[x-Shadow-x]

Im thinking of setting up a server so I can have all of my files everywhere. I might host some forums too. So im thinking the best way to go is linux. So my questions are: which linux should I use (most secure), what kind of software should I use to host it. And if I host forums should I use vbuulliten or PHPBB3? All help is appreciated.

[Zxian]

If you want the most secure, FreeBSD beats any Linux out there. No ssh'ing to root, simpler package management (ports = win), and overall, MUCH more secure in my experience.

The ways of doing things are slightly different than with Linux installations, but there's still plenty of documentation out there.

Also, if you want a minimal base on which to install stuff, I've managed to get FreeBSD down to 10MB of RAM usage on boot.

[x-Shadow-x]

Ok, ill look into freeBSD. And wow, 10mb or ram!

[x-Shadow-x]

Sorry for the doubel post, but which version of FreeBSD shoud I get? there is a list Here, do I want 6.3 or 7.0, and which type should I get? amd64, i386, ia64, pc98 or sparc64? I dont have a 64bit CPU so I dont think it would be amd64, ia64 or sparc64, So it will be i386 or pc98. Am I rite?

[Zxian]

i386 of FreeBSD 7.0 is what you're looking for.

[x-Shadow-x]

Thanks. And I guess I have to download all of the iso's?

7.0-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso
7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso
7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc3.iso
7.0-RELEASE-i386-docs.iso
7.0-RELEASE-i386-livefs.iso

[Zxian]

If you want to install the base system, I think disc1 and disc2 are all you need. disc3 contains several of the extras packages IIRC.

[x-Shadow-x]

Ok, thanks. I may just download disk3 as well. Thank you for your help.

[Beresford]

Also try CentOS, it's a free clone of RedHat Enterprise.
Debian is another good one, it's what Ubuntu is based on.

[x-Shadow-x]

Thanks mate, Ill look into it.

[ripken204]

CentOS is what alot of professional web servers use,.
Are you looking for a command line OS or one with a nice GUI?

and will this server be at home or at a hosting company?

[x-Shadow-x]

I dont really care if it has a GUI or not, and I will be hosting it at home.

[ripken204]

well how good are you with linux and using the terminal? if you are not that good then i would highly suggest a GUI.
i would have to assume that you are not all that good at it since you are asking about it.
it can be a real pain having to type everything into the terminal instead of having a nice easy pretty GUI to play with, so I guess that you should get a distro with a GUI.

i am personally using Ubunto Desktop on my home server, then I added the server features that i wanted through apt-get
then i have CentOS on my dedi web server which is hosted at a server company, so if i ever run into problems they will be glad to help me.

This post has been edited by ripken204: 27 November 2008 - 11:00 AM

[Zxian]

ripken204, on Nov 27 2008, 08:57 AM, said:

well how good are you with linux and using the terminal? if you are not that good then i would highly suggest a GUI.
i would have to assume that you are not all that good at it since you are asking about it.
it can be a real pain having to type everything into the terminal instead of having a nice easy pretty GUI to play with, so I guess that you should get a distro with a GUI.

I disagree. There have been several times that GUIs (especially *nix GUIs) fail to produce the correct operation. While switching from Windows to a terminal takes some getting used to, the best control often comes from looking at config files yourself. Besides, once it's setup and working, what else do you need to change? Servers are there to be used, not fiddled with.

[ripken204]

zxian, you need to take into account the level of knowledge that this person has.
yes, terminal is the best way to go but if someone has no idea what he is doing in the terminal, it can take forever to get things done, you can make some pretty big mistakes, and you can get very frustrated.

i would hope that some GUI programs don't mess up some files but i guess that we should research the programs we install to make sure that they are free of bugs.

[cluberti]

Fedora or CentOS are good RedHat-based distributions of Linux, but I still prefer Debian for everyone (noob to master). It provides arguably the best package system for Linux, is EXTREMELY stable (the maintainers are downright anal about packages before they make it into the stable tree), but does allow someone who's daring to run testing or unstable versions (nonclemature, unstable is usually quite stable) of the distro.

And upgrades are easy - apt-get dist-upgrade.

[x-Shadow-x]

I am thinking of going with Debian. On the site it says if i want to download 650MB files or 4.4GB files. So i click on 4.4 i386. Do i have to download all of thoes files? It adds up to around 16GB's!

[cluberti]

If you plan on having a network connection throughout, consider using the netinst ISO image - it is ~160MB, and contains only the base system and packages. The rest will be downloaded from a mirror via apt-get during install.

[x-Shadow-x]

Ok I was thinking of that also. Thanks.

[Zxian]

Debian is another nice distro to use. My experiences with CentOS have been disappointing the more I use it. (I've got a number of servers with the exact same config files that behave differently)

However, with the help of cluberti and jcarle, I've got a Debian webserver up and running on a Hyper-V VM. It's currently hosting www.jcarle.com and www.zxian.org (DNS, MySQL, Apache, and FTP).

I used this guide as a starting point to figure out what to install. However, I decided against using ISPconfig in the end since it's mostly a private server and I'd rather do the minor edits here and there myself.