Which distro is best for server?

[BigDawg]

Hey everyone!
I am going to be setting up a webserver soon, and I can't decide which OS or distro to use. Which Linux distro or *BSD varient should I use? I plan on having this webserver use httpd, ftpd, telnetd, sshd, and some others, like I might run a MUD server on it.
Thanks for any input.

[Dolda2000]

For those things, it doesn't really matter that much. Any Linux or BSD variant can run those services that you mention, so it depends completely on your desires.
I don't really have much experience with BSD, so in that way I would recommend Linux, but I believe that if all you wish for is the absolute maximum uptime that you can get, you should probably use FreeBSD. If you want the really ultimate in fine-grained control, however, I would direct you to Linux. Politically, I would recommend Linux.
When it comes to Linux distro, there are quite a few choices. When it comes to a server, I would not recommend Mandrake at all. Stay away from it. RedHat (Fedora) works, Debian works, Gentoo works and Slackware works. Most probably, there are a hundred others that also work.
When you say MUD, do you mean a terminal text-mode MUD?

[BigDawg]

Thanks for the response Dolda.
Yes, when I say MUD, I am referring to a text-based multi-user dungeon.
I think I will try Slackware first. Either way, I guess Linux is the best because of all its support from users/developers. By the way, what do you mean by Linux being politically a better choice?
Thanks.

[Hellmasker]

i think this is what dolda is referrign to about politics.

linux is released under the GPL, all *BSD variants are released under the BSD license (surprise surprise), as far as i udnerstand it, GPL code/programs cant be used and then released under anythgin except the GPL. BSD code can be used in proprietary/binary only software. This is kinda bad form since u use other peoples free code and then dont let others use yours.

[Dolda2000]

You got it just right, Hellmasker. I don't have anything against BSD in itself, but I really think they made some bad decisions when writing the license. The same goes for the X11 license and all others like it. It's really bad when people steal free code without contributing anything back. There's even BSD code in Winbloze (and still it runs so badly... I can't help feel those Redmond guys are really awesome...), and look at how much they've contributed to free software. =/

In any case, I don't think that you have to worry about the MUD server. MUD server software usually doesn't tend to use any very advanced capabilities of the system.

[BigDawg]

Sounds good.
Thanks for the input.

[Dillinger]

I just set up a Gentoo router/server over break and I love it. It does everything I need it to do and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to set up. I learned some stuff about networking I didn't know before but I still have a long way to go. So yeah anyway I thought I'd share, and Gentoo certainly can be used as a router/server/firewall/whatever.

[bpark]

Debian stable. There is a reason why they call it stable. I'm currently running one machine as a router and Web server.

[Giro]

Yeh Debian is a great distro for servers ive been running it for a couple of years and its never crashed And windows uses BSD's TCP/IP stack.

[BSDnetAdmin]

here's an evven better suggestion for you. get FreeBSD 4.9. it's the current stable version of FreeBSD, i have 2 bsd machines both with a constant 190+ day uptime with considerable load averages.. BSD is the absolute best in my opinion for this application, if you want something insanely secure out of the box pick OpenBSD, if you want something secure and easy to work with get FreeBSD, just my 2 cents


i was a Linux user when i started, i used slackware and i LOVED it, i moved onto BSD, and now i've never looked back, just now i want to have a Linux Desktop machine, for the ease of use, but for servers it's not even a competition, BSD blows away linux...