What linux OS would you recommend. And other things.
 

My site's looking to move to a new server, it's a P4 3.4 GHZ 2 gigs of ram and 2x180 gig HD's.

The admin who handles all server functions is thinking about putting Ubuntu on it to run the site.

We're also using PHP5 and I don't think our server is performing as well as it should.

I haven't done a server optomization yet at vb.com but might after I get some recommendations on how to setup the new server.

Ubuntu is pretty nice. But it's more desktop oriented, even if it can be effectively used as a server. Personally I use FreeBSD or Gentoo for servers.

Our servers use Fedora. Seems to work fine.

If it's Linux, why not use CentOS. Basically a free version of Red Hat Linux. :)

How many users would this type of server configured correctly be capable of holding?

It would only be used to host one forum, and possibly a small front page script.

well depends what you like... easy? go with redhat/fedora or something.
configure everything? gentoo, maybe debian
all the latest software & bugfixes? gentoo

afaik red hat is still most widely used as server software
personally i like debian... It's like gentoo, but without compiling every single software pacakage you need...

i can't say anything about user numbers or anything because that depends on too much things, hardware (combination), os, software optimization etc

I have a mix of OS in my servers, have Fedora Core 2, FreeBSD, Red Hat Enterprise and CentOS, the best are, FreeBSD and Red hat enterprise

The reason I love Gentoo/FreeBSD is that I compile almost every software package I need. This means I can automatically put flags into the compiler to optimize it to my system, thus resulting in an overall faster server. I do like Debian-based distros too, especially Ubuntu. I can't say much about RHEL (I haven't used often), or CentOS. I use Fedora Core 1 on one of my servers and it performs okay, but from what I've read the later versions didn't do so well, however I'm not sure about that.

Linux?

Fedora or CentOS.

Fedora if you like having the most up-to-date things.

CentOS if you don't mind using older packages and other things, as long as they have proven reliability.

For those recommending FreeBSD and Debian, these are not Linux. They are Unix-related, or *nix.

Linux stands for "Linux is not Unix" ;)

I'm well aware FreeBSD was not Linux, however I didn't know Debian was not Linux. Are you sure you have that right? I'm pretty sure Debian is Linux...from Debian's site: "Debian GNU/Linux is a free distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system." which suggests Debian is indeed Linux. Either way, I felt it necessary to recommend FreeBSD as it's one of my platforms of choice.

You're right, Debian is Linux. :)

I would recommend FreeBSD too myself - it's my OS of choice at the moment.

Fedora works great for me.

Fedora is great, but Fedora is also a bit more on the cutting edge, and thus while it works for servers, has an extremely short life span (release life) and I wouldn't recommend it for servers. Too unstable. It ran stable for me, but I had some unexpected problems and I switched to CentOS.

I've always been partial to Gentoo as I'm able to squeeze a bit more performance out of it. If you're not a Linux guru though, it probably isn't the best solution.

Most dedicated servers offer Red-Hat based distros (RedHat, Fedora Core or CentOS). I'd go with one of those, or Debian if you're feeling a bit daring.

How many users your system can handle really depends upon a few factors. First, the more hacks and addons you have installed the higher the load will be on your server. Second, larger forums with many posts in the database will cause your SQL server usage to be higher due to searches. Third, if you do manage to use all your available RAM, the type of hard drives could cause a slowdown too. For the best performance you want SCSI drives in a RAID 1 or better array followed by SATA drives. Standard IDE drives will slow your site down if it starts swapping to disk.

I don't forsee you having a disk swapping issue, as your CPU will give in long before you're out of RAM :)

True, but it sounds like at this stage john1744 can still take the right path and be saved through FreeBSD.

Im not interested in know if bsd or debian are linux, the most important thing is that "FreeBSD has the more fast TCP/IP Stack of the world" :)

RHEL and Solaris on mine

Yes Erwin. I know solaris isn't really linux :)

Solaris also has ZFS. ZFS is an amazing filesystem, and I'd recommend taking a look at it. Since Sun decided to release the code for it, I'm anxiously awaiting a port on Linux.

Yes the I/O management is superb :)

Xorlev: http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...XFS-HOWTO.html

Edit to other users: Do NOT go trying that out unless you know exactly what you're doing! You could destroy your system quite easily.

Edit2: slipped my mind before... ZFS is currently being ported to FUSE as far as i can remember!