On Wed, 1 Aug 2007, paolo@xxxxxxxxxxx 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@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq
