What server distro do you suggest?

[raevin]

Simply put, what server Linux distro do you suggest? Currently, I'm using Arch Linux for all my Linux needs, which is great. But, I know it's not used much in real-world applications currently. I know CentOS and RH are popular, along with Debian...but, is there any others?

What I'm looking for:

- Preferably CLI-only (not sure if you can specify this on RHL or Debian)
- Used in real-world situations
---- Where I used to work we used Cent on everything we managed, so...
- Is useful when it comes for certifications (i.e.: I'm wanting to go for my LPIC, so the certificate would be beneficial with it)

[oz]

You can find a poll with various server recommendations here:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...ge-2011-a.html

Finding a command line only server should be no problem because that's the way many of them are distributed.

[MikeTbob]

As far as I am concerned, you can take Arch Linux and do anything you want with it, including servers. It's just a matter of adding/removing the correct and needed packages. I think the same applies to most distros. If you just want a server installed for you, I can understand that too. I think if I were looking for a server distro, I would try CentOS first then maybe RHEL. I'm real familiar with RPM systems. Go with what you know, if you know all about Arch Linux then that's probably the best way to go. This is all just my opinion of course. Do let us know what you decide on.

[raevin]

As far as I am concerned, you can take Arch Linux and do anything you want with it, including servers. It's just a matter of adding/removing the correct and needed packages. I think the same applies to most distros. If you just want a server installed for you, I can understand that too. I think if I were looking for a server distro, I would try CentOS first then maybe RHEL. I'm real familiar with RPM systems. Go with what you know, if you know all about Arch Linux then that's probably the best way to go. This is all just my opinion of course. Do let us know what you decide on.

The thing is I pretty much want to do it from scratch (which is why I started using Arch from the beginning, lol). CentOS is a pretty good server distro, but I read it's kind of a dying distro in Linux Magazine (though, I'm not sure it's true). Knowing me I'll probably stick with Arch, but I'm also going to put into consideration what ozar sent as well (thanks, by the way!). I was mostly afraid using Arch would limit what I could do in the real-world unless I learned it all over.

[MikeTbob]

The thing is I pretty much want to do it from scratch

There's a distro for that too!
Welcome to Linux From Scratch!
I'm sure you'll end up with the right choice, whatever that may be. Good Luck.

[raevin]

I've been thinking about that as well. I'm sure I'd have to use a VM to do it though, but it would be a perfect learning experience too. Thanks for that!