Hello,

I may buy a server here in the next week or two and I had a few questions regarding Debian.

A few years ago I was responsible for a server running RedHat (hedwig), and got pretty comfortable with it. I haven't done anything with RH for quite a while, and I know it has evolved since then. Recently a Linux fanatic friend of mine told me if I get a server I should go with Debian, and avoid RH at all costs. I know people can have their opinions about these things. I don't have any experience with Debian.

I need a server to host my own sites and I'm comfortable on the command line, and I won't be needing control panel software.

Is there anyone on this board using Debian and can vouch for it? Is SM able to support an issue with Debian the same as RH, or are they so different that support might be affected? Will Urchin work on Debian?

Thanks for any input.

RH 9.0..............Only

Thanks TP. I've decided not to go with a commercial linux. Now I'm stuck between FreeBSD and Debian. Since I'm starting from scratch again I want to make the right choice.

I need a good, solid basic http/ftp/email server that is very logical in its operation, and easy to admin. I've heard good things about Debian and FreeBSD. I am interested in in anyone's recommendations. Probably either would do a great job.

Are you going with any control panels or it will be a plain install ? On their own both are pretty stable.

If you go with FreeBSD, go with the 4.x branch. From what I understand the 5.x branch is more experimental and beta-ish and probably not good if you are hosting websites.

If you need control panels such as Cpanel, I would go with Redhat 9 or FreeBSD 4.8. Debian support is still beta. Freebsd support is new but you probably want to check out the cpanel forum to see if there is any outstanding issues.

The issue is which installation you are more familiar with. FreeBSD is not Linux and thus there are some samiliarities but there quite a number of differences too. Sticking with Redhat would ensure that you can latch on to your redhat knowledge and feel right at home with that.

The obvious solution, it seems, has been overlooked.

RedHat Enterprise 3. ServerMatrix includes it for free, so it's "commercial" status is irrelevant, and up2date is rather nice.

Also, CPanel has had full (non-beta) support for RHE since 2.1.

Furthermore, .RPM is way better supported than .DEB is

I prefer Debian and run it on mine, mainly since its install is minimal and its update/patch system is the easiest to use and most 'BSD like'. I have no need for CPanel support and other such things, I'm more concerned with how much performance I can squeeze out of the box to fit one...more...game...server .

I was actually a FreeBSD user myself for a long time but switched to Debian due to a need to run Linux servers that didn't play nice under emulation. So if you're a BSD user, Debian will be a fairly easy switch for you.

Thanks Eddy. You are correct that RH might be easier for me, given my prior experience. That is as long as it hasn't changed too much since 6.0. . I've been hesitant to jump back in to RH because I've heard some negative things about Enterprise, and I don't want to commit to 9.0 because it will be EOL soon.

Guspaz, it seems that Debian is developed by Linux purists (and not a corporation), and that touches on another thing I am considering, which is a desire to learn a distribution that is true to its roots, whether it be Linux or FreeBSD. I won't be using a CP ever, so that won't be an issue. I can see the benefits of going with RH, though, if I needed to get a hosting server online right away with little fuss. RH has proven itself that way.

Xayd, I run the Fink package manager on my Mac OS X desktop, and I've heard it is based on the Debian package manager. Also, Darwin is based on BSD, so perhaps I would recognize similarities with FreeBSD? I appreciate hearing from a Debian user here.

Thanks to all for your input. It has been helpful in making my decision.

Although officially Redhat 9 will EOL soon, it is not dead. You have support through the Fedora Legacy update or through Progeny.

Redhat Linux is made up by merging several open-source applications from around the web and anyone with some linux knowledge can install the updates by hand.

The most important thing is kernel updates and security patches and since SM would do that for you, that is not going to be an issue.

Debian works extremely well and I personally enjoy working with it much more then Redhat. I have had Debian on other servers in the past, and still use it everyday at home at in the office, one of the best distros imo, though gentoo has started to grow on me. However on my server with SM, after a HD failed, SM had some problems configuring the debian install and I ended up switching back to FreeBSD. I'm using 5.1 on this server, and have had 5.1 on a second server for about 3weeks and never a hiccup yet (knock on wood).

Debian or FreeBSD would be my recommendation, but even if you go with Redhat I don't think your going to have much trouble.

Eddy, I did some reading last night on continued update support for 9.0 and the "EOL" is not the issue I imagined it to be. Thanks. 9.0 would be my choice if I went with RH. A lot of people are recommending 9.0.

Codeman, if I went with FreeBSD I would need to install Postfix and the Mailman list server. Do you see any issues with me using 5.1, or do you think I should go with 4.8? I wouldn't want to use a new release if my hands were tied with certain applications or there were bugs, but I would like an easier upgrade to 5.x whenever it goes stable. 4.8 has already been recommended to me. Thanks.

I've been using both, 4.8/5.1 and another box has 5.2. Haven't had any problems with any of those, though I hear 5.2 is still pretty unstable.

I havent used either of those 2 programs you mentioned under 5.1 yet, so I can't say for sure. But you could always go 4.8 and upgrade later when it becomes "more stable"...so to play it completely safe you might want to do that.

debian is one of the most stable OS for servers.
If you not want control panel i recomended debian.
It is stable as rock and it is very easy to upgrade. Just run this commands and all the software is updated without any problem:
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

I not have see any problem after upgrade (i use debian for 3 years)
Also the security fix released very soon (most times sonner from redhat)
debian have do from many years the same thing who do now the redhat (with redhat enterprise), releases only after some years (and not every 6 months) and very stable updates.

Try a search in webhostingtalk.com for debian. You can see that all debian users are very happy with this.
Try also a search for redhat enterprise. You can see lot of problems
Also if you have use redhat you can go to debian very easy.
If you are interest also contact me and i can give you and some good books for debian.
Regards,
Christos

As stable as debian is I say if you've never used it and are used to RedHat specific tools then go with RedHat. Security/extra features/etc aren't worth much if you can't use them. If you're set on Debian I'd install it on an old system at home and get used to apt-get and other tools before spending monthly cash on it.

Yes, I must admit I'm a bit biased against Debian; I've tried to install it three times on home PCs only to have the installation fail. Usually it fails installing all the proper packages, and I'm left with either a machine that won't boot, or a working linux installation that is missing most or all of the packages.

On the other hand, all my RedHat installations always went smooth as silk

maybe you have install the test or unstable version.
I have install many times the version3 (woody) without any problem.
Also servermatrix make the install, not you.
You only admin the box. and with apt-get you can do this more stable and more easy. apt-get is lot better from redhat up2date.
Christos

Thanks to all for the input. It became kind of a toss-up for me between Debian and FreeBSD, and I went ahead and ordered a FreeBSD server. So far I am extremely pleased with it. I was able to learn some of the differences fairly quickly and adapt to them without any problems. The ports tree is really nice to work with - very logical and straight-forward. There seems to be a large user community with a lot of support available for the basics like Qmail, etc. I would probably be saying the same thing if I bought a Debian server. I think I will install Debian on a PC here at home and get to know it as well. Thank-you Codeman, blueice, klaude, and Guspaz. Cheers!