Linux or BSD


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What would be best for running a server, it would be hosting web sites and mail.

Would Linux be better or BSD?

And which distro would you recomend.

Cheers

It depends entirely on how comfortable and familiar you are with different aspects of *nix operating systems. If you're relatively inexperienced, you may appreciate the easy config tools of distros like mandrake and redhat, or you may prefer the power of running a non-X netBSD box for example. It also depends on the environment the server is going to be operating in, for example what are the loads going to be like, what particular daemons are you going to be running, etc. etc. There is no single answer to "what is the best server", otherwise there would be only one server OS.

But my advice is this: If you choose the linux route, bear this in mind: a linux server basically boils down to 3 things: kernel, daemons, and config. Theoretically, you can run any kernel, daemons, and config tools on any distro, but there will always be some distros which are better at some things than others. Choose a combination of kernel, daemons and config tools, then try to find out what the best distro would be to set that up on. If you prefer using apt-get to keep your system up to date, and are comfortable controlling stuff with config files, run a debian box for example. Or if you want, run a redhat box with X and use their shiny graphical config tools and standard premade kernel. Whatever floats your boat.

As for BSD, well, I don't really know enough about the BSDs to warrant giving any advice on using them as servers.

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rezza thanks for the advice, If BSD does not do it for me I will move to trying Linux. I don't like the big distro's like redhat, 3 cd's just for a desktop (ok there is a lot of stuff you don't need to insatll but come on) I also like to get my hands dirty trying to figure things out, i want to know what it is doing rather than just excepting the fact that a nice GUI did it for me.

Well FreeBSD disc 1 is at 14% so not long now.

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FreeBSD changed my life!

I'm running it as a gateway, main mailserver (inc. webmail), apache+mysql for more than a year (It only goes down when no power :p and when my isp crashes :angry: ( 4.9-STABLE on a pentium 200MMX) and on my desktop (5.2-CURRENT).

You should give it a try!

BTW it's safe to go 5.2 ;)

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freebsd or openbsd.

Most linux users will tell you they are better, but have never actually used it.

I can tell you from my experience, its simply awesome, and very light weight.

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I must be honest and say that I have never tried BSD, but I have read through the FreeBSD installation handbook many times. It seems to me that it installs mostly old binaries by default. If there was a way that I could install the whole system through Ports in the same manner that Gentoo installs its whole thing through Portage, I would probably give it a whirl. Is there any way to do that, or is there a reason that I would not want to do that?

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If there was a way that I could install the whole system through Ports in the same manner that Gentoo installs its whole thing through Portage, I would probably give it a whirl.  Is there any way to do that, or is there a reason that I would not want to do that?

AFAIK, there isnt a way to do an install directly from the ports. However, it is pretty simple to take a base install, do a cvsup on the ports collection, and do a make world. I believe that would have the desired result, and it's all documented in the freebsd handbook under 'using make world'.

BSD4LIFE

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This is a tough call.

I'm biased, but I'd say Free BSD since I'm a big OS X fan and I've personally set up a server using OS X. However, you can't beat the internet support from both camps.

Mike

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IMO BSD is the way to go. I've tried linux and then gave FreeBSD a go and I love it. Currently it runs a web server, ftp server, mysql, and sometimes a counter-strike server at little to no load.

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