Not a total noob but...

[Itsbiggs]

I right now have Mint running on a server box, and it lead me to ask, is this the best distro for what I do. From what I read Mint is great for user friendliness. But I know with this comes ram usage that isn't needed for what I need it for. There is little to no use on this computer besides server applications. Right now I am running a Minecraft server and soon will be hosting a private NWN2 server.

I need to know what distro is the best for this. I just feel that Mint is too weighed down and user friendly to be the best server out there, and I know I would probably be fit with a tiny distro with almost no extras and just install what I need.

I would like a GUI for initial setup, however I have become semi skilled in terminal. The reason for that is my roommate (person teaching me Linux for the most part) wants me to learn how to use the terminal, as it will give me a better understanding of things. I navigate pretty well text only so theres that. I guess I just want to know what is best for what I use it for. I think I will expand it to stream media as well when I build the computer (very outdated right now). I figure no place better than the Linux forums to ask this question, I know you guys help me and thank you very much in advance.

[hazel]

A lot of people use Debian for servers, especially the Stable branch which is pretty well bug-free and secure.

[Itsbiggs]

A lot of people use Debian for servers, especially the Stable branch which is pretty well bug-free and secure.

I've read that online, I just wanted to get real users opinions, thank you I will read about Debian!

[kurtdriver]

You might also consider CentOS, it's based on RedHat, even more stable, with SeLinux and of course, iptables. It's meant to be a server, so the software you need is bound to be available.

You can use any of dozens of distros, but the major ones have done the work for you. You might also take almost any of the desktop distros and remove the graphical system or just boot to a virtual console. Even Mint would work with a little tweaking.

[Mudgen]

Centos is a very stable server distro, as noted, and with EPEL and RPMFusion repos configured you won't lack for packages.

I always put servers in runlevel 3 by default so as not to have X and a GUI desktop chewing up memory and other resources.
id:3:initdefault:
in /etc/inittab. Whenever you need the GUI desktop you can just
startx

[gabolander]

I right now have Mint running on a server box, and it lead me to ask, is this the best distro for what I do. From what I read Mint is great for user friendliness. But I know with this comes ram usage that isn't needed for what I need it for. There is little to no use on this computer besides server applications. Right now I am running a Minecraft server and soon will be hosting a private NWN2 server.

I need to know what distro is the best for this. I just feel that Mint is too weighed down and user friendly to be the best server out there, and I know I would probably be fit with a tiny distro with almost no extras and just install what I need.

I would like a GUI for initial setup, however I have become semi skilled in terminal. The reason for that is my roommate (person teaching me Linux for the most part) wants me to learn how to use the terminal, as it will give me a better understanding of things. I navigate pretty well text only so theres that. I guess I just want to know what is best for what I use it for. I think I will expand it to stream media as well when I build the computer (very outdated right now). I figure no place better than the Linux forums to ask this question, I know you guys help me and thank you very much in advance.

Hi Itsbiggs, I feel to agree with kurtdriver and greyhairweenie. CentOS is quite stable and well server oriented. I work in a server farm and installed tons of CentOS vm, with great results and customer satisfaction for every kind of use/application.
It's a RH based distro, and with EPEL e RPMforge repositories you have availability of almost every packages you would need.

Feel free to ask or reply if you need more info.

Gabo

[ashish_neekhra]

I will suggest you to go with CentOS 5 (Very stable version) as you can use 3rd party Repos for free open source softwares.

[ianr richmond]

I agree that these two are probably the best two picks. The major difference for me has been that Centos mimics RedHat Enterprise in that it is much slower to upgrade to new versions of things when I get security warnings. Maybe Debian stable is the same way; I have tended to use ubuntu JEOS for a long time and now the server version of ubuntu. I also seem to get a great deal more extra stuff with Centos than with the ubuntu server installs.

[Transmogrifox]

I +1 CentOS 5. I administrate a CentOS 5 server for my office and it has been rock solid for 3 years now. Before that we used SuSe without any real trouble either.

I really like Debian. If you're looking to use more up-to-date software you may want to consider Debian or Ubuntu servers.

I have worked on a contract with an outfit that uses all Debian servers, and things are great for them.

I really prefer Debian's package management system (apt). If you are already somewhat familiar with package management on Mint, then Debian is a good choice in terms of not having to learn as many new ways of doing things.

[MetalestJames]

In my opinion and from my experience I would say opensuse would be the best for servers, it has more network oriented tools, it's really a matter of preference.

Opensuse is based off of debian.