Specialised linux distro advice required

G'day guys,

A question for the *nix gurus. I've mucked around with Redhat and Mandrake 'consumer' distributions for a while and have found them to be really great for general purpose workstation-type stuff. What I'm looking for, though, is a small footprint dedicated purpose distribution that does one thing and does it well. Sort of along the lines of the Devil-Linux firewall distro, where all you get is enough for a single purpose.

Can anyone suggest a good, small distro that would set up a dedicated LAMP web server with a minimum of fuss and bother ?

TIA

what is LAMP? btw I use freeBSD or openBSD for everything me like BSD

LAMP = Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP
A pretty damned good combo for web site servers if you're looking at hosting your own...

Like Taelo said, he uses BSD products.. personally I'm using Mandrake 8 for mine.. but it's also my webserver, database, mail, and proxy/cache server

My advise would be to look around, some of the other distrobutions come with a web server only install if I'm right..

ohhh,...never heard that before,..LAMP,..huh

My recomendation is still for FreeBSD

Thanks guys,

Have had a look...I already use the Mandrake 9 distro and am happy enough with it for day to day stuff, and FreeBSD looks good too.

The problem I've found with the mainstream distro's is that they invariably include everything and the kitchen sink, and to get a specialised app system running is often a pain...guess windoze has spoiled me in that respect.

I've found a few interesting candidates for the specialised server setups, though...Distrowatch has links to a few really good minimalist/specialist packages. May be of value to others wanting to find something that suits their needs better than the usual packages.

freebsd is cool cause you can install a very minimal default setup. update your ports tree,..and install apache, php, mysql,... done. very simple and efficient on freebsd

The server install of mandrake is extremely small, and it prompts you for every package you want to install, and doesn't install anything extra.. Also you can look into openlinux or there are a couple of other slimmed down versions out there that you can get with a book..

I wouldn't be a good authority on BSD though Taelo is your man for that

freebsd is a rock solid OS. it makes updating the system a breeze to. cvsup your ports tree, and go to it. if you don't have a package installed, you go to the ports directory and do a "make && make install" and it will download the package and any other required packages.

like if you install mod_php4, it will download mod_php4 and apache. /me loved freebsd

I was wondering, are any of these free to download or do you have to buy them...plus they arent very convienent because you cant run photoshop or dreamweaver under them making people like me totally bored.

So use them as a server, and store your files on them.. and yes, they are free to download, or you can buy a book and get a copy free.. Or, if you really want you can purchase a copy of the software suites, which come with extra apps and stuff from a computer store

Besides, use GIMP for picture editing on *nix in Xwindows

wat site can I download the best Linux package from? and can it be uninstalled so I get windows xp back?

well you can dual boot,....but it can be a bitch if you have never resized a partition before

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ownload+mirrors

there are my google search results for linux downloads..