will slackware be good enough to set up a web hosting company?

[naru]

Will slackware be enough to set up a web hosting company? If not what other linux distributions can I use if I plan to run a hosting company using linux. Still a newbie here. Thanks. Hope to get answers.

[likwid]

I'd say no because you are still a noob. RH EL, CentOS, or SuSE ES is your best bet.

[oz]

Slackware is about as solid as distros get in my opinion, so if you are up to running it you should be fine.

Some beginners make out great with it, while others find it overly complex for them. The truth of the matter is, Slackware is not complex but is a very simple distro. It's the manual configuration that gets in the way of many beginners.

[likwid]

Solid in some ways I guess, however I was a bit pisst off when default slack 11 samba crashed and took hold of my nic and woudln't let go on a pretty run of the mill P4 machine in the office. Couldn't even rmmod -f.

Slackware is simple but I find it is a bit unorganized in some ways, and the fact that you need to install swaret to get dep checking for package management is way too involved for a newb web admin.

[carlosponti]

ok enough of the newb comments. i am new in Linux and i managed to setup a Slackware desktop just fine. the web server will run just fine just keep in mind of the server setup to handle more load as a host for other websites but as far as setup i don't believe Slackware to be that much more difficult that it cant be done.

[likwid]

It's not an insult of any kind to call someone a newb. Running a hosting environment on slackware would seriously be a pain in the ass; hosting websites and internet services is light years beyond setting up your desktop.

[carlosponti]

i assume you are in the business of doing that and being helpful you would give the man advice on how he would go about doing that. you have a very condescending tone about the advise you give. i know very well about how much more is involved in setting up a successful web hosting or internet services is compared to setting up a desktop. What my point was is that i was able to do is setup a desktop install software do some video editing and burn cd's with a very minimal knowledge of linux. the resources are there to accomplish the tasks the original poster is setting out to do. you will find that my point was that its not going to be anymore difficult setting up this stuff as compared to other distros. if that is you are willing to help. let the guy know everything he needs to get started.

[anomie]

will slackware be good enough to set up a web hosting company?

Yes - along with many other distros. Primarily you'll want to look for a distro that values stability over bleeding-edge/newest features. I believe Slackware falls well into the former category.

As was (sort of) alluded to in this thread, the weak point at the moment is (by your own admission) your level of skill rather the distro itself. Web servers are easy enough to set up, but more difficult to properly tweak, secure, and monitor per your specific circumstances.

A good place to start would be a Linux book for beginners; learn the basics and take it from there.

[likwid]

Don't mean to be condescending at all, or insult anyone's intelligence.

I used slack for a long time and loved it to death. I learned much of what is feeding me today by running nothing but slack. However in the business world, Slack is not reality. People recognize names like Redhat and Novell, they find comfort in these names. These companies offer top notch support for their software, something that's very important for somebody offering web services. With slack you've got mailing lists and forums- not exactly enterprise level reliability.

What the OP needs depends on the size of his proposed web hosting environment, and the size of his budget. A rack or two of 4-8 processor systems and a NAS would probably get you started. I think the best setup would be RH EL 4 as the operating system with VPS's running CentOS, or whatever the customer requests. CentOS is good because of a. rpm, b. yum, and c. your admin skills from redhat will be just as viable on CentOS.

If you're just doing this for friends and are only going to have one server, just get a dual processor server and run slack, if that's the distro you are leaning towards. Install swaret so you can have some dependency checking and easier updating abilities. The main packages you'll need are apache, mysql, and php. This setup is called LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, php/perl). There are plenty of how-to's out there for setting up a really basic LAMP. I suggest you follow these a couple times through on a test to get a feel for it. If you do end up hosting a lot of stuff this is going to become routine for you.

[naru]

Thanks guys! You are a big help to a newbie. I'm migrating to opensource because microsoft is not that cost efficient. I will take your advices and hopefully end up with something. I will visit this forum frequently. Once I was a bill gates fan....but now there's a need to migrate. Thanks again