What it is
Ubuntu is a Linux distribution published by Canonical and based on Debian. It comes in desktop and server editions, and is one of the most common operating systems on cloud servers, including Amazon EC2, where official images are published for each release. Its large community means most server problems already have a documented answer.
Canonical releases a long-term support version every two years, with security updates for years after release. Software is installed and updated through the apt package manager, and services are managed with systemd. That predictability, and the fact that nearly every server package is available for it, is why so many production servers run it.
How I use it
- The Rental Pilot API, its MySQL databases and the real-time chat server run on one Ubuntu EC2 instance behind Apache.
- The same server runs the stucco company's job app and the two company WordPress sites.
- Administered from the command line over SSH, with deploys as scripts, cron jobs for billing checks and reminders, and systemd for services.
- Part of the Brikers stack as well.
Ubuntu is the right choice for a general-purpose server that needs long support and packages for everything. I use it because the LTS releases are predictable to patch and because I can drive every part of it from a terminal and script it.
Questions
Do you manage the servers yourself?
Yes. I administer the EC2 servers for Rental Pilot, Lend Pilot and the stucco company, from the command line.
How do you know a server is healthy?
Every production system I run is checked from outside every five minutes, and outages reach my phone. The live status board shows the results.