[LBo] best distro for a server install

[Tim George]

> I'd use Debian on a server, but I wouldn't go any higher than stable. A newer 
> version of any application shouldn't be put on a server (other than security 
> fixes) until it has been deemed stable anyway. You'd use a testing box for 
> that.

Until the customer you run the server for demands feature X :-( E.g. A
certain version of Tomcat to support Java Servlets 2.5. The latest
stable version of Tomcat does this, but it's not in Debian stable.

So I build my own. But then a security issue is found, so I have to
get the patch, rebuild, test, deploy.

That's where the pressure for newer versions of packaged software
comes from, and distros like Ubuntu take the lead; or third-party
repositories like rpmforge.

I started using packaged software for servers, but now prefer to build
my own, it's not so hard to do with servers as software generally has
less dependencies than on the desktop. In contrast I haven't built any
of my desktop software because the dependencies are too complex.