A Sys Admin’s Guide to the Server OS of Your Dreams

If you were to design your dream enterprise server OS from scratch, what would it be like?

Without knowing exactly what it would be used for it’s hard to get too specific, but in general terms you’d probably want an OS with the following attributes, in no particular order:

1. Free (as in beer): Why pay for it if you don’t have to?
2. Open source: Why not choose to have access to the source code? You may wish to adapt it, or inspect it — but even if you don’t, others probably will. What’s more, you can benefit from their work.
3. Runs on a wide range of hardware: The wider the choice of hardware you can use, the better. That way you can configure a system that exactly meets your needs, taking advantage of any components you want.
4. Runs as wide a range of software as possible: It doesn’t make sense to have it any other way.
5. Secure: No one wants to run a system that makes it easy for hackers.

So how do the enterprise OSes that are currently available match up to this shopping list of ideals?

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