looking for distro suggestion
 

Hi,

I'm quite happily running a clarkconnect 2.1 box for more than a year now. Runs fine, learned a lot from it. However, recently I obtained some new hardware (Celeron 400mhz, 256mb ram, 10gb) and I'm considering replacing the clarkconnect box by a new setup on this celeron.

So, I'm looking for suggestions. I want something lean and mean but some sort of installer tool might be nice.

I think I want to run:
- samba
- postfix
- apache2
- an ftp server
- an ssh daemon
- webmin
- php
- mysql

And of course al the odds and ends that you need to keep a system running.

Any ideas would be apprieciated.

Lean and mean? How about Damn Small Linux? Or is that too lean?

How savvy are you on installing stuff? Debian, Gentoo, and Slackware can be as lean and/or as mean as you want them to be, but you have to work for it (everything's from scratch).

If not, 256 MB of RAM is plenty, even with a 400 MHz processor. You could probably go for a nice Gnome-default desktop like Ubuntu--maybe install XFCE as a windows manager (that's lightweight).

In choosing a distro, other things matter more than the programs you use, as you can always install or uninstall programs. What makes a distro different from another distro are these things:

- community support / documentation
- price/availability of CDs/DVDs
- live CD or install CD (or both)
- one CD or many
- lightweight or normal weight (the lightweights are about 50 MB; the "heavyweights" are about 2 GB)
- ease of installation
- hardware support
- default applications
- application installation vehicle

What informs your choice about distro has a lot to do with the type of user you are, what's most important to you, and whether you have dial-up or broadband, among other things. Can you tell us more?

Hm, thought I was clear. Lack of sleep must be getting to me.

I'm a very competent windows admin but all I know about linux is self-taught. Just about all my linux experience I've obtained running a server at home. This clarkconnect is my second in about three years. In that time I've kept it up and running and secure. I've also learned a lot about running a mailserver and keeping the spam out.

Since I installed the clarkconnect server I've learned how to do installs from rpm and from source although I must admit I really apprieciate apt-get for keeping the system uptodate.

I don't mind installing additional stuff from source but I think I'd apprieciate some sort of installer to setup the core system. One of the things I liked about clarkconnect is that it comes with iptables up and running and the log rotation already setup.

My current box has two nics, sits behind an adsl modem and acts as firewall, samba server internally, mail and apache server on the outside. It sits in a closet without a monitor so having X on it is not a requirment.

Is this enough information to say something?