CentOS is a free version of RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with all the RedHat copyright material and programs removed. This makes it over 99% binary compatible with software compiled for RHEL. RHEL and CentOS are rock stable versions of linux used by many business and academic organizations throughout the world. The most up to date CentOS (and RHEL) version is 6.4. If you know anything about Fedora (the development version of RHEL) then this is equivalent to Fedora 12 (but less binary compatible).

Now, Ubuntu is a Debian based linux distribution which is quite different than Redhat based distros. There will be a learning curve as many commands and file structures differ. (ie. yum on CentOS is equiv to apt-get on Ubuntu) How good CentOS is compared to Ubuntu will be based solely on personal preference and user experience.

Finally, check with the software you are installing. I have never used this software, but a quick google search found KOHA and liblime KOHA. KOHA has a wiki page on installing in CentOS 6.2 (http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_3.6_on_Centos_6.2_i386) while I find that liblime KOHA has an installer only for debian.

Hope this helps

Well both are Linux, but there is a big difference between them. Ubuntu is a Debian-derived distribution, where CentOS is a RedHat one. Koha seems to prefer Debian (see: http://www.koha.org/download). That means it will install easily on Ubuntu (probably) but will take a fair bit more work to get it set up on CentOS. And that work will probably require relatively good knowledge of Linux. Once done, there should be no difference between them, except that CentOS will be less prone to problems from security fixes, as patching is very much more tightly controlled.

As background, CentOS is only really useful for very long-term stability compared to Ubuntu. Even the long-term support options for Ubuntu are not supported anywhere near as long as CentOS. So if you want this as an enterprise production system in the long term (5 years plus) then CentOS might be worth the investment. If it's going to be three or less years, you are probably better off with Ubuntu. But make sure you go for the LTS options, because they are less likely to cause you problems with lack of security fixes after the end of life of the base system. You could also use plain Debian, but it's lifecycle isn't radically longer than Ubuntu -- the only real advantage to CentOS is its length of support.

Koha is written in Perl, and from personal experience, getting production-solid Perl for large-scale use on Linux does require a bit of care. If you are aiming to support a large number of users, don't rush into anything. Build a small system, make sure you have some who knows the technologies, and tread carefully.

I really appreciate your feedback.Thanks for your advice :)

I am thinking to create a server for koha which is going to be used by 5,000 plus user .The server needs to be powerful earlier i have made this kind of service available by using Ubuntu which was limited to 1200 user. But now we are trying to centralize all institutes load on one which will require more efficient OS.Therefore as per your suggestion i will try installing on desk and then to be install on the main server.

If you are scaling very high, you might even consider running the database on a separate server. If the system uses a lot of static files, an efficient reverse proxy, such as nginx, can also significantly reduce the load on your application server. None of this should require much (or any) code change, but it could significantly spread the load if you need to handle more users. You can even scale out, using a distributed MySQL. You probably shouldn't need multiple front-end nginx systems, but a clustered or replicated MySQL might be a big asset. Scaling the application itself could be harder, depending on how it works. But this is probably a better discussion to have with database experts and systems administrators than researchers, as they are more likely to know the ins and outs of large-scale deployment. Certainly where I work, we don't use Ubuntu for long-term servers much. Performance isn't the problem: it's just not as solid for long-term updates. If you do use it, make sure you use an LTS server edition, as that will be more like a production environment.

The question is what you mean by "effectively". The performance of all major Linux distributions is roughly the same and depend mor on the know how of the administrator and the architecture of your setup than on c/perl/java-benchmark results.

CentOS is a stable enterprise distribution, as is mostly Ubuntu. Some say, rpm is inferior to deb based packaging of apps, but as always some have bad experience here and good there.

If you know one distro well and your main app is supported best in that distro and you want to lower your efforts and you have to maintain it - go with that.

Having read through piles of comparisons myself I just gave in - there is no "best distro", only good admins who (have to) know their tools:)

I agree to Martin's words .. and there is a solid suggestion that when the developer of a particular system has targetted a particular Distro, it is easier to get the support and trouble shoot issues when using the same distro. But Linux has a lot of community contribution and hence it will definitely be better to use similar to development platform.

To enhance the speed, some services / programs not required can be stopped and may be you can even compile your own light weight kernel with specifics of only what you need ... And better to use Ubuntu Server Editions which are designed for server purposes ...

I dont have much experience with Ubuntu Server either ... cuz I mostly used ubuntu desktop edition but I run a highly customized version ...

Regarding Cent OS others have given excellent opnions already. It is a robus production environment and many webservers run on it. It is time tested one ... but Ubuntu also has changed from being a desktop Distro to a distro that supports servers and much more!

Regards,

Dr. Akilesh. R

Chennai, India

We have been using KOHA LMS on the UBUNTU OS for the last couple of years. But now, we are thinking to switch on CENT OS as our Institutional Repository DSpace is on the CENT OS platform. Hence does it best option to switch on CENT OS from UBUNTU? or it may get any technical glitches in future?

Please recommend the best option for the same.