Linux Server Distro...

[NuoKa]

What's a good linux distro to run as a server for those who are just starting out in the Unix/Linux field and just want to try to get a feel of how it works?

 

[jphilipson]

I'd suggest going with CentOS 5. It's basically a free version of Red Hat, and pretty easy to use. I know everyone has their favorites, so you will get a lot of different suggestions.

 

[DarkBlood]

Any linux distribution can be made into a server distro.

Ask each community on how to do so, compile how easy each one is, what bonuses are better, etc. then choose for yourself.

 

[eSupun]

If you want to start, use CentOS.

It's very easy to administrate than other distributions. And also it's designed for web servers. So you can't go wrong with CentOS.

 

[sep]

If you don't choose CentOS, there is going to be some trouble, pal.

 

[WL-Michael]

I'd suggest going with CentOS 5. It's basically a free version of Red Hat, and pretty easy to use.

What he said, lol. But I think he will find it more "mainstream" because most of the commands are mass known for this distro, especially in comparison to RHEL and other popular distros. This will surely be helpful in the event of getting help online, etc.

Go for CentOS, it's a solid choice.

 

[theraptor]

if you want ease of use, either CentOS 5 or Ubuntu would be a good bet, both systems are very user friendly with lots of documentation.

 

[Seraphim]

I would like to recommend Debian.

It is an overall robust distribution with many features found in other linux distributions, but tends to be more stable and less bloated than CentOS.

However, CentOS is still an acceptable starting point. At the present time I use it on my servers as well. Biggest thing to beware of is Python updates, as they have a habit of breaking yum. When that happens you have to manually install the necessary .RPMs to repair the yum package manager.

So far in the past year of hosting with two servers, I have only had it happen once.

 

[[JSH]John]

My favourite is CentOS for servers and it's well supported.

 

[foo2thabar]

I'll be redundant and say go for CentOS, too.

 

[NuoKa]

Are the packages in CentOS more restricted and a bit out of date due to it being close to the Red Hat distro?

 

[foo2thabar]

Are the packages in CentOS more restricted and a bit out of date due to it being close to the Red Hat distro?

Instead of out of date, think of it as 'stable'. It's geared for a production environment - as opposed to a distro like Arch, my favorite, although I replaced it on my laptop with Debian after some buggy intel video drivers pissed me off a few weeks ago. Which is exactly why they use 'older' packages - they've been tested and they will work. And it's far from restricted - it's extremely popular for servers.

If you want to learn how to use a linux server at home or something, feel free to use something like Fedora. It's based on RHEL/CentOS although it's geared more for the home market. You can learn your way around the command line and such on Fedora, have access to slightly newer software, and become familiar with the 'yum' package manager (use it from a terminal!!!). When you're confident, install CentOS without a GUI in place of Fedora and see if you can get it set up from just the command line with whatever services you want running. That's a lot easier than it sounds, although I admit Linux has a bit of a learning curve.

 

[d300rage]

CentOS is a community-supported, mainly free software operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. I like CentOS . It's well supported