Server Distributions

[Brian Densmore]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan Hutchins
> 
> Mandrake is a good desktop distro, but I've never run it as a 
> server, and 
> there are issues ...
Exactly, why I switched to gentoo and then to debian. But it
was a good stable server for me. With only two issues: unnecessary
required rpms and updating of packages. Both were easy enough to 
overcome for an intermediate Linux geek.

> 
> I mean to try Debian, but am reluctant to rely on source code 
> packages without 
> a package management system.  It's not clear to me that you can do a 
> complete debian install and stay within the apt system.  Can you?
One I have not installed any source code packages on most of my debian
systems. I did install one on my desktop system because there was
no debian package (a genealogy app). It is quite easy to stay within apt
and install everything. If you find an application that that is not true
for, I will walk you through the process of creating a package for it.
It's not very difficult.

All that said, if I were recommending for a client, I would look for a 
commercial debian distro that met their requirements and recommend that.
The reason being is the ability to buy support from the vendor and for the 
sanity of management types.