"Best" version of Linux

[ThePentiumGuy]

Hey,

I'm thinking of setting up a LAMP (Linux Apache mySql Php) server.

 

I'm just wondering what distro you guys feel is better... I've done my research and found this info:

 

Stuff I'm NOT looking at:

Slackware - The "C++" of all linux Distro's... the most powerful - yet the hardest (meh.. yeah Assembly is the hardest actually ;)). I'll try to stay away from this one.

-----

Stuff I'm looking at:

Mandrake- Nice and simple to set up and use...etc. I heard Mandrake was VERY buggy and instable.

Debian - A lot harder to set up, a very good balance of both power and simplicity. Stable

SuSe - Meh.. you gotta love the Live Eval (boot Linux straight off the CD), but now they released 9.1 and its a free version as opposed to an Eval. This seems the easiest - but I heard it lacks in features... Great Tech support.

Fedora Core - AKA Red Hat 9. I saw some screenshots, and this and Mandrake seem to be the "Easy to Use" stuff. I'm not sure if this lacks in features. Stable.

------

Stuff I'm not sure about and I probably want to avoid:

Gentoo - Confusing to set up? Drivers and stuff to set up = pain? Not sure.

<I can't think of any more o_O>

 

Right now I seem to like Mandrake, SuSe and Fedora Core.... I'm not sure too much SuSe but I know mandrake is buggy. Fedora Core might be the best...

 

Can anyone please give personal recommendations? I'm completely new to linux but I'm a fast learner.

 

-The Pentium Guy

[mutant]

I would suggest running the Knoppix distribution first to see if you really want to run Linux after using Windows for a long time. Knoppix is a special distribution that runs of a bootable cd and doesn't require any kind of installation, and may prove to be a great way to see what Linux is all about.

[Arch4ngel]

Yes... I approve mutant.

 

If you want to have a linux platform.... I suggest Mandrake or RedHat for starter. But if you know a little bit... and that Performance and stability is a must then... I suggest Slackware (which is one of the best version but require higher skills).

 

But as mutant said... make sure you feel comfortable before trying to install a complete distribution.

 

Once installed, make sure your kernel is up to date and that all FTP, HTTP program are up to date also. I'm sure you don't want to be hacked. ;)

 

So far... have fun !

[ThePentiumGuy]

Thanks,

 

I tried SuSe Live Eval :-D, one of my friends had it and he burnt it for me (he's the kid who got me into linux lol, he uses debian but he's advanced ;)). The SuSe Live Eval is pretty much the same thing like you said about Knoppix - boots right off of a CD and requires no installation :).

 

So far I think it's pretty good, the more I use it obviously the more i'll know about it. I have 2 options: IIS or Linux... 99% im going with Linux, if anything fails (e.g. my PC doesn't have enough memory...etc which is impossible for linux ;)), then i'll use IIS on my good pc.

 

 

Once installed, make sure your kernel is up to date and that all FTP, HTTP program are up to date also. I'm sure you don't want to be hacked. http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Getting hacked on linux? o_O I thought this was secure ;).

 

Oh - uhh I got a question......

I don't exactly have an ethernet cord on my old Pc... however it does have a few USB ports - will it be able to recognize my wireless adapter? It's the Microsoft MN-250 or 350 (something along those lines).... hmm a Microsoft adapter on a Linux PC, I hope this works :).

 

-The Pentium Guy

[Volte]

My first Linux was Mandrake and I hated it. It "babied" me so much that I didn't know how to properly use Linux to its full potential. When I switched to Debian I had to do more things manually, but now I know how to set up a linux distro properly. I would recommend Debian if you're up for some learning.

 

As far as driver compatability goes, the only thing you need to worry about is ATI; their drivers barely work on Windows, nevermind Linux. The other stuff should work like a charm. For optimization's sake you'll want to compile yourself a custom kernel without a lot of the features you don't need (and believe me, there are a lot of them). It sounds scary, but there are some straightforward guides out there, and it's actually pretty simple.

[ThePentiumGuy]

Well I am up for learning... hmm what if i choose not to use Graphical mandrake and choose to use the command line prompt instead?

 

Is all the command line stuff the same no matter what distro you have? That's what im confused out - isn't Linux the same - just the graphics/interface are different (ex: diff versions of KDE or Gnome)?

[ALEX_0077]

as far as that goes, some commands are different. Nothing of a complete overhall of a difference, though.

[ALEX_0077]

eg. - in Red Hat linux, the command to Print a file is "lpr", while Solaris can use lp or lpr

(although Solaris is a varient of Unix, Linux also has alot to do with Unix)

 

 

stuff like the awk command, vi editor, and diffrent shells should be the same. i think. :D

 

 

then again, its been a while since iv booten linux. :-\

[ThePentiumGuy]

Hmm - man :p... Kind of a tough decision here.

I think that I'm going with Debian (sombody please tell me there's KDE included... :s, anyways i can download it with apt-get install KDE).

[Volte]

Use Gnome instead, it's much better (in my opinion, at least). You'll also need to install an X server, either XFree86 or X.org - XFree86 is the easiest to install since you just need to do 'apt-get install x-window-system'. X.org requires from-source compilation (as do most things, if you want the latest versions).

[ThePentiumGuy]

Hmm... I think i'll worry about that when I get it installed ;).

ftp://ftp.minet.net/pub/distrib/debian-cd/images/3.0_r2/i386/ <-- that's what I'm getting..

 

Do i really need SEVEN cd's??

I heard debian required only one...

[Volte]

If you get the base install package it's only about 100MB and is only one CD.

 

http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/

 

This is the one I use.

[ThePentiumGuy]

I'm going to first try out SuSe personal (my friend already has it and burnt :-D, and its not a live eval).

 

I'll mess around with that first - and then get a bit confortable with Linux, then install Debian + LAMP.

 

Thanks

[ThePentiumGuy]

Crap! SuSe sucks!!

It hides everything from you.. and like you said Volteface it "Babies" you....

 

The stupid installer didn't even install gcc or even the make command!! (and i chose Install All).. Jeez...

 

Man, I'm not making that mistake again!!

I'm downloading all 7 cd's of debian ;). Should be done by tomorow.

 

-The Pentium Guy

[Volte]

Why are you downloading all 7 CDs? Download the base install, and then the install program will download only the packages you want. Believe me, you do not need or want everything!

[ThePentiumGuy]

Hey, I heard that getting the single CD doesn't come with KDE.

 

Yes, i can use apt-get KDE, but I don't have an ethernet adapter, and i'm forced to use Wireless... and setting up wireless on Linux = ><. I'm looking into Wlan-Linux..

 

or I might order http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-180-004&depa=0 and get it over with.. its only $3.50

 

So - without Internet, I cant get KDE - and my dad wants to use the linux box for some reason as well (he'll get confused if I dont put KDE or Gnome or whatever).

 

Besides, I'm in no rush - and we have like 500 cd's at home (you gotta love those mail n rebates where they give u a box of 100 cd's for free). I'm also installing this on a 40 gb hard drive (not that it's necessary, but its the only other comp I have lol)

 

-The Pentium Guy

[Nerseus]

You're probably not going to learn much about Linux until you've used it for awhile, just like any operating system or tool.

 

I'd suggest going with one, all the way, use it for awhile - at least a week. Then maybe you'll come up with a list of things you like or don't like - something you can compare when reading up on each distro of linux.

 

Since there are so many variations, it's going to be hard to find one you like just by what you read.

 

-ner

[Jay1b]

I use UNIX everyday all day at work and from my experience the best & most reliable OS is easily available from this small company located at http://www.microsoft.com check it out. :)

[ThePentiumGuy]

UNIX?? :-P! I never even thought about that :). I'm gonna stick with linux and learn it like Nerseus says.. and then i *might* give Unix a try...

 

Woot! I ordered the ethernet card... NewEgg is the best, I saved almost 75% :).

 

I burnt all the debian cd's and im waiting for the adapter and then give it a try :p

 

-pent

[Getox]

i use Linux RedHat 9 for my server...

Only problems i find are the ones i create :P

[ALEX_0077]

just a simple FYI: if you have a litte extra $$, you can always find a perfectly good Linux box (or boxes) to experiment for real cheap.

 

Fry's Outpost.com has such an example (current as of 10-8-04)

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4199383

 

 

PS- I dont wanna seem like some kinda spammer or something. i hate spam

[mskeel]

We're using Suse 9.0 Pro on our web/email/dev server. From my experience, Linux is linux no matter what distro you use. You can go as far under the hood as you want, though each has their little tweaks. Suse's contribution is the Yast wich gives you the opportunity to take care of a lot of maintenance issues (patches, user scripts, firewall, etc) through a GUI. You can still use the command line if you want, it's not like they took it away. For a noob, its good, but if you want to learn through force, one of the other distros may be the way to go.

 

One really cool thing is all the open source software. Right now we run our CM through CVS on the linux server. We use tortoise to interface with CVS -- it integrates seamlessly with windows explorer. Plus, if you use Ximian, a graphical environment based on gnome, you can get the benefits of .Net emulation on you Linux box through Mono. We're in the process now of setting up "test on commit" scripts to run unit testing on the linux box after every commit of the .Net apps we developed in Visual Studio on our windows PCs.

 

The best part -- All the above mentioned software is available through the open source community. Which is where the "don't get hacked" comment came from. Becuase everything is open source everyone can see the code thus exposing vulnerabilites to that code making things easily hackable. The good thing -- everyone can see the code so things that are hackable are found and fixed quickly. Many eyes make safe software.

 

Sorry, you guys hit a subject I'm very excited about. Good luck with your linux experience. I've had nothing but good times with mine...after overcoming a small learning curve. I mentioned a lot of different stuff above...all of it can be found on the web pretty easily. That's how I found all of it. Good luck and have fun!

[ThePentiumGuy]

Adapter came in :)

I installed debian, heh - im desperately trying to avoid using KDE .. so im not gonna install KDE - this is just a "Safety measure" for me to force my way through and learn hardcore linux w/o distractions

 

I'm using this tutorial (http://www.devside.net/web/server/linux) to install my server :D. I've also set up openSSH and Putty on my comp so i can set it up remotely .. useful if you wanna browse the net and do linux stuff (e.g. view a tutorial on the web without using KDE, but using windows and putty to connect).

 

I've gotten so far as installing zLib.. however when i try to install openSSH, its saying perl is not found.. apt-get install perl says i have it, and i even tried reinstalling it.. but then again, openSSH is saying that perl cannot be found in a certain directory...

I"m sure ill find a workaround for that :).

 

Thanks you guys for your help and support.

 

-The Pentium Guy

[fenris]

I know this is a little late, but have you considered a bsd variant? I am currently using NetBSD (http://www.netbsd.org) as my subversion server. I have apache, openssl, subversion,ssh and php. All of the apache services are over ssl.

 

I absolutely love NetBSD, it is relatively simple to install and get up and running. I have mine running on an old amd k6-2 400Mhz with 64MB of ram. I had experimented with linux 5 years ago using redhat. I had used it as a NAT router and firewall. I found it came with too much stuff.

 

NetBSD has a system called pkgsrc which is basically all of the source code to all of the software you could need to run a server. If you want to install a package, say apache, flip to the apache directory in pkgsrc and run make install && make clean && make clean-depends. The thing about NetBSD is nothing is installed unless you want it.

 

I have been running the server for a couple of months now and I love it. I don't use any GUI becuase I like to be able to administer it remotely through an ssh shell. You learn pretty quickly how to do things.

 

Cheers....