Setting up a server

[lennartack]

Hi,

I'm setting up a server for personal use, that is connected to the internet. I'm going to use it as a personal web/ftp server, game hosting with some friends and maybe some other things like downloading. My question is, which OS to use. I prefer ubuntu because it has a huge package database with programs of the newest version, but maybe I should use Debian instead, because of stability or security. And Should I use Debian stable or is testing ok?

Thanks,
Lennart

[angryfirelord]

It's all up to you. If you're running mission critical stuff, Debian or CentOS is the only way to go. For your needs, Ubuntu would do just fine.

Try both and see which one works better for you. Keep in mind that Canonical can only guarantee updates for the "main" repository, whereas Debian Stable can give security updates for main, contrib, & non-free. I'd advise against Testing because while it's good for a desktop setup, a rolling release distro can always break something and they don't guarantee security updates for Testing in a timely manner, so for a server I would advise against it.

Either Debian Stable or Ubuntu Server will suit you fine.

[tamoneya]

id say use ubuntu since it is what you are most comfortable with. You dont have paying customers or anyone who will get seriously angry at you if you have down time.

[lennartack]

I'll try Debian Testing just to try something new. In testing there are some packages I like that aren't available in stable, and I heard Lenny is going stable this year so I don't think I'll get problems from it.

At the Debian forum they all advice to use Debian because it's sooo much better than Ubuntu. I wonder if that's true...

[hyper_ch]

I'd go for debian stable