> just recently have been spinning up some linux containers (redis, rabbitmq)
Not sure if you're trying to make your own containers or not, but stick to the stock Docker Hub containers as much as possible. If there's an "official" Redis container, use that, regardless of the base image. Since it's supported, other people will be fixing bugs and upgrading things so you don't have to.
> If someone is isn't distro aficionado and is utilizing "mainstream" docker images, what's the recommendation?
For non-container stuff, CentOS is the "enterprisey" distro that's safest in case you one day have to support an app that only supports RHEL (and it's the base for Amazon Linux, in case you use AWS).
For container stuff, it's a toss-up between Ubuntu and Debian; I'd use Ubuntu for developer-oriented stuff, and Debian for anything else. You can of course use Alpine for containers, but there are some maintenance/development costs that come as well, so I only recommend Alpine if you really need to save space.
Not sure if you're trying to make your own containers or not, but stick to the stock Docker Hub containers as much as possible. If there's an "official" Redis container, use that, regardless of the base image. Since it's supported, other people will be fixing bugs and upgrading things so you don't have to.
> If someone is isn't distro aficionado and is utilizing "mainstream" docker images, what's the recommendation?
For non-container stuff, CentOS is the "enterprisey" distro that's safest in case you one day have to support an app that only supports RHEL (and it's the base for Amazon Linux, in case you use AWS).
For container stuff, it's a toss-up between Ubuntu and Debian; I'd use Ubuntu for developer-oriented stuff, and Debian for anything else. You can of course use Alpine for containers, but there are some maintenance/development costs that come as well, so I only recommend Alpine if you really need to save space.