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.

• 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 - too much customization is required.
• BillMcGonigle - If we can get a RHEL license, great (make sure that includes support since RHEL support is less community-based). If not, CentOS would avoid costs we can't afford - how's it's track record on maintenance releases? Fedora Core might be worth looking at since it tracks new features the fastest, if we want this to be the 'shining city' server. My server is currently RH9 - it works just fine but it's the old dusty city. I run FC2-4 at several client sites without any distro-specific problems and the community support is great. Anyway, the goals should be to minimise cost, sysadmin requirements, and roadblocks, in that order.
• ToddWarfield - Suggest RHEL or RHEL clone (CentOS) as that is what I am most familiar with. Concern would be throwing something 'cool' on it (Ubuntu) that none of the admins have worked with enough.

Requirements

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.

• Automatic updates (ala yum, up2date, ...) Especially security updates!
• Experience within our community of sysadmin volunteers.

See also: ServerSecurity