I've installed CentOS 5.0 as a Server configuration - well I still have to configure it but that is the setup that I selected during the install.

Should I uninstall the extra software that seems to have installed (ie. GIMP, OpenOffice, etc)

I don't think I need this stuff installed on the server box do I?

It probably depends on what you intend to do with it, but I personally don't think you need OO.o or The GIMP for a server. You can go barebones and later choose to add stuff as it becomes necessary along the way.

Thats what I was thinking... Can you please let me know how I go about uninstalling all that stuff off the system? Or should I re-install CentOS and somehow un-selected it from installing if the first place?

You can use YUM or rpm to remove the packages you do not need. CentOS do a server cd, so you may want to look into that.

Like reddazz says, you can use the yum command to remove unnecessary software. The command should look like this:
It can be tedious to figure out exactly which packages you need to remove. Easier examples are "openoffice.org" for OpenOffice.org and "gimp" for The GIMP, but there are other, less intuitive names.

You may want to use the GUI frontend ("Add/Remove Software") instead. It may make it easier for you to select packages to remove.

I'd go for the front-end approach to deal with dependencies...

reddazz, I don't think there's a server CD out for CentOS 5 yet (at least I couldn't find it)

You are right, but I am sure there will be one soon. Personally I use the DVD to install, but initially deselect all packages that had been marked for install by anaconda and then pick and choose only the server packages I need.

also keep in mind that even though this is linux and there are not many viruses or other malware to affect it, there are still plenty of security holes that need monitoring and patching. the more "extra" software you have installed on a server (this includes a GUI) the more code that needs monitoring, patching, and security. this increases your time to manage the system plus decreases the overall performance of the server.

install with a bare bones system, then use YUM to install ONLY what you need running on your server and nothing more. if at some time in the future you are in need of an added service or software package, yum will add it for you.

So, just to be clear, is the concensus that I should uninstall and then re-install a bare bones system? I need the GUI only until I learn more with the shell. But for now I need the GUI. Is GNome or KDE more secure? And also, if I should do the re-install... Can someone please tell me what software packages to include for the following purposes.

1. File & printer server
2. Web server - both on the LAN and Internet - I would like it to be SSL
The web server will mainly be serving a proprietary client database program
(CRM), so I need to make sureit is secure.
3. I would like to have VPN support for the CRM - preferrably, that is the only way
I want to have access from the internet.
3. Asterisk - Phone system program - will also have a RJ45 PCI card to control the phone lines.

I know I have listed this items previously, but if someone can tell me EXACTLY what the minimum is that I have to install (within the CentOS install), I would appreciate it. I think Samba for the file & print server but not sure about the rest.

Try removing the extras. If you plan to reinstall anyway, what can it hurt? Besides, it’s a good learning exercise.

In the Redhat-style distros, it can be hard to cleanly/minimally remove components with yum because of dependencies. Seems like when you want it to remove some trivial package that it wants to remove Gnome, xorg and other seemingly unrelated packages. Often, you can cleanly cut out a package using rpm with many fewer dependencies.

As for what to reinstall, you can deselect options at install time or install a bare minimum system and add what you need using “yum install” or “yum groupinstall”. Many prefer the later approach. Of course, when you are starting out, having too much installed can make life simpler.

1. Samba/NFS and cups
2. Apache (httpd)
3. Don't know
4. Asterisk?

If you do barebones and use yum to install any extra packages, dependencies will look after themselves

Okay... I'll try the re-install and let you know how it goes.

Thanks.