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 Security needs are also the reason why I’m leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities.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?
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.
@communism Only difference between a “server” distro and a “desktop” distro are what packages are included, and given that most all distros put all the packages on their repositories you can start with any and tailor to your needs.
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.
You don’t wanna use rolling release distros trust me, the whole point of server is automation and less maintenance. I got couple personal servers running, after things i need got setup and all of them running at a decent capacity, i just turn them on and never worry about them. Old package and software doesn’t necessarily mean less security, quite opposite actually, i suggest you take a look at how stable distros distribute their software, such as Debian. For a Debian package becomes stable, it has to go through several stages, experimental, unstable, testing, and finally stable, that’s why their packages are old, and because they are old, they are secure. It might be quite opposite than what you expect.
Mostly i use Debian for my personal servers, some of them are stable and some of them are testing, because of Podman’s new feature Quadlet. Honestly many features of Debian feel really old, like APT’s source list, preferences, and the way to deal with unattended upgrades. It’s kinda hard to get it at first and it’s easy to shoot yourself in the foot, especially many people tend to unintentionally mix and match packages from different suites for new software. But once you get comfortable with it things just work.
As my experience, no matter what distros i use, the worst distros are always those that i don’t understand and in a hurry to put them into production. Just pick one popular server distro and learn the ecosystem, you will find out what distros you like really soon.
Yeah, and key point in why old packages are secure is that versions with serious bugs and vulns don’t get to the next stage, and if a package in stable is finally going to have one, they’ll release a patch for it with just enough changes that fixes the serious issue.
There are some exceptions for very complex software, like Debian maintainers cannot be expected to be able to understand and see through something like Firefox. There they mitigate it by using ESR releases that are maintained by Mozilla.
Always Debian. I’m most comfortable in an environment with
apt, and that’s even more important on a serverDebian, with a Kubernetes cluster on top running a bunch of Debian & Alpine containers. Never ever Ubuntu.
Never ever Ubuntu
Why’s that?
Probably mostly for their corporate fuckery
it’s just less reliable, more corporate, more bloated debian
… so why would you?
Because Ubuntu is the worst of both worlds. Its packages are both old and unstable, offering zero benefit over always-up-to-date distros like Arch or the standard Debian.
Especially when you’re running a containerised environment, there’s just no reason to opt for anything other than a stable, boring base OS while your containers can be as bleeding edge, crazy, or even Ubuntu-based as you like.
I second this. I run fedora on my desktop and debian on the server. Docker works great on debian as well.
Debian if you are new to Linux servers and self-hosting. Alpine if you get more advanced and just want something very light-weight and minimal.
I won’t say which one, but I’ll give you a hint as to why:
rpm -Vp https://...It’s what got me off Slackware, and it’s true today. If the distro can’t support that kind of check, it’s dead to me.
Been running Ubuntu LTS releases on all my server VMs for 8 years and haven’t had a single problem. Absolutely solid as a rock. Fantastic support, loads of guides to do anything. Plus you can get 10years of support as a home user with a free Ubuntu Pro subscription.
Debian. This is the way (for servers).
I don’t have a server but If I had one I would prob pick nixos or some arch distro
Always, always, always: Debian. It’s not even a debate. Ubuntu is a mess for using as a server with their snaps bullshit. Leave that trash on the desktop, it’s a mess on a server.
Snaps are meant for server applications but yeah
Snaps are meant for server applications
That’s a frightening statement. I don’t work in secret-squirrel shit, but I do private-squirrel stuff, and snaps are just everything our security guys wake up at night to, screaming. Back when I ran security for a company, the entire idea would have been an insta-fuckno . Please, carefully reconsider the choices that put you in a position where snaps are the best answer.
why is that?
Do explain with reasoning please!
I tried them by standing up a snap based docker server and it was a nightmare. Never again.
Debian and Ubuntu server which, barring some differences in versions, are basically the same thing
They’re both awesome
Debian
