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.

[Xorlev]

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.

[Paul M]

Our servers use Fedora. Seems to work fine.

[Erwin]

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

[john1744]

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.

[FlyingDutchman]

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

[dbembibre]

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

[Xorlev]

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.

[kerplunknet]

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.

[Erwin]

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

Linux stands for "Linux is not Unix"