Re: Linux distro

On Wed, 1 Aug 2007, paolo(at)ecometer(dot)it wrote:

> I bought a Dell server and I am going to use it for installing PostgrSQL
> 8.2.4. I always used Windows so far and I would like now to install a
> Linux distribution on the new server. Any suggestion on which
> distribution ? Fedora, Ubuntu server, Suse or others?

If this is a server you intend to keep around a while, the most
straighforward way to proceed is to install either RedHat Enterprise Linux
5 (if you can justify paying for the software and want official support)
or its free but not officially supported clone CentOS (which lags the real
RedHat a bit but is otherwise fine for many people). It's straightforward
to remove the PostgreSQL that comes with the operating system and install
the 8.2.4 binary builds from
http://www.postgresql.org/ftp/binary/v8.2.4/linux/rpms/redhat/ , and
enough of us here do that regularly that if should you run into a problem
it will be easy to get help. That's really the main strength of using
RedHat--the problems you do run into, typically lots of other people know
about as well. One thing to be aware of going in is that the default disk
partitioning scheme may not be right for you, which can bite you down the
road; make sure you consider that carefully before installation. I always
customize the partition layout myself.

The related Fedora distribution isn't aimed at server use in the long
term. I consider it quirkier and less reliable than the real RedHat
releases, which are also bad qualities for a server, and only recommend
Fedora for general tinkering with Linux.

SuSE used to be a reasonable alternative instead for server applications,
but the recent backlash from their dealings with Microsoft have made their
future too uncertain for me to recommend any new installations use their
distribution.

Ubuntu might be a reasonable alternative for you, especially if you have a
lot of software besides PostgreSQL that you want to install on the
machine. The ease of adding new software to Ubuntu is much better than
most other distributions, particularly when it comes to applications that
are more desktop oriented. The downside is that getting the latest
PostgreSQL on there using the standard packages takes some work, and the
way the database server is managed is a little different from other
distributions which adds a layer of things you'll need to learn.

Gentoo can be a good server environment, but the learning curve to get
started is probably harder than you want to take on if you're new to
Linux.

--
* Greg Smith gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD