Which Linux

[BIS]

Hello All,

Please feel free to rant and rave.

What are your opinions on the different distributions available. Pros and cons, security etc.
Whats best, RedHat, Mandrake, Slackware or FreeBSD (ok hit me) ? I don't need gnome or kde, just looking on opinions on what would be the best platform for a mailserver/NAT/firewall box....

 

[HSand]

hello

i have experience with SuSE Linux (pro edition, version 7.3. i'm using it now as a matter of fact) and Mandrake (server edition, version 8.0 i think) and have found them both to be secure and quick-to-learn.

SuSE has the advantage of personal-firewall, while Mandrake has a better front-end (although you said you wer not interested in KDE).

A bad point for SuSE, the german distro, is that the kernel is very difficult to patch. this makes it more of a problem if you want to install drivers for any hardware devices that Linux doesn't overtly support (for example: internal modems and USB devices). Mandrake seems ahead of SuSE in that respect.

There are other distros that may suit you better:
see

http://linux.com/article.pl?sid=02/03/09/1727250

for more info on various Linux distributions.also see

http://www.trinux.org/

for info on security.

i seem to remember a Linux distro that was specifically designed to be as secure as possible. i can't remember the URL, but i'm sure you'll find it at Linux.com

anything will run on a PC set up with simple firewall/NAT capabilities, just watch out for the mailserver.

and remember: Efficiency and speed are not a problem with Linux, but security is.

you're welcome

 

[BIS]

OK....

Could you elaborate on "just watch out for the mailserver"...


and why is security a bigger concern on Linux than on a microsoft box?

...just wondering...

 

[RhythmAce]

because widoze has so many leaks, who wants to plug 'm all? RedHat 7.3 is a very good distro. You can get their update agent for free and when they come up with a security bug fix, your system will update itself automatically.

 

[skar]

I've been using Debian for a long time. My server is an old sun SPARC5. It only runs exim, fetchmail and a few other services. No problems.
The main beauty of Debian is the easy way to upgrade/install and remove packages. For example, to install fetchmail you would type

apt-get fetchmail

That would download, install and configure fetchmail and any packages that fetchmail depends on.

Just my 2c worth.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Debian is my Linux of choice too, but it's not as friendly as other distros (except, perhaps, Slackware!). Older versions of Debian are pigs to get to work with some standard cards (like Adaptec 2940, 3Com 3C595), however, but installing software is neater with apt get than the horrible RPM installers.

Mandrake will do all this stuff, with some effort, and uses RPMs, so if you're used to Red Hat, it's pretty good - as HSand says, the front-end is nice and the driver support is great.

I know a lot of people who swear by SuSE, but I've found myself turning to Caldera more and more; Caldera is great to set up - it gives you a game of Pacman (or Tetris in some versions) while you're installing.

Oh, and it runs all the packages I use; exim for mail (can't get to grips with sendmail!), apache, ipchains and amanda. Driver support is good on this as well.

In short, if you feel *.nix hardened, go for Debian. If you want an easier life go for Caldera. If you want glamour, go for Mandrake.

My $0.02 (or is that 3...?) CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[benp07]

i have just installed a freebsd box and i am planing on using it the say way you are. when you install freebsd sendmail is install and you can set it to be a gateway during the system install. so sendmail just has to be configured (thats the hard part). i have used mandrake for a mailserver and still do it seems to the job just fine. i really like free bsd because of ports.