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View Poll Results: What distro is best for a server?
Hey All. My teacher is loaning me a Compaq Proliant 1600 to mess with. What distro is best for a server? (I'm too cheap to pay for the server editions, so we're counting the regular versions).
Please base your choice on what is more secure and stable
Debian. Its proven. stable, and secure, and while I like it, Gentoo is not proven and runs bleeding-edge software. Debian Stable doesn't upgrade packages even for security, it backports patches so nothing breaks.
The point being that Slackware is highly configurable, easy to install packages of your choice, a distro you are familar with (?), and as such may not be a bad choice.
Lots of folks swear by BSD for critical server functions.
There is a trade off with how much time you want to spend learning something different as opposed to learning to run a server to begin with.
You also did not mention what server functions you intend to run. HTTP, SSH, FTP, MAIL, NEWS, ETC....
Distribution: Emacs and linux is its device driver(Slackware,redhat)
Posts: 1,398
Rep:
i am using redhat but i would go for gentoo because if you compile it from the beginnig with just what u need and leave the crap out side it will be more secure isnt it?
I guess it kinda boils down to Slack or BSD then... That's assuming I can get FreeBSD to work nicely with DHCP. It hasn't been able to do that so far...
Originally posted by Artimus I guess it kinda boils down to Slack or BSD then... That's assuming I can get FreeBSD to work nicely with DHCP. It hasn't been able to do that so far...
Nothing wrong with Redhat, as your poll shows. It is rock solid, as secure as you want to make it, and there is gobs of support. What more could one ask for?
You really have to consider, as much as you'll hate to hear it, what your specific situation requires. Doesn't much matter what the hardware is, unless for some reason it's only supported by one distro. Are you adding a box to a network full of RedHat servers? Might make the most sense to go with RedHat, there. Are you expecting to have many servers to maintain? Might be better to go with Debian. Are you still learning your way around a Linux box, and want everything set up to work to begin with, so you can break things and see exactly what went wrong? That could make Slackware ideal. Sorry, you'll have to come up with your own reasons for using Gentoo: I don't really see the point. ;-) [ducking]
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