Which server is better and more powerful ? centOs , debian , windows server 2003, 2008 e.t.c ? and easy to work with... sorry mods, please move this thread in the main category
Do you know Linux? If not then you just need a good control panel like cpanel or h-sphere or even webmin. At the end of the day Linux is more powerful then Windows.
If you're looking for a stable and free server then CentOS is your best bet, most of all if you want to run web hosting. Windows costs more. Avoid Ubuntu as a server, it's not very good but a lot of noobs (no offence) tend to think because the Desktop Ubuntu is good the Server is good too. Avoid Fedora Core too, they update it all the time and it's not as stable as CentOS.
Linux distros like Redhat Enterprise, Centos, Debian are more efficient meaning for the same hardware you are running, you get more processes done at a faster speed. Windows 2003 is less efficient while Windows 2008 approaches the same efficient as Linux. But which is better and more powerful is hard to quantify. Linux is efficient, Windows is powerful on features. Windows is far easier to work with, everything is controlled via wizards, IIS 6 and 7 setups are far easier than setting up in Linux. Everything being equal, Windows would be easier to work with. However, Linux has the advantage of having much superior controlpanels like Cpanel, Directadmin and so on which makes it easier to work with. Windows on the other hand do have controlpanels, but their controlpanels have not reach the ease of use as that of Linux controlpanels. Security wise Linux have their in built iptables whereas Windows 2003 onwards have their inbuilt Windows Firewall but Linux iptables has better control features than existing Windows firewall.
Yeah, they probably are. I've never use Debian so I can't recommend it myself. When you're using a sever via SSH (as you will be) you don't get a Graphical Interface, you just get a little black screen with a blinking cursor. You could install a Desktop and use remote desktop to access it but you'd need a very good server to be able to get away with that.
What's wrong with Ubuntu server? It's almost like Debian actually, My preference is gentoo, freeBSD or debian.
It's just not as proven, which in stabilty terms means a lot. It needs updating quite a lot as well, which is never good on a 365 day a year server. It's not geared towards web hosting in the way CentOS is either. It's cool though, i'm not looking to get into a crazy unix fight TBH, when i'm setting up a server for single (or just a few ) sites , I use : CentOS, Open SSH, Lighttpd, PHP, mySQL and thats it. I don't even install mail or FTP. I use the DNS from the dedi.
i will not say names but thanks all , i'm a beginner in servers so i will ask some beginner questions about servers : I was thinking to make a sever at home only for my personal use (just don't want to pay a dedicated ) , it is possible ? Isn't a problem run the server 365 days /year without stop it or should i stop the server sometimes ? (i was thinking at my modem ) will not... burn so many days ? There are some special components to use in order to be safe ? What are the minimum requirements for the internet connection ?
It looks like you don't know much for linux. Linux is based on UNIX - the most powerful operating system. Linux is opensource - meaning you can customize the way you want Linux have more features than windows - Can limit processes,memory,which program can run or not, it has the very best user system and so on. windows is prone to attacks and errors and viruses
I think you'll find Solaris is the most powerfull, it can support up to 32 CPUS on one server. http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/index.jsp
Without talking about the most powerful (in which I must agree is Solaris, however almost no-one can use that and there are no panels). If you are not an experienced admin, just pick: - what services do you need? - what amount of time do you want to invest? For normal webhosting, if you don't need ASP/ASP.NET, just pick a Linux distro (I prefer Debian, but that is a question of taste), otherwise pick Windows. We don't see much difference anymore between the two, except that very good admins are better at debugging very difficult problems under Linux than Windows, making very large/experimental/custom setups (like Youtube etc) better for LInux. If you are only doing it at home and don't know anything about servers, just install a Linux (if you are at home; Ubuntu is easiest) and start playing; they are not that different. And if you are planning doing more hosting in the future this knowledge will benefit you. my 2 cents.
Centos is actually not the most stable for web hosting. It is only really good if you are going to use cpanel, and even then only certain distros will work perfectly with Cpanel. Linux is actually not as hard as one would think. Most are just used to the GUI interface from windows. Debian is the absolute best for webhosting. Other distros are built based off of debian such as Ubuntu. AMEN. I could not have said it any better? Great answer!