What distro to use for home nfs/rsync/mpd/apache server?

hollywoodb · 03-22-2007, 07:26 PM

I've got a machine I'm thinking about setting up for a few tasks, it is going to running:

rsync
ssh
nfs
mpd
apache+php+mpd-web-client
potential for FTP, Samba, and a few other minor things to possibly be added at a later date.

Basically I want it to be a zero-maintenance system once set up... it will also serve as an occasionally used desktop system, so I want packages available for common desktop apps such as openoffice, k3b, etc etc...

I'm thinking about CentOS 5, OpenSUSE 10.2. I'd consider Debian Etch if it would ever go "stable". Basically I want a package set for which I will receive security updates and the like without major package updates that break existing configurations.

I know that the majority of what I need is provided by OpenSUSE, and CentOS + DAG/RPMForge is almost complete for my needs as well.

Any recommendations, warnings, or suggestions would be appreciated... *buntu is not an option. Need something more stable than that by far. I've experience with both OpenSUSE and RHEL, as well as Debian, Slackware, etc. Gentoo is also not an option, I surely won't be dedicating much time to compiling packages when <insert any other distro here> provides fully functional packages that serve the exact same purpose.

Also, I'm open to FreeBSD/PCBSD, I just have significantly less experience with the BSDs than GNU/Linux. However I surely won't rule them out.

hollywoodb · 03-23-2007, 10:17 AM

On further investigation I might have to scratch FreeBSD, I need rw ext3 support, and as far as I can tell it doesn't exist in the 6.x branch.

Also, I've been unable to locate mpd RPMs for CentOS, this is as close as I've come:
http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/mpd/

Hangdog42 · 03-23-2007, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Basically I want it to be a zero-maintenance system once set up..

That's an impossible goal, particularly for something connected to the internet. You'll need to keep it patched and monitor it for intrusions.

As far as your feature list goes, pretty much any distro would do, but if you are, as your distribution line suggests, a Slackware user, you might as well stick with that. Not having to learn a new package/update system will keep the maintenance time down and Slackware certainly is stable.