Whats is better and why? Linux CentoS or Ubuntu?

I have used both (and am currently using both).

I much prefer Ubuntu, which I’ve been using for less than 6 months. I’ve been using RedHat (and Centos) for over 10 years. It’s only since switching to Ubuntu that I’ve realised just how Centos has been holding us back.

The problem is Centos is designed to be secure and stable, but as a result many things running on it are old versions, with back ported security fixes. If you’ve just spent a million dollars on an in-house software system, you don’t really want it to break a few months later because everything around it is always being upgraded to the latest and greatest. Really this is what Centos is all about.

However, we have always battled with not being able to run certain things on Centos because everything is so out of date. I think the default version of PHP is 5.4 on Centos7 and yet many people are now using PHP 7. It’s perhaps not a problem with an unmanaged service like Digital Ocean where you can upgrade things and take responsibility for it yourself, but if you have a managed service and have to stick with the official Centos Repos then you better get used to working with ancient versions of everything. From memory it also makes it a pain to run things like Magento and Laravel which often require newer versions of things than you’ll have access to on Centos (by default).

For me Ubuntu is a breath of fresh air and I would ditch Centos tomorrow if it weren’t such an upheaval to do so.

What can someone with no prior knowledge about the two do?

I think Ubuntu has the brightest future. As Ubuntu desktop is the most commonly used linux on desktop/laptop. Those users will naturally choose Ubuntu server.

Also ubuntu has a very strong backup and their software updates are fast.