We are delighted to offer the latest release of Ubuntu Server, codenamed Precise Pangolin. That is available as an reinstall option or for order on all our VPS and dedicated server ordering pages.
This release is important since it offers a long five years of support for software and security updates. Ubuntu is one of the few Linux distribution to have a well defined policy for releases targeted for the server environment. You can read more about Ubuntu LTS releases here:
While Debian and Centos are rock stable platforms, the applications packaged by default may lag a bit behind. In Ubuntu 12.04 you will find more current versions of popular applications like Mysql (version 5.5.22), Postgresql (version 9.1.3) and Apache (version 2.2.22). This is great if you want to have a stable platform to launch a mission critical application using the latest applications, but still have the piece of mind you will not need to deal with a major distribution update for a long time.
If you are running the last LTS version of Ubuntu, version 10.04 “Hardy Heron”, there should be no trouble updating to this latest LTS release. We created some notes on the upgrade process to help you over any minor hurdles. Or you can run clean installs on existing VPS orders using the tools in our customer control panel
The default image includes the following pre-installed packages. Note that includes all the basic mail and web tools you need to get started.
You can use our hand tuned v3.0 kernel for ideal performance (enabled by default). Alternately, we have recently released the ability to boot from your own kernel using pv-grub.
Ubuntu 12.04 currently does not have a supported option for the Plesk or Virtualmin reseller panels, however developers of both products report they are in the works and should be ready as soon as testing is done.