debian or fedora core 5

Serfaksan's picture

They have: 18 posts

Joined: Jun 2006

well I was just wondering about the options for an os for a server, can you tell me about the differences about debian and fedora core 5, and from those 2 what is the best option, I'm kind of a noob about those 2 os, but so far I know that debian is better.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

For a server I'd default with Debian. I've never used Fedora Core 5, but I know from using FC2-4 that the Fedora series is somewhat volatile (in the sense that things change a lot between releases, and the release cycle is very fast).

Debian is mature and well-documented. It has more (and better maintained) packages. I might be inclined to think it's easier to make secure as well.

P.S. Could you not use heavily formatted text in your posts? The default formatting is far more readable. Smiling

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

My preference is always FreeBSD. I don't know if that is one of your options though.

They have: 20 posts

Joined: Apr 2003

Another one not on your list but the one I consider to be the best is CentOS.

They have: 9 posts

Joined: Aug 2006

your probably already sorted, but ubuntu have a very impressive LAMP install (linux, apache, mysql, and php,perl,python). It installs in about 30 minutes, and then you're good to go. Everything is pre configured, so you literally navigate to var/www and start building! Its fantastic. No X interface though, so if you dont mind getting your hands dirty, this is for you Laughing out loud.
Jon

Renegade's picture

He has: 3,022 posts

Joined: Oct 2002

I don't recommend putting all your files in /var/www/ turn on virtual hosting (which I think is turned on by default in Ubuntu) and make a folder called "public_html" in your home folder. Put all your web files there, it's a lot more convenient and slightly more secure too.

Out of the two options there, I would also choose debian BTW.

Abhishek Reddy's picture

He has: 3,348 posts

Joined: Jul 2001

Renegade wrote: I don't recommend putting all your files in /var/www/ turn on virtual hosting (which I think is turned on by default in Ubuntu) and make a folder called "public_html" in your home folder. Put all your web files there, it's a lot more convenient and slightly more secure too.

It's more secure to use /var/www with a dedicated www user and group. Additional users in the www group can be jailed using subdirectories of /var/www as home and root. It isn't as handy for development (you would use a local server for that), but better for a multi-user or internet-facing server. Smiling

They have: 12 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

I find ubuntu/debian to be the easiest option, especially for a beginner. The online community support is extremely helpful!

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

pnelson wrote: The online community support is extremely helpful!

Absolutely agreed! The support community for Ubuntu is brilliant. There's a lot of talk about how Red Hat have made it clear they are no longer interested in the community opinion on how the distro is developed. They will now only listen to their corporate clients, which is their prerogative, but makes Fedora a bad choice for a user who wants to feel like they're part of something. If there's no community, there's no community support either. Sad

Ubuntu concentrates on building the community so if you're stuck, you always have someone to turn to. This is what's making a lot of Linux newbies start with Ubuntu.

There's another distro with an excellent support community: Gentoo. Problem is that Gentoo isn't for the faint hearted. If I knew what I was doing, or had a couple of months free to learn, then Gentoo would be my weapon of choice.

I tried it once, took a couple of weeks (every evening), compiling and configuring only to find the damn kernel was corrupt so the thing wouldn't boot. Possibly shouldn't have been trying to build it on a laptop though as they can be a little quirky to say the least. I gave up thinking that maybe I'm just too stupid to master the ways of the Gentoo at the moment, but one day I will! Laughing out loud

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italianninja's picture

He has: 17 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

I am using fedora. its excellent. had no issues with it what so ever. there is also alot of support available if i did mess something up which i cant fix myself.

He has: 4 posts

Joined: Oct 2006

debian all the way. apt-get is by far the best package management system. Not only that but the 2.6 kernel with debian simply cannot be beat and you stay away from those ugly redhat kernels as well as the fact that debian doesnt install every single service under the sun which in the end could compromise your system.

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