Home Server OS??

[jamiesalter]

Have decided to build a server (for home) and need advice as to which OS to install.

The server is replacing a NAS (buffalo terastation) which I will then use for backup. Wanted a fairly powerful server for no particular reason, but will likely host a few websites off it, use it as a firewall (if possible with other things i want it to do) and stream to a PS3 etc. Other uses may crop up in the future.

The specs:
Supermicro X7DCA-L Motherboard
Xeon 5405 Processor
3ware 9690SA RAID card
4x Samsung HD753LJ 750GB Hard Drive
Kingston 2x1gb ECC Registered 667mhz Memory

It is, possibly, slightly overspecced. If you have any comments about hardware I have posted a similar thread in the hardware section of the forums.

Question is, what OS? Something free would be a bonus but not necessary. I have used Linux a couple of times before, but am by no means brilliant with it. I was looking at something like CentOS, (a free Red Hat Entreprise Linux as a RHEL license seems expensive.) FreeBSD also looks good. Would Ubuntu or similar desktop orientated OS serve my purposes? Is there a more fully featured version of something like OpenFiler?

Any comments appreciated.

[mycarsavw]

Either Ubuntu server if you're familiar with the terminal and/or willing to learn or Ubuntu desktop, Samba and a few other apps.

There's a nice walkthrough here - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=794532 and as with Hexus, the forums are packed with knowledgeable folk

[peterb]

Fedora - it's essentially RHEL but without the Red Hat support (but excellent community support, and lots of books written about it). No need to worry about server or home editions - install a basic system and add packages as you need. Apache, php, mysql for webserving. Samba for file serving. Sendmail or Postfix for mail serving.

You can download them precompliled for Fedora or download the sources and compile them yourself to customise it - it is not difficult. I compiled apache and PHP, but used the binary for mysql.

In truth it doesn't really matter which distro you use. Ubuntu (debian variant) is the current flavour of the month - it has its pros and cons. Personally I like Fedora!

[directhex]

Fedora - it's essentially RHEL but without the Red Hat support (but excellent community support, and lots of books written about it). No need to worry about server or home editions - install a basic system and add packages as you need. Apache, php, mysql for webserving. Samba for file serving. Sendmail or Postfix for mail serving.

sorry, but that's simply not the case. the differences between RHEL and fedora are *far* more than just the support. if you want a support-only difference, look at centos. fedora is an entirely different distro, essentially used to test a variety of experimental technologies before they're considered suitable for building a RHEL release

[Rainmaker]

directhex is correct. Fedora is a great desktop OS (I've used it myself for two years) but it isn't RHEL by a mile. CentOS is however a perfect RHEL copy but with the trademarked branding removed; one of the benefits of FOSS!

For a server however, it has to be said... Debian stable is king!

[burble]

I usually use Gentoo or Ubuntu Server.

[jimborae]

I use Home Server on my box, while i've had a look at a few distros I just didn't feel I was capable enough with Linux to use it on my server. gotta say i'm very pleased with it, everything just works and is very easy to configure.

[peterb]

sorry, but that's simply not the case. the differences between RHEL and fedora are *far* more than just the support. if you want a support-only difference, look at centos. fedora is an entirely different distro, essentially used to test a variety of experimental technologies before they're considered suitable for building a RHEL release

directhex is correct. Fedora is a great desktop OS (I've used it myself for two years) but it isn't RHEL by a mile. CentOS is however a perfect RHEL copy but with the trademarked branding removed; one of the benefits of FOSS!

For a server however, it has to be said... Debian stable is king!

Thank you - I stand corrected!

However Fedora as released is a stable distribution, so perhaps the word experimental gives the wrong impression. Perhaps a test bed to prove/demonstrate new technologies prior to release as a RHEL. (The release rate for FC is about 18 months - RHEL is much longer)

(Must go - got a partition table to reconstruct - by hand )