Linux Suggestions
 

I am going to install linux on my spare box and try to learn it so I can switch my windows server to it. ( maybe ) The other devs on my server told me to stick with windows hehe.

What Linux would you guys recommend? I know a lot run Debian. Just trying to figure out what I want to download and play around with. See if I can get a feel for it.

The box it will be going on is an Opteron 170 with 4 gigs of ram.

Go with Debian Stable. I've used Linux since 1994, and have used most distros, commercially, in research environments and for the hell of it. Once you've wrapped your head around the Unix way of thinking then consider trying other distros. Unless you've very special needs you'll probably end up coming back to a Debian based distro anyway, simply because apt-get rocks.

Thanks Kobaz, I'll probably pick Debian up, it seems that is what the majority of people here run.

I too recommend Debian, but the one I use is Etch. Here is a link to the Debian Wiki:

http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...ianLinuxServer

It is the only wiki complete enough that even most newbies to Linux should be able to handle getting a server running perfectly with it. There may be a few bumps along the way, but we can answer most questions if you run into problems while setting it up.

Thanks bro, sorry about posting in the wrong section. I wasn't sure whether to put it here or General Discussion since It wasn't really a support question.

Any distro is good, Debian is good, I use Fedora Core 8.

Although you are right in that any distro is good, Redhat Fedora has become a bit experimental for people learning Linux IMHO (some of the recent xorg weirdness comes to mind). And some distros are just plain wrong for people new to Linux, even though they are great systems, such as Slackware or Gentoo.

One of the strengths of Debian stable (which at the moment is etch) for Linux newbies is that everything works, yet it isn't made too easy like Ubuntu, which you can easily run without learning anything. This is a good thing for many new users, who aren't interested in building software, but wouldn't be the best as a springboard for running a custom server.

I agree with you, I've been Mandrake/Mandriva user for over eight years now. I think their best distro was Mandriva 2008. Since I've always been a KDE user too, Mandake/KDE was a very 'Windows-like' combo (helped port me over to Linux). But now, with KDE 4x and Mandriva 2009, It's all degraded to garbage for me - with KDE 4x, most of the functions I had in 3x are gone. Everything has lost functionality, even the panels, shortcuts, themes, ect, have a fraction of the options they used to have. I'm staying with them a while longer, hopefully they will improve.

Yeah, I agree. FC isn't for linux newbs, though it's better than it used to be. I too have used most linux distros at one time or other since somewhere in the mid-90's. yum is excellent for getting your packages installed and working out the dependencies.

Personally, I would have to disagree about Gentoo not being good for users new to Linux. While it is a little more difficult and I would not recommend it to every new user, if you are fairly knowledgeable about computers and have a willingness to really learn about your system, a manual stage 3 install of Gentoo will teach you a lot. And since for the most part, with Gentoo, you build your system from the ground up you do not get a lot of the bloat that comes with other systems. I have tried a lot of other distributions and I have always ended back up at Gentoo and I would not call myself an expert Linux user in any way. It just suits my needs better then any other Linux distribution I have found.

Well, thats just my thoughts and I hope you found this helpful in someway.

Especially for debian users, I perfer Ubuntu server. I'm not an X kinda guy anyway so having a clean fast install with no interface that is easy to update is perfect for most server applications.

If you depend on a user interface, roll with CentOS for server applications imo. I wouldn't wish Fedora on my worst enemies.