Web Site/E-Commerce Server
 

Hey,
I am looking for a good secure stable distro that comes with a good Easy to use Website hosting software, and somthing to set up E-commerce. (Shopping carts Ect). The things I need are listed

1. Easy to use, preferably a Graphical Unit Interface, If i can disable the GUI after the server is running GREAT.
2. Easy to configure. I have only configured one linux comp before and it was pretty much all automatic, I downloaded the nessasary drivers and loaded it all on.
3. Secure, with E-commerce and dealing with credit cards I dont want to have to worry about ID theft ect. (yes I would install a hardware firewall.)

Wants
1. OS comes with all the software.
2. Can serve as an FTP sever, at the same time host videos, and host a mail server.
3. I am used to windows XP and Professional and basic windows server, somthing that can be set up as easy, like with a wizzard.


Also if anybody has any hardware suggestions or sugestions for loading a site (I allready have the site written.) and how to set up site address (allready registered). I am all ears. This is a project I need done soon, with good references. So any good books or Self Help stuff. Let me know. If sombody wants to communicate directly my E-mail is in my profile.
Thank you for any info I can get.

Hello,

I think what you're looking for is kind of hard to find due to several reasons. GUIs and ease of use are not part of the strengths of linux. If you are looking for an operating system with server software that can be configured in a few steps by using wizards, Linux is not an option for you. On the other hand, security is one of linux's strenghts when properly configured. However, how secure your ecommerce application is, would highly depend on your application scripts and your application server more than on the server operating system.

My recommendation to you is to use a commonly used distro since you're a new user to linux. This way you could find help easily and quickly. I guess that any distro that has a server version would work for you. I've been using Fedora Core (server) for a while and it has worked great for me. I've configured FTP, SSH and tomcat in it so I guess it could be an option for you.

Hope it helps,

Alfredo

I am using Centos to host my Oscommerce and Familytree website right now. I have tried a lot of distros and found that Debian stable and Centos seam to be my favorites. http://www.howtoforge.com/ has been a tremendous help to me. The how-to's there are exellent. I setup ispconfig and it is ok but I am only hosting for myself so it is better to not have a control panel installed. Good luck on getting your server going.

Thanks, I have used Fedora before, I just recently got SUSE running on a Intel XEON quad core I bought used, It has 1GB of RAM, and is configured with RAID so that there are 6 Drives. 3 mirrored (hot swapable) striped with another 3 mirrored. It is screeming compared to the windows before it. I configured the FTP, still have to set up the WEB, and DNS server, Also I found out seting up a FEDORA for a bandwidth test. With the exception of the occasional packet drop, I used a HOME line and was able to stream a 1MBPS video up to 5 computers outside the network simultaneously, with no lag to the other computers other than the DSL limits. In Fact I had another friend who still uses dialup check it out on a second test so now we have six computer, and the dial up connected last with still no LAG, not great connection but no LAG and all small buffers. On a side not the friend with NETZERO Dial-up RAN FASTER THAN MY FRIENDS AT&T/SBC DSL EVERYTIME FOR THE VIDEO DOWNLOAD.
Still working with OScomerce it is taking some time to lean about the credit card services as well as setting that up to go to a buisness direct account. Also, will need people who read this forum after some time to help test the server by going to it. If your interested let me know. Should be up and running in a month and ready to test. Also I will have it on a Dedicated 1.5Mbps Up 768Kbps Down (dont ask how its complicated.
Thanks again for the community support

you might want to google bluequartz

its kind of an open source continuation of the Cobalt RAQ control panel and stuff - so has a complete web based graphical interface - it also installs itself if you get centos with bluequartz.

this the blue quartz website - http://bluequartz.org/

this is an installer of bluequartz and centos by nuonce http://www.nuonce.net/bluequartz.php

it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to install providing you know what ip address you want to give it and other stuff like that.

This needs to be a multiple choice survey, for those of us who use multiple distros. Takes me less than an hour to get Mepis up and running, but a day or so to get Gentoo installed. :jawa:

It depends on the purpose of the machine. I've set up a RHEL 4 machine as a LAMP server for one of my clients that took just over an hour. At the same time, I've built a hardware firewall using Fedora that took me a few days to complete to the point I wanted it. On the desktop level, I use Slackware, and I'm continuously expanding and adding functionality, so its an ongoing process.

Somewhere between 1 hour and month
 

Sure, I can install a distro that I know in an hour or two, and have it doing productive work.

But it's going to take quite a bit longer to tweak it to my liking/needs. Each has idiosyncracies, even from one version to the next, and you either adjust to them or learn what they are and see if you can take advantage of them. Does this make the poll invalid? Not really.

I think Shambler put it well for how long it takes to install a system. About an hour or month depending on the situation. Along with distro familiarity and little tweaks/adjustments to get the system tuned right I would also include whether I do a full disk check or not. That can add quite a bit of time. Other factors include whether I need to transfer data files form an old system to a new install (include backing up the data in that effort too) and how familiar I am with the hardware I am installing to. If the familiarity factor is high, no data transfer/backup, and no disk check, and minimal tweaking, it can be done in an hour, maybe less. If the situation is completely reversed, I'll be spending a lot of quality time then time with my computer.