Server orientated distro?

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FacELesS.

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Is there a distro similar to what ubuntu is to the desktop but for servers. That from install it has basic working configs for filesharing, printing, email, firewall, backups, etc.

Almost comparable to windows server which has all the basic services already installed and semi working where only further tweaking is needed.
 
FacELesS. said:
Is there a distro similar to what ubuntu is to the desktop but for servers. That from install it has basic working configs for filesharing, printing, email, firewall, backups, etc.

Almost comparable to windows server which has all the basic services already installed and semi working where only further tweaking is needed.
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Distrowatch is your friend here. But maybe eBox will meet your specs?
 
Ubuntu has a server install option does it not?

Otherwise you can't go wrong with Debian or CentOS.
 
The darkest spot is under the light.

Try Ubuntu 6.06 Server LTS. You could go radical and do Ubuntu 8.08 LTS.

It is so simple so easy and so usefull. Added whats nice is that it automatically updates from the local ZA mirror. So if you want to use a cheap local only account when adding modules then its a bonus.
 
Peon said:
The darkest spot is under the light.

Try Ubuntu 6.06 Server LTS. You could go radical and do Ubuntu 8.08 LTS.

It is so simple so easy and so usefull. Added whats nice is that it automatically updates from the local ZA mirror. So if you want to use a cheap local only account when adding modules then its a bonus.
Click to expand...

Ubuntu Server is actually pretty decent. I know of several ISPs that use it for web hosting and other functions. If you are looking for the utmost stability, try Ubuntu Server 6.06, or if you are after newer functions and relative stability (compared to 6.06), look at the new Ubuntu Server 8.04.
 
Red Hat Enterprise (RHEL) and SUSE Enterprise (SLES) servers are both give you what you're asking. SLES gives you better integration out of the box though. During install, you have the option of enabling the LDAP server, and from there on everything is automatically configured for an LDAP back-end. What's cool about this is if you have a number of servers that will have the same users anyway, you can setup the rest to look at the first server for LDAP, and your logins will work automatically.

The reason why I like Debian is because it gives you as stable and consistent an environment as RHEL and SLES does, but with a much much wider variety of packages, and upgrading from one release to the next is just about flawless (assuming you actually read the messages displayed during the procedure).

Lastly: Ubuntu != Debian. Ubuntu (including LTS) is based on Debian Unstable - not something I would want on a server that will see any serious work. Ubuntu's package repository is smaller than Debian Stable's and their packages are not always compatible with Debian's, meaning, if you need a package that is not in the Ubuntu repositories, you have no guarantees that one from the Debian repos will work reliably or even install at all.

I'm not saying Ubuntu is bad. Simply that it's a much better choice on a desktop than it is on a server.
 
CentOS
Debian
Slackware
Fedora Core
OpenSuse

They are all good, and run good servers. Red Hat & Suse enterprise are also good, but very pricey. Unless you need to spend 3 hours every day with a tech support on the phone, it's not worth it. There's a LOT of support for every distro on the net. CentOS mailing list for one, is very good for support.

If you want something simple to setup & maintain, SME Server 7.3, http://www.contribs.org

IF you need reliability & stability, CentOS is defenately the way to go. It's not only used by a few ISP, but MOST ISP's
 
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