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What is the best OS for a server...

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Gabriel Knight...
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:46 pm
Guest
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?
it has to be able to be as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used
for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

Regards
GK
 
Joe...
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:06 pm
Guest
On 2009-10-11, Gabriel Knight <fakeemail at (no spam) hotmail.com> wrote:
Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?
it has to be able to be as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used
for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

RedHat (CentOS is identical, except the logos), Suse and Debian
Stable.

My preference is for RH/CentOS.

--
Joe - Linux User #449481/Ubuntu User #19733
joe at hits - buffalo dot com
"Hate is baggage, life is too short to go around pissed off all the
time..." - Danny, American History X
 
Dan C...
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:31 pm
Guest
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:46:02 +1100, Gabriel Knight wrote:

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?

Linux.

Quote:
it has to be able to be
as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used for backup of data.

OK.

Quote:
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

As I already said, the best "OS" is Linux.

If you mean best "distro", I'd say Slackware.

Fedora would be near the absolute bottom of any list of acceptable
distros to run a server on.


--
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".
"Bother!" said Pooh, as he garotted another passing Liberal.
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
 
Freeballer...
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:39 pm
Guest
Dan C wrote:
Quote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:46:02 +1100, Gabriel Knight wrote:

Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?

Linux.

it has to be able to be
as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used for backup of data.

OK.

I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

As I already said, the best "OS" is Linux.

If you mean best "distro", I'd say Slackware.

Fedora would be near the absolute bottom of any list of acceptable
distros to run a server on.


wow. scary I have to agree on one of your statements. Fedora is near the

bottom. Depending on your linux knowledge, if any, may dictate what
distro you want. Always look into security afterwards anyways, but all
distros have server packages. I would simply say, given my experience
use debian or ubuntu. Since it has a simple, effective package
management called "apt-get", there is also mandriva or suse but honestly
I've never liked those. Slackware is a purist distro, very close to unix
and very little changes but finding packages involves resolving
dependancies (even with linuxpackages.net)

Not trying to steer your way to one or the other, there will be alot of
reasons why some use one or the other. Choices, preferances.. I'd say
try ubuntu if your a total newb or debian if you have some skills
already... or use the alternative ubuntu cd (server) iso. These come
with simple installation with no user interface I beleive.

Good luck buddy, I hope you find one thats useful. goto
www.distrowatch.com to get some more links and that sort

--


==
 
Mark Hobley...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:08 am
Guest
Dan C <youmustbejoking at (no spam) lan.invalid> wrote:
Quote:
If you mean best "distro", I'd say Slackware.

I have heard this too, but have not tried it. Debian used to be really
good, however I had a couple of problems during upgrades, and some bugs
have crept in on Lenny. If I had my time over, I would try Slackware.

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
Linux User: #370818 http://markhobley.yi.org/
 
Aragorn...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:01 am
Guest
On Sunday 11 October 2009 06:46 in comp.os.linux.networking, somebody
identifying as Gabriel Knight wrote...

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?

Anything UNIX-like, and preferably GNU/Linux. Wink FreeBSD, NetBSD and
OpenBSD are also very good, and then there's OpenSolaris, of
course. ;-)

Quote:
it has to be able to be as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and
used for backup of data.

All of the above can do that effortlessly. :-)

Quote:
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

They are the same operating system, and in the event of the two you
mention here, they are even related, as Fedora is the "perpetual beta"
for RedHat Enterprise Linux, and CentOS is the "free" version of RedHat
EL. It's the same distro, but with different "branding". ;-)

That said, among GNU/Linux distros, RedHat/CentOS, Debian and Slackware
are most commonly touted as stable server-oriented distributions. If
you're serious about the server concept - in terms of uptime and
stability, et al - then you most definitely want to avoid bleeding edge
distros.

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)
 
General Schvantzkoph...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:50 am
Guest
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:46:02 +1100, Gabriel Knight wrote:

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server? it has to be able to be
as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

Regards
GK

CentOS is usually is the best choice unless it won't run on your
hardware. If you are using server hardware then you won't have any
trouble, if you are running recent desktop hardware there is a good
chance that CentOS doesn't support it. RHEL, on which CentOS is based,
uses a very old kernel. RH targets RHEL at the server market so they
don't seem to put a lot of effort into back porting drivers for desktop
hardware which means that it can take a very long time before support for
new hardware shows up in RHEL and then into CentOS. The only way to find
out is to try and install CentOS, if it works then you are done if not
then you need to consider alternatives.

Fedora is actually a pretty good server OS as long as you are using it on
a small number of machines. When you run a machine as a server you don't
use X and you don't use most of the GUI applications that tend to get
broken in Fedora. What you are running is the kernel, which is always
stable, a shell and a tiny number of programs like ssh and maybe Apache.
All of those tend to be rock solid even on Fedora. Fedora 11 also comes
with the latest version of KVM which is working really well for Linux
clients. If you need to run some commercial software that needs RHEL
compatibility, and the Fedora compatibility libraries aren't good enough,
you can run a CentOS5.3 KVM virtual machine on top of Fedora 11. I've
found that the performance of CentOS VMs on Fedora 11 is within a couple
of percentage points of native. The big problem with Fedora as a server
OS is the huge number of updates and the limited support period. While
RHEL and CentOS are supported for 7 years, Fedora is only supported for 1
year. A CentOS system has a few megabytes of updates per month, Fedora
has hundreds of megabytes per week. A CentOS system can be installed once
and then left there until the hardware dies. If you install Fedora you'll
have to install it's successors once a year. If you have a small number
of machines, half a dozen or less, then this actually isn't a very
onerous task. If you have hundreds of systems then this becomes an
impossible task which is why you'll never find Fedora inside of any large
companies.
 
Maxwell Lol...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:53 am
Guest
"Gabriel Knight" <fakeemail at (no spam) hotmail.com> writes:

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?

Many people like the bsd variants (ducks).
 
ray...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:57 am
Guest
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:46:02 +1100, Gabriel Knight wrote:

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server? it has to be able to be
as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

Regards
GK

'Best', according to what criteria? I'd use Debian stable.
 
Leon Whyte...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:54 pm
Guest
Gabriel Knight wrote:
Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?
it has to be able to be as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used
for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

Regards
GK



IMHO the best and easiest is Slackware.
It is the easiest to manipulate to your liking and follows closest to Unix.
During install you have a good opportunity to leave out what you don't need or want.
I think I have tried most of the major Linux versions.


--

A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
< running Linux >
 
Keith Keller...
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:58 pm
Guest
On 2009-10-11, Mark Hobley <markhobley at (no spam) hotpop.donottypethisbit.com> wrote:
Quote:
Dan C <youmustbejoking at (no spam) lan.invalid> wrote:
If you mean best "distro", I'd say Slackware.

I have heard this too, but have not tried it. Debian used to be really
good, however I had a couple of problems during upgrades, and some bugs
have crept in on Lenny. If I had my time over, I would try Slackware.

Slackware == awesome

However, I am not sure I would recommend Slackware to someone new to
linux for a public-facing server in a production environment. It's
perfect for an experienced admin for almost any scenario, and it's also
perfect for a new admin looking to learn linux in a non-mission critical
environment. But if this is going to be a trial by fire where you might
get fired if you can't get things going quickly enough, a more
''friendly'' distro like CentOS might be better. (Then put Slackware on
a spare box so you can learn to know what you're doing better.)

--keith

--
kkeller-usenet at (no spam) wombat.san-francisco.ca.us
(try just my userid to email me)
AOLSFAQ=http://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt
see X- headers for PGP signature information
 
goarilla at (no spam) work...
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:09 am
Guest
Dan C wrote:
Quote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:46:02 +1100, Gabriel Knight wrote:

Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?

Linux.


don't dismiss opensolaris or freebsd for a zfs fileserver
or openbsd for a shell server

Quote:
it has to be able to be
as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and used for backup of data.

OK.

I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

As I already said, the best "OS" is Linux.

If you mean best "distro", I'd say Slackware.

Fedora would be near the absolute bottom of any list of acceptable
distros to run a server on.

 
Wanna-Be Sys Admin...
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:42 pm
Guest
Gabriel Knight wrote:

Quote:
Hi all

what is the best operating system for a server?
it has to be able to be as a web server and use SSH (secure shell) and
used for backup of data.
I know of fedora11 and centos but I dont know of the best os to use.

Regards
GK

There is no best OS, any of the Linux dists can accomplish the exact
same things, especially in a server environment (runlevel 3). So, use
whatever you want. Personally, I use CentOS, but I also manage
hundreds of servers with CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, RHEL, and so on. Any
are fine, use the one you know best.
--
Not really a wanna-be, but I don't know everything.
 
Wanna-Be Sys Admin...
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:44 pm
Guest
Keith Keller wrote:

Quote:
Slackware == awesome

True.

Quote:
However, I am not sure I would recommend Slackware to someone new to
linux for a public-facing server in a production environment.

True, but consider that issue regarding any dist out there. No one
"new" to Linux should be running a publicly accessible web server. If
it's not hooked up to the Internet, then it doesn't matter, but
otherwise it's something none of us want to think about.
--
Not really a wanna-be, but I don't know everything.
 
Wanna-Be Sys Admin...
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:45 pm
Guest
goarilla at (no spam) work wrote:

Quote:
don't dismiss opensolaris or freebsd for a zfs fileserver
or openbsd for a shell server

I would have recommended OpenBSD/FreeBSD, but since this is a Linux
group...
--
Not really a wanna-be, but I don't know everything.
 
 
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