Best Distro for a Server?
 

Ill be picking up a new box tomorrow for cheap. should be 5-600 mghz (prolly a p2?) with 256 megs of ram. It wont be used for anything serious. Just for fun and for learning, experiments, that type thing. I have rh9 on a laptop, but with rh going different ways now I am looking for alternatives. What do you guys think would be a good way to go for a server box? Does any one distro offer advantages as far as networking goes?

Not really. Just choose one that fits your needs. All the tools you'll need will be available for every distro. Pick one that you like and run with it.

I am relativly new to linux but I just installed mandrake 9.2 and have to say it was very easy to set up. As soon as it was installed I typed in localhost and the server was up already. Also PHP worked without any configuration. Currently im trying to get cgi to work but have ran into some problems.

SuSE also configures your server automatically. But if it's going to be a commercial server (like, it will be serving an important webpage and needs to be as fast as possible) then you might want to go with one of the lighweight distros like slackware. Slack is harder to configure though, it's not intended for noobies as much as many other distros are.

I worked and liked SuSE alot but how does it know if I want a ftp server, file server, proxy server, dhcp server, checkpoint firewall server ( that would require additonal software ) or logging server ?

Even with Samba I still need to do manual changes to make it work...

Maybe the SuSE distro now includes this famous pixie dust to make it all work ...

Mr.P

euhm, I kind of like slackware... ok you still have to configure your httpd.conf to enable php (process described in readme of php) and install your mysql database and start mysql.. but if you install webmin then that's not such a problem either. I installed an irc server now too, gonna install services in a min too so... just give slackware a try!

Debian is quite reliable I hear. One guy got even Debian Unstable to run for 211 days without crashing or rebooting.

For a newbie, I'd say redhat or mandrake. Easy install, still powerfull.

Do the Slack man! Hook-up slack on that rig and take home the bacon...Yea, Slack requires you to know what you're doing but it's the shitz of the Linux crowd.

I started on Red Hat but the dark side call'th and from the moment I saw the line command, I knew I was in love ~grinning~

Plus, if you can use Slackware, you pretty much know core Linux; every Linux flavor has its own way of doing things but Slack seems to be the best (IMHO).

Don't take my word for it...get you some! ---->
Slackware

Hope this helps and Happy Holidays,
Slappy

I figure ill go with rh9 to start since i already have that burned, but i want to keep up with the times and stay with the crowd. if rh isnt updating anymore then i will need to look elsewhere in not so distant future. i like the idea of slackware, but im still pretty new to linux and not sure i can handle it. of course, the whole point is to learn, and if i screw up its no big deal. there will be nothing but personal stuff on there, so nobody is relying on it. maybe ill stick with rh and learn, then migrate to slackware? hmmm....

start with fedora. redhat-like

is fedora ready? i thought it was still a little buggy. is what they have available a full version or is it beta?

some people i know use fedora as mail servers right now.

it has passed the release candidate level... it is now core 1.

redhat can be upgraded to fedora without cds right? meaning i can download the files and run it straight from the machine?

I've heard many people doing it with success. Never did it myself though.