Hi guys,

Can anyone recommend a distro of Apache that is good as a
Web Server. The main task the installation is to serve web pages
with php capabilities. I have review the list of resources on the mirror's
site and don't really know which good distro to choose for download.

Thanks very much for your reply.

User247

Hi,

Debian seems to be the most used distro for web servers, especially Apache.

http://w3techs.com/blog/entry/debian...on_web_servers

However, if you consider that CentOS and RedHat are effectively identical and should be considered the same then they beat Debian by a considerable margin.

Yeah I saw that, I'm just preaching for my parish.

Hi, thanks for the quick response.

I forgot to mentioned the distro of Linux I installed
is Fedora 19. I just downloaded and installed it
one day before. Have check the rpm packages and noted
Apache is not included in the installation. I think
I will stick with Fedora for a while before thinking
of switching and try out other distros.

User247

Try CentOS, it's a free recompile of RedHat, and as such any tutorials for CentOS or RedHat will be equally valid.

Fedora is a "fast-track" distro, which is great if you want the latest versions of stuff.

However, in my experience, for a production web server or one that more closely mirrors the majority of web hosting platforms RedHat and CentOS are the way to go.

Nothing wrong with that!

I reckoned that Red Hat is a popular developer of Linux. I'll also look into Centos
since Fedora project is developed under Red hat.

Just my 2 cents:

Current version of Apache is 2.4.6, or something like that.

CentOS/RHEL/etc current version is 6.x. This was originally released 3 years ago. This means that the Apache that it ships with is at least 3 years old, only receiving security and bug fix updates. (apache version 2.2.15).

Debian current version is 7, released earlier this year. The apache it ships with is about 1 year old, again with security and bug fix updates. (apache versions 2.2.22)

The CentOS version is might be more stable than the Debian version. The Debian version is likely to have more features.

If this is a serious web server, I would avoid using Fedora, or any other rapid release (non-LTS ubuntu, mageia, etc) or rolling release (arch, gentoo). LTS ubuntu might suit, but I would choose Debian given the choice between the two.

CentOS vs Debian is a personal preference. I prefer CentOS out of the two. Others disagree.

Slackware is an option too. Slackware 14.0 comes with Apache 2.4.3 in the default install and it is easy enough to start on boot. Again, newer than the Debian and CentOS versions, but I don't know what that means for stability.

Best for you depends on what you want.

the Apache Server install will be a trial Server
for hosting a few web sites.

Thanks.

There are also pre-made virtual machines and I think some distro's that are set up already.
For simple sites, maybe a more simple server would do?

Fedora is a desktop flavor of Linux with roughly an 18mo life cycle. You are not going to be well served using Fedora as any type of server. You will want CentOS or Debian. As you are already familiar with Fedora, Id go with CentOS for reasons mentioned above not to mention its what I use currently and CentOS 7 (RHEL 7) will be built on the Fedora 19 kernel and systemd.

such a massive upgrade over sysV using systemd.

Put CentOS 6.4 on there now, then when CentOS 7 goes live near the end of the year give it about 1mo or so then replace 6.4 with 7 and enjoy the massive benefits

Since CentOS is recommended by many LQ members, certainly it is worth for trying it out.

please also see my new thread on: (unable to compile Apache after unpacking tarball) posting soon.

Thanks.

as you are running CentOS, there is zero reason to unpack any tarball, use yum to install apache and apache2 if required or any other web application for that matter:


http://www.howtoforge.com/quick-n-ea...er-centos-rhel

I'm running apache on fc-15 (i'm a bad little boy).
It came installed by default, just had to turn it on: sudo system httpd start

If not then just do: sudo yum install httpd
And it will install apache and any dependencies you need.