  A new version of Fedora is released about every 6 months.  The Fedora project is a group of community developers working under the umbrella and with resources from Red Hat.  Much of the work they do goes into Red Hat's commercial distributions.

The most recent Fedora Cores (FC5 and FC6) include goodies such as PHP 5.1, MySQL 5 and Apache 2.2.

Choose Fedora if you like the latest versions of software and want to upgrade your software frequently.

64bit Distributions

We typically install 64bit distributions on dedicated servers. If you require a 32bit install just mention it on the order form.

On VPSs we use 32bit distributions. The main reason being that most VPSs have less than 4GB of memory allocated.


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