When it comes to our
InternetServer, there will be some unavoidable discussion on choice of distro, even if we avoid a prolonged debate. This page gives that discussion a home.
Registration
Let's start by registering our own preferences on distribution, as well as our experience level with any distro (preferred or otherwise). If you have any "I refuse to have anything to do with" opinions, note those too.
Avoid explaining why at this point; let's just survey the field. Comments about why will be moved to
ServerDistroDebate.
- BenScott - Prefer a RHEL clone like CentOS. Most experienced with Red Hat Linux, Fedora, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones. I've tried SuSE, Mandrake, and Debian in the past. I'm willing to work with just about anything.
- BruceDawson - Suggest either RHEL (maybe we can get a company in Westford to donate a copy). I also have experience running Ubuntu servers. I do not recommend a plain Debian server installation ...
- BillMcGonigle - If we can get a RHEL license, great (make sure that includes support ... If not, CentOS ... Fedora Core might be worth looking at ... My server is currently RH9 ... I run FC2-4 at several client sites ...
- ToddWarfield - Suggest RHEL or RHEL clone (CentOS) as that is what I am most familiar with...
- DrewVanZandt - Suggest Debian. I currently admin an FC4 server and three Debian servers. ... Experience: 3 years RH admin, 2 FC(2-4), 5 Debian. ...
- ColeTuininga - Another vote for Debian. ...
Requirements
See also:
ServerSecurity
The following items outline some of the requirements of the distribution. These exist in light of this system being managed by a (probably) disjoint set of people. For the sake of sanity, let's try to avoid arguing how or why a particular distro fits these criteria at this point. :)
Non-negotiable
We more-or-less can't live without these.
- Free/Open Source Software (free as in speech)
- Why: The "Live free or die!" spirit of NH aligns perfectly with FOSS
- No capital acquisition cost (free as in beer)
- Support for our ServerHardware
- Experience within our community of sysadmin volunteers
- Automatic updates (with yum, apt-get, up2date, etc.)
- Why: We do not have a staff of pros for caretaking
- Must be kept current with security fixes
Preferred
We want these, but can be more flexible.
- Long lifecycle - We want to avoid frequent major upheaval
- Package selection
- Good selection of server stuff we are likely to be interested in
- Reasonably current
- Reasonably good quality