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Message |
    
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2585
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 11:42 am: | 
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I'm building a server, and plan to use Linux rather than Windows. I've used a couple of desktop Linus platforms, but only RedHat on a server. Any recommendations on Linux distros for an Internet/file & print server?
I am not going with a Mac, so OSX is out. I've thought about FreeBSD, but it doesn't seem to be as well supported. I'm not looking for other OSes, just distro recommendations.
I've posted in a number of other places, but there doesn't seem to be much concensus. It's funny - sometime the distro rhetoric can get worse than Windows vs Mac. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12891
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 11:57 am: |
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That's true, and it's such a shame. I view it as "infighting" and I attribute the lack of success of unix and linux to that infighting.
Can you be more specific about your needs and the scale of the purpose of the server? How many client systems and how many users? The smaller the job, the less important your decision is.
FreeBSD has a smaller user base, but the support is excellent, and so is the robustness of the system. Also, the controls they have on the distribution prevents it from becoming the Tower of Babel that linux has become. That diversity (of distros and versions) makes it hard to support. Very often, man pages completely don't match the software installed.
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Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2586
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 12:10 pm: |
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It's a small office server for a client. Basically, they're going to connect it to an existing LAN. They currently have a Windows NT box that they want to replace, but are uninterested in going with Windows again. They're reasonably tech saavy - I'll be helping them out with the install and some of the mgmt.
They will use it for File & Print services, intranet web hosting, FTP services, and email. They currently host their own email (a subset of the email for a bigger company), and want to keep doing this if they can. I can't imagine why they wouldn't be able to.
Tom, have you used FreeBSD? I looked into it a while ago, but while it was easy to find information, the community seemed more closed to newbies. Though I guess you could say that about a lot of linux distros as well.
Maye I'll take it off my "no" list and take another look. |
\2{Monster}
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2469
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 1:11 pm: |
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Have taken a look at Ubuntu |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2589
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 1:50 pm: |
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You have, or I should? I had looked into it, but saw it as more of a desktop version that a server version. I'll take another look.
I've downloaded a few "live" versions of distros to burn to disk. I'll see if the live versions are configured to work as servers... |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8869
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 1:57 pm: |
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Why not just use RedHat? |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2590
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 2:20 pm: |
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Because RedHat seems to have split into RedHat Enterprise, which is not free, and Fedora. So from what I can tell, there is no real "free" version of RedHat anymore.
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8870
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 2:31 pm: |
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You can get up to version 9 free:
http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12893
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 2:40 pm: |
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It hardly matters which distro you get. They'll all do the job. Linux may offer more GUI's than FreeBSD. But FreeBSD has some advantages. For example, to install software, there are terrific commands that download and install things in one swell foop, such as pkg_add. It finds the website for downloading, downloads all dependencies, and installs stuff in the right order.
There's SuSE linux from Novell. That's paid, too. Check out linux.org for the various distos.
As I said, for this job, the choice hardly matters. They'll all do the job fine.
Do you have a domain? Linux can be a domain controller.
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Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2591
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 2:51 pm: |
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They do run as a domain.
BTW, I don't want you to think I'm stressing voer this. I'm curious for my own interests. This project is really just an excuse to get more info.
I've been going through linuxiso.org to see what they have on the forums. It's a slow day (again) at work, so I have the time... |
jolynn
Citizen
Username: Unixiscool
Post Number: 23
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 7:21 pm: |
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If it is a client and they will be managing it after you leave I would use Fedora or Redhat. If they ever have a hardware problem and need to call the vender most will tell you they will only support Redhat, but Fedora is close enough that they will still speak to you. It is also easier to find people who know it and Fedora has a site that posts regular security updates for years after a core distribution is released.
If you are just having fun looking a Unix distributions, I have been into embedded systems lately. They are small, stright forward and make great servers. It makes you realize how much junk comes with standard distributions. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12912
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 7:25 am: |
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If you like slim distributions, you'll love OpenBSD and FreeBSD. It starts out with the minimum. You have to install most everything, but it's easy to do that!
Isn't Fedora a RedHat distribution? It was, anyway.
Since the job here is light, perhaps a workstation version of Linux would be just fine, such as Fedora or Ubuntu. Ubuntu is very impressive as a turnkey system.
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Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2593
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 5:10 pm: |
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I'm pulling down Fedora, Unbuntu, FreeBSD and slackware. Slackware, if I rmember correctly, was one of the first distros, and I want to see what it looks like these days. Unbuntu has a "live" cd version, so I can check it out without installing it first. but I have a spare box that I'll probably test them all out on with something like grub as a boot manager.
I'll let you know how it goes. |
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 70
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 8:24 pm: |
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Rastro,
Have a gander at CENTOS, it's a 'mirror' of the latest Redhat from what I've heard.
http://www.centos.org/
Knoppix is a fun live cd.
--Tarp
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Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8882
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:06 pm: |
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What Linux can I put on a 1997 Mac G3? |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12944
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:41 pm: |
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Lots! Yellowdog, Gentoo, Debian, and probably many more.
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\2{Monster}
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2499
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 11:59 pm: |
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and you can run Mac on top of Linux
http://www.maconlinux.org/
and it's known as MOL
you can run OS 7.5.2 to 10.3.3 according to the page, but it will probably allow a newer OS X release too.
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Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2599
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:12 pm: |
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Monster, I got all excited until I went to the page and saw that it is linux/ppc. So I guess I can't replace Windows with Linux and run OS/X on top of it. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 12962
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:14 pm: |
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But you could get a G3 cheap. I got an original imac a few months ago for $75. It's fun, but I still don't know what I want to do with it. It's 233 MHz and has 192 MB of RAM. I loaded Panther on it, and it's preeetttyyy ssssllllloooowwww.
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Monster©
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2505
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:27 pm: |
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Does MOL run on non-Apple hardware?
A:
It does. MOL runs for instance on the Pegasos board, the Teron board and on AmigaOne hardware. In short, MOL should run on any PowerPC hardware (with the except of 601-based systems). However, the EULA of MacOS prohibits its usage on non-Apple hardware (it is of course perfectly legal to use MOL to boot a second Linux though). |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2602
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 4:12 pm: |
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But they're still PPC platforms. Oh well. The next computer purchase is going to be a Mac anyway. |
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