What is our primary use case?
I'm using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm). I've been working with Ubuntu for about seven to eight months now, and before that, I had a mix of Windows and Linux system administration, mainly with Red Hat, CentOS, and Windows Server.
Now it's purely Ubuntu, so about six or seven months purely Ubuntu, and the rest would be about four or five years of mixed experience with both operating systems.
I use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) mainly to run Docker containers, and I have a few logging servers where I run Elastic on, so it's mainly infrastructure-related and backend work.
What is most valuable?
Compared to any other offering in the Linux world, to me personally, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) is quite similar and doesn't really matter; it usually just works.
The differences are usually in support and the Ubuntu Pro plan, which I do not have, but the same applies with Red Hat—you can run it free of charge, but then you lack the support, which is what I do with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) as well, so it runs the same as any other Linux distro.
In terms of stability and reliability, I've had none worth mentioning or caused by something that wasn't in my own hands, so that's been fine so far.
In my team, I have about seven people managing about 60 to 70 VMs across four different clusters and about 16 nodes. I spread them out very evenly and very thinly. User-wise, I don't really serve a company internally; I sell my service on the open market. I have no idea on the numbers of how many customers I have, but it's in the several thousands that use the machines or the service I host through my infrastructure.
What needs improvement?
Regarding room for improvement, I would like to see repository clearance and clarity in the repository, as if you try to get anything from the canonical repo, there tends to be ambiguity in the descriptions and especially the versioning, which makes very little sense.
A good example is the Ansible patch they released to fix a critical CVE that wasn't exactly noted anywhere; you just kind of have to know. Versioning and clarity would be nice in the repo.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability and reliability, I've had none worth mentioning or caused by something that wasn't in my own hands, so that's been fine so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When it comes to scalability, that's mainly my own fault, as I don't have automation, so there's no setup with Packer, no Ansible playbooks to deploy a VM quickly. If something needs to be added, it's all manual, so it is quite slow.
The same goes for any OS that you don't have a deployment standard for; it takes a while.
How are customer service and support?
I don't know anything about the tech support of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm), as I have not escalated any questions to them.
As mentioned, I don't have the Ubuntu Pro license either, so I don't have the technical support ready for me; I didn't deem it valuable since I have quite strong players in my team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The reason I decided to switch from Windows to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) is because of the company itself, but I also switched jobs because I foresee less of a future in Windows Server.
It's stagnant; the product doesn't really improve much, and I see Microsoft slowly pushing more towards Azure. Because I prefer on-premises myself or a hybrid environment at least, I switched to Linux where I know is still very much alive and kicking.
How was the initial setup?
The onboarding process for me to switch to working with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) was straightforward, but I've had previous experience in Linux privately and professionally, so to me, it was just one day you stop with Windows and the next day you start with Linux.
I had a very strong base, so it's not like it was difficult. I've heard it might be more difficult for some people that have no experience or less experience, but for me personally, it was completely fine.
I wasn't part of the initial setup, as that was set up long before I joined the company, so I tend to take from that end.
What other advice do I have?
My advice or recommendation for organizations considering Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) is to always automate. There is a reason I always push for Ansible, Packer, and similar tools.
Many firms still prefer doing things manually with little Word documents and Confluence articles, but automating your environment is vital. Infrastructure as code, especially with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm) or any other Linux distro, is key; if you don't have your IaC, you're going to spend forever maintaining it.
The same applies with patching; automating is crucial. There is no proper way to patch a farm of Ubuntu VMs unless you're using some type of automation, be it Ansible or any other patching solution that is available, open source or not.
I'm currently working with the on-premises deployment of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - Noble (Arm). I would rate this product a nine out of ten overall.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
