What's the best server distro?

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I've always wondered about this... Every people says different distros. Someone says it's Debian, someone says it's gentoo or CentOS...etc I know that it doesn't really matter which distro you choose, you can run a server on any, but what's the best choice? What do you guys think? I'm not really into server's world, so I'd say Debian because that's the one I hear the most... :)
 


You can put my vote on Debian. It's what I use on both of my servers and it runs fine. I agree that it doesn't really matter what distro you choose, because most software will run on just about any distro. A lot of people use CentOS because it's the only distro which cPanel supports (if memory serves) and it has really good LTS, but I've always found CentOS a bit too bloated for my tastes.
 
I'll use Centos 90% of the time.. the other 10% would be Debian. I view them equally as good, but just favor the Red hat based distros currently. :)
 
I've always wondered about this... Every people says different distros. Someone says it's Debian, someone says it's gentoo or CentOS...etc I know that it doesn't really matter which distro you choose, you can run a server on any, but what's the best choice? What do you guys think? I'm not really into server's world, so I'd say Debian because that's the one I hear the most... :)

That always depends on the application you want to run with. But CentOS/Debian are the way to go.
I even would recommend use CentOS. I start to dislike Debians release cycles.
 
Where I work we use Oracle Enterprise Linux for our DB hosts, and Red Hat Enterprise for our application layer. Personally at home I am using OEL since they went with free errata and security updates to the general public.
 
Ever since i've started setting up my server i've been on CentOS, i find it reliable and i'm starting to feel comfortable using it and it's commands in terminal.

I've tried out debian for servers since i'm already using Debian on my Mobile tablet. I think both CentOS and Debian are pretty good for a server.
 
Personally, I wouldn't run Solaris on an x86 server. Redhat Enterprise is definately starting to shape up to a decent server OS. Debian is nice, but you won't find it on my server. Ubuntu is more for desktop end-user than it is for a server. If you can find a host that offers RHEL, there is no reason to stick with CentOS and Whitebox. If you can't, then I would use CentOS. CentOS is actually compiled from the SRPMS from the latest RHEL distrobution.
 
I think this is too subjective a question. Most server Linux distributions may be used as web and/or file servers. It depends on your needs, perhaps you should elaborate more on those.

Personally I would use Debian or CentOS for both functions, but again - it's a matter of taste mostly. Use what you know best as you'll do a better job then, the objective differences are minimal in my opinion.
 
for me this kind of question is kinda subjective based on user preference. Everybody will stick to what their like most. For me either debian, centOS, or other unix based server is good to use. Ubuntu server also nice, i should call its another debian branch of server. :D
 
We use Centos at my organization. It was pretty good until we found it wasn't running the newest version of redhat, and we had a huge security hole. But I think that has been fixed now!
 
I preffer Opensuse and suse server. Works great with amd proc. (obviously) and have great performance and excelent support. Hope helps
 
I personally would use Slackware, but it's the kind of distro that really requires lots of hands on work. I build stuff the way I want, which is why I use it.You might want to look at Fedora or CentOS. They're the basis for the Red Hat commercial distros, and I believe you'll find CentOS as a good foundation for a server.
 
Slackware without the X and KDE. Web server with a blog goes up in less than an hour. Have a look at this short tutorial -> http://www.m0rd0r.eu/?p=419 . In 20 commands you have web server, MySQL and a blogging software.
 
I have tried CentOS and always had problems with it. Maybe I didn't know what I was doing. Currently I use Debian 7 with virtualbox and two Debian 7 VMs one as web server with some web apps and one with smb. No GUI. Runs perfect.
 
What about for a game server? I have never used any sort of linux/unix before, but have been a long-time (amateur) programmer, and used to run a World of Warcraft WAMP server, so I'm sure I could figure it out eventually. This time around I would like to try my hand at a smaller sort of game. It wouldn't have to support many visitors, maybe 20-50 max.
Can multiple servers be run off one machine (db, web, ftp, game, etc.)? I know you probably can (you can in Windows). Dumb question, but had to ask.

I see a lot of people recommending CentOS and/or Debian (mostly CentOS). Would either of these be ideal in my situation? I only have one machine that I can run full-time, so resource utilization will be very critical. Basically I want to dedicate the entire machine's hardware to the server (which you just can't do in Win).

How difficult would it be to build my own distro? Is it even possible anymore?

Thanks for reading this long post, and for any answers you might be able to give me.
 
What about for a game server? I have never used any sort of linux/unix before, but have been a long-time (amateur) programmer, and used to run a World of Warcraft WAMP server, so I'm sure I could figure it out eventually. This time around I would like to try my hand at a smaller sort of game. It wouldn't have to support many visitors, maybe 20-50 max.
Can multiple servers be run off one machine (db, web, ftp, game, etc.)? I know you probably can (you can in Windows). Dumb question, but had to ask.

I see a lot of people recommending CentOS and/or Debian (mostly CentOS). Would either of these be ideal in my situation? I only have one machine that I can run full-time, so resource utilization will be very critical. Basically I want to dedicate the entire machine's hardware to the server (which you just can't do in Win).

How difficult would it be to build my own distro? Is it even possible anymore?

Thanks for reading this long post, and for any answers you might be able to give me.

For a game server, I would suggest Ubuntu or Slackware. Yes, multiple servers can be run on the same machine. You could make your own distro, but so many distros exist that there is no real reason to do so anymore. Your post is not long, but it might be without my coffee. :D
 
Thanks, Devyn, for the quick reply and great advice. I was afraid maybe this thread was inactive. I will be researching Ubuntu and Slackware to compare features and such. Basically I'm looking for the "bare essentials" for the server to run and nothing else. I currently have it running Win 7 Ultimate and my game server is so bogged down because Windows takes too much resources for things the server doesn't need.

Is there a way to leverage my GPU in Linux? That's an intriguing thought...
 
Thanks, Devyn, for the quick reply and great advice. I was afraid maybe this thread was inactive. I will be researching Ubuntu and Slackware to compare features and such. Basically I'm looking for the "bare essentials" for the server to run and nothing else. I currently have it running Win 7 Ultimate and my game server is so bogged down because Windows takes too much resources for things the server doesn't need.

Is there a way to leverage my GPU in Linux? That's an intriguing thought...

No thread goes unnoticed. I see everytime a thread gets a new reply.

You want bare essentials? Well, then you need Slackware or Arch (I would use Slackware).

I have heard of using the GPU for extra processing power, but I personally do not know how to do that.
 

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