which linux?

[eFestivals]

I need to build myself a new linux server for my office, as the old server is just about out of disk space, and as the server is around 3 years old it seems a better idea to do a new install on new hardware, so everything is as up-to-date as it can be.

The server is used mainly as a file server, running samba so that the server disks can be accessed from the windoze PCs on my home network.

The server is also used as a development platform for the 'live' websites I run, so also needs to run apache/php/MySQL.

In the past I've used Red Hat Fedora, but I'm aware that other distros are generally considered to be better - but which ones?

[incident]

By far the most common/popular choice for servers is CentOS. It's also probably the best supported and massively stable.

It's basically a descendant of RedHat so you should feel at home with it.

[eFestivals]

By far the most common/popular choice for servers is CentOS. It's also probably the best supported and massively stable.

It's basically a descendant of RedHat so you should feel at home with it.

Thanks. I'm quite glad you said CentOS, as that's the same as is used on the live efests servers - so it's the one I'd prefer to use.

I was hunting around the CentOS website yesterday, trying to find a list of included applications & versions - specifically php - but couldn't find anything. If you happen to know where I can find that, I'd be grateful to be pointed in the right direction.

[incident]

DistroWatch does a pretty good jobo of keeping track of things like that. Apparently the most recent release of CentOS (5.5) ships with php 5.1.6.

[eFestivals]

DistroWatch does a pretty good jobo of keeping track of things like that. Apparently the most recent release of CentOS (5.5) ships with php 5.1.6.

Then I'm hugely put off by CentOS - php stopped supporting 5.1.6 about two years ago; they've stopped supporting 5.2.x now too.

I've got an application that requires v5.2 as minimum. If I have to manually upgrade things cos the distros are so behind then I might as well stick with the Fedora I'm running and do those upgrades.

The latest version is 5.3.6. Why are CentOS years behind?

[eFestivals]

Hmmmm .... going by what DistroWatch says, then Ubuntu will be a far better bet. It least it's up-to-date.

[eFestivals]

Or Fedora. Again, it's far more up-to-date than CentOS.

[windy_miller]

If you can wait a few weeks, CentOS 6 will be out very soon.

I would definitely recommend it over Ubuntu for servers.

[windy_miller]

RedHat 6 comes with PHP 5.3.4, so that is what will be in CentOS 6

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redhat

[eFestivals]

If you can wait a few weeks, CentOS 6 will be out very soon.

I would definitely recommend it over Ubuntu for servers.

When you say 'a few weeks' - how many exactly?

Xmas is my normal time to build myself new PCs ... it's become that cos my PCs have failed between xmas & new year about 5 times in the last ten years swhile not failing at any other time - weird!

Anyway, the plan is to start the new office server build next week. CentOS 6 will need to be out before xmas day for me to wait for that.

[windy_miller]

When you say 'a few weeks' - how many exactly?

Xmas is my normal time to build myself new PCs ... it's become that cos my PCs have failed between xmas & new year about 5 times in the last ten years swhile not failing at any other time - weird!

Anyway, the plan is to start the new office server build next week. CentOS 6 will need to be out before xmas day for me to wait for that.

[eFestivals]

Unfortunately, trying to get a release date out of the CentOS team is like trying get blood out of a stone. I doubt it will be out before Christmas though.

in which case I'll go for Fedora again, to ensure I have the latest versions. There's no point building a new box to be up-to-date if it's not up-to-date, as would be the case with CentOS 5.

Anyway, thanks to you and incident for your help and advice - it's enabled me to pin down which distro I want to go with.

[markeee]

Hmmmm .... going by what DistroWatch says, then Ubuntu will be a far better bet. It least it's up-to-date.

[windy_miller]

Gentoo's good - but not easy to use

[hombrederayo]

I'd go for Ubuntu myself, like all linux distro's it has its own idiosycrisities but it very easy to install and configure, and easy to find solutions to problems online.

Although openSuSE and its paid for equivalent SLES are probably the best for a server.

I'd say for a desktop PC the best OS is ubuntu and for a server it is SLES.