I’ve only ever used desktop Linux and don’t have server admin experience (unless you count hosting Minecraft servers on my personal machine lol). Currently using Artix and Void for my desktop computers as I’ve grown fond of runit.
I’m going to get a VPS for some personal projects and am at the point of deciding what distro I want to use. While I imagine that systemd is generally the best for servers due to the far more widespread support (therefore it’s better for the stability needs of a server), I have a somewhat high threat model compared to most people so I was wondering if maybe I should use something like runit instead which is much smaller and less vulnerable. Security needs are also the reason why I’m leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities. Correct me if I’m misunderstanding any of that though.
Other than that I’m not sure what considerations there are to make for my server distro. Maybe a more mainstream distro would be more likely to have the software in its repos that I need to host my various projects. On the other hand, I don’t have any experience with, say, Fedora, and it’d probably be a lot easier for me to stick to something I know.
In terms of what I want to do with the VPS, it’ll be more general-purpose and hosting a few different projects. Currently thinking of hosting a Matrix instance, a Mastodon instance, a NextCloud instance, an SMTP server, and a light website, but I’m sure I’ll want to stick more miscellaneous stuff on there too.
So what distro do you use for your server hosting? What things should I consider when picking a distro?
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Used to be CentOS until the stream debacle. Now Debian.
Rocky and now moving too OpenSuse leap micro to move into immutable OS deployments.
Its all RKE2 (a k8s distro) on top anyways, so its very minor mods underneath, and base updates so I really want to maximize reproducibility and minim8ze attack surface.
Ubuntu LTS. Currently on 22.04.
Servers are the one thing I’ve generally heard people agree that snaps are good for, so given its history it’s a bit of a strange thing to hear of Ubuntu being a better server distro than desktop distro nowadays.
@communism Debian is an easy pick, but sometimes I can do alpine. Generally, it’s all in containers anyway, so doesn’t really matters.
Proxmox so I can run a bunch of other distros.
Centos9stream
Debian
Arch. With testing repos. And somehow, it also just works.
I always use Rocky Linux or Alma Linux, since I have extensive experience with enterprise Linux and RPM packages. I have Fedora on my main desktop computer. Both Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are rock-solid and are ideal for any kind of workload.
Also, Debian is a good choice if you know how to manage DEB packages and you feel comfortable with APT.
Fedora is a good choice if you want fresh packages and are willing to upgrade your server every 6 months (following the Fedora release cycle).
Rocky Linux and Alma Linux follow a similar slow release cycle of RHEL, wherein you can install your server and not have to worry for years (as long as the packages are updated with dnf update) Debian is also a slow release distribution, which makes it good for servers.
l comfortable with APT.
Apt4RPM was a beautiful thing. I wish we still had that as a common tool, as yum and its incapable 'up’grade dnf are just worse and less capable each time. I shudder at the crayon-eating that’ll go into whatever ‘succeeds’ dnf.
Yunohost.
Gentoo because I know my way around it and I’m able to only install stuff that I explicitly want and configured.
openSUSE Leap - YaST is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and works great on command line over SSH. Yes, sometimes installing some software is difficult, but generally most stuff you would want is there and a lot of stuff runs on Docker anyway now. Very stable too, have had nearly zero issues.
I use nixos, due to the incredible state management. You know exactly what versions of packages are on your machine, can build all packages from source yourself or download from a binary cache. 100% reproducible. Steep ass learning curve but tbh it’s well worth it. Saves you configuration time and energy in the long run. I’ve stopped distro hopping the implementation is so good. If you are concerned about security you can definitely harden it. There’s a lot more to security then package version. And even then nixos gives you the choice.
I use Alpine Linux. It’s exceptionally stable, great for pretty much any device and is best for small VPS with limited space/ram. Nice package manager too, but it is limited in packages.
It works great for me since I only use docker containers, but some things outside docker may require something like Debian instead.
Alpine Linux
Alpine is so great for so many reasons. I don’t like its packaging format, but its composition otherwise is just top-notch. I’m a huge fan when the one nit isn’t an issue. It also avoid cancers like systemd, and it makes it a joy to use.
Downvotes for recommending alpine? This is my baffled face.
Mint on the Desktop, FreeBSD on the server. Amazingly stable.
