Best Web Developer's Linux?

[scaryjim]

Somehow I doubt this is anywhere near as simple a question as it seems on the surface, but:

Which Linux distro would be my best bet for an old, low-spec machine that will be used almost entirely for web development?

I've salvaged a Duron 700 and found a mobo that'll run both it and 512MB 133MHz SDRAM. I'm currently trying to install Win XP Pro onto it, but I'm having real problems with my XP install disks at the minute (on this *and* another machine), and since I'm thinking about going Linux with this box anyway I figured I might as well start planning now.

The main requirements are lightweight due to low machine spec, ideally Apache, PHP, Perl and MySQL preinstalled, and potentially a decent language-aware text editor (although I find it hard to believe that many distros come without one of those). I want as little other crud as possible. Also, it must install from a CD as the machine's so old that it can't boot bootable DVDs (either that or the DVD rom won't boot them - but that seems unlikely).

So, let the distro wars commence

[richy19]

id go with something like Damn Small Linux and then install what you need

[scaryjim]

I take your point, but I'd rather thave something that was ready to go "out of the box" then run the gauntlet of package management and missing dependancies (I've got bad memories of this from a few years ago...). Has package management improved significantly? And how is Linux for out of the box Wifi support nowadays?

[richy19]

well the good thing about DSL is that its bassed on debian so a simple apt-get install will get you what you want and should worry you to much
as for wifi support i cant really comment all i can say is ubuntu works fine with mine however in DSL they might of taken out as many drivers as they can to make it smaller so donno

[BobF64]

As far as "small, not too bloated" Linux distros go, try the Ubuntu Server.

Its a lot smaller than the Desktop version, heck, it doesnt even use a GUI for install.

Just run the install, select LAMP, fill in the blanks, and off you go, Apache, Mysql and PHP all ready and waiting for abuse.

[scaryjim]

I wondered about Ubuntu server, but the website's a bit too "friendly" for my liking - I couldn't see an easy way to work out if it did what I wanted. Thanks for the advice

[aidanjt]

Ubuntu server is dead simple. The installer will even give you the option of installing a full LAMP stack and whatever other services you want on the machine.

[scaryjim]

Browsing through the docs it's hard to tell - does Ubuntu server come with a graphical desktop package as standard, or is it all command line?

[BobF64]

Im not sure if you can choose to install one, the "default", without picking specific packages, is to boot to a console not a GUI.

If youre planning to develop ON the Linux machine, you can install one via the package manager.

If youre just using it as a testing machine, just stick with the console.

[aidanjt]

Browsing through the docs it's hard to tell - does Ubuntu server come with a graphical desktop package as standard, or is it all command line?

It's commandline, but you can easily install the {K,X,etc}Ubuntu desktop on top of the server base post-install. Not that it's necessary, a dev server can and should be accessed remotely. It's good practice.

[scaryjim]

... a dev server can and should be accessed remotely. It's good practice.

True, but I'm going to be using it as my local workstation, not a test server. And it's only for personal web projects, not actual work. The whole point of setting the box is up so I don't have to fire up the beast in "my system" just to edit 4 lines of HTML

[scaryjim]

So, thought:

Given what I actually want to do, would I be better off installing the desktop OS of my choice, then using VMWare or VirtualBox to add a virtual Ubuntu Server? That way I could do my dev work on my desktop OS then upload the files to the virtual server for testing. Does that sound like a better idea?

[aidanjt]

You could do that, and many people do, and it's a good idea, at the very least, pre-deployment testing.

[McClane]

How about this:
http://susestudio.com/

You can customise your own distro and then download it.

[scaryjim]

Looks like an interesting site! I'll have a proper browse at some point, although for now I've opted to go down the desktop OS + Virtualbox & Ubuntu Server option. I like the idea of being able to roll my own linux though