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I'm curious, why do you strongly recommend against using Ubuntu for servers?

I ask because I'm running a 6 server load-balanced cluster on Ubuntu and haven't experienced a single issue. I find Ubuntu easy to configure and harden, and haven't had any downtime. "

Instead of writing a long boring essay, allow me to say first if you have found Ubuntu to be the answer, and it has been stable, then I would certainly say stick with it if this fulfills your needs. For me I take a somewhat conservative approach, and would look at several aspects. First off would be the level of support they can provide, and who is supporting via hardware. Second I would factor in the past track record, and more importantly the size of the company (how much they can devote to testing before release). I will have to admit ignorance to Ubuntu server release, but from my impression they do release new versions quite often. Unfortunately while releasing a new version quickly satisfies the geek needs, it is a recipe for disaster in the server world. What we focus in on is having a stable platform that can remain stable for some time. The last we, or shall I say the clients want, is a scenario of fast upgrades. Now while it certainly is up to us to upgrade, and we can always chose not to, it does concern me how much time is truly devoted to compat testing.

Ubuntu may actually make a great server, but it does take time to build reputation, and unfortunately we do not have the luxury of taking chances. With either SLED or RHEL we at least of both a good track record and the knowledge that considerable time and expense has been used to insure the release is optimum in stability and performance. There is more to beyond this, but I know the last time the name Ubuntu came up for testing for us, they did not have an enterprise level version available.

They do release a new version every 6 months, however they also do an LTS (long term support) release every 4th release (2 years). The LTS releases have more emphasis on testing and stability and less on new features than the standard releases, and, as the name implies, they are supported for longer periods (3 years on the desktop, 5 years on servers). As for support, Canonical do offer commercial support for Ubuntu although I have to admit I haven't used it.