I'm looking into installing a linux machine. It should have ssh, c++ compiler, mail, news, ftp, www, samba.

Looking at Debian, there seems to be a 3 year old stable distribution and everything since then is just testing stuff that they don't recommend for a server. Is that really true? Seems like an awfully not-up-to-date distribution?

I think Slackware has all of what you need.

Take THAT iago! Beat you to it! :)

Yes, debian is based mostly around stability and security.  Slackware does seem like a good bet.

How about Debian-based Ubuntu.

Ive used gentoo([url]http://www.gentoo.org[/url]). Its rather nice and can do bleeding edge or stable depending on your preference. If you install from source you start out with a very basic install and can add what you need with a simple emerge. Also, the installing really isn't that bad. It takes about a day  on a 500mhz or atleast it does for me because I start bootstrapping before bed and do emerge system before I leave for school.

Slack only took about 30 minutes on JoeMomma.

Slackware and Gentoo are both good selections -- they're based around the same idea of not holding your hand and letting you look after yourself.  I can't say anything about Gentoo, but Slackware has a very good default install, there is very little software I need to install/update after installing Slackware.

I'd like to have a distribution that comes with binary packages for virtually everything (target computer is low-end and slow), and where security updates can be done ideally through a script scheduled to run once a day.

If you want automated security updates, Slackware probably isn't your best bet.  They tend to leave it more up to the users to update themselves, they don't usually roll out incremental updates.

You might want to look into security-oriented Linuxes like Trustix -- I've never used it before, or tried it, but on mailing lists it appears to be kept up to date very quickly.

Gentoo still sounds like a good choice. It has binary package mirrors but im not sure if they are decent or not as ive ever used them(Also as stated in my other post compiling from source isn't that bad unless you are trying to install on a 286 or some such). The other thing you can do is cross compile packages on a faster computer.

For the security updates gentoo has a tool that will look for new security related updates, im not sure if it installs them or not as I haven't messed around with it much. The other option is to do emerge world which will update everything if a new version is ready or downgrade a package if a new version has been declared unstable.

Nice to see another Gentoo user on the forum.

I don't think Gentoo would be a good choice in this situation unless you have ~2 days to install this machine.

yea if your installing on a slow machine gentoo is a really bad choise

it builds everything locally, which is a huge pain, and slow ;(

debian is good, just because they call the 'testing' branch testing doesnt mean its not stable enough for servers
they just take their sweet time on rolling the names over.

i just upgraded from debian stable to debian testing this weekend, it was a bit of a pain but it works fine

also there is an unstable build which isnt nessisarily unstable, its just brand new stuff

i havent ever tried slackware but mandrake sucked

mandrake had 'pretty graphics' in the installer, and the boot loader, but it seems like it constantly corrupts itself and you gotta go thru some repair process everytime you upgrade anything, and right after installing

my recommendation = debian

LFS

[quote author=Maddox link=topic=10766.msg102810#msg102810 date=1110257143]
LFS
[/quote]

That sounds like exactly what he DOESN'T want

Linux from scratch?

Just a note, target machine is currently 166 Mhz, 64 MB ram.

Linux linux 2.4.20-24.7 #1 Mon Dec 1 13:21:45 EST 2003 i586 unknown


Maybe quantifying it like that will help you tell me what linux distributions it is too slow for installing at a reasonable speed.

I've installed Slackware on a 133, it runs great.  Compiling software is a little slow, but most stuff is offered for Slackware in packages, http://www.linuxpackages.net I think

i think most of them are gonna be about simlilar except stuff like gentoo which you probably dont want

it also makes some difference what your going to use it for

if your setting up a server you might not want a desktop, some of them install it weither you need it or not

You're right, I don't want any graphical interface, just a console. I don't plan on connecting a mouse, and X is pretty useless without one. Any I should avoid for that reason?

I would suggest Slackware for what you are looking for.

[quote author=Newby link=topic=10766.msg102135#msg102135 date=1109722864]
I think Slackware has all of what you need.

Take THAT iago! Beat you to it! :)
[/quote]
Slack doesn't have drivers for my sound card or video card :(

(Actually I'm sure it'll support my video card ;))

But playing games without sound is boring.

If you have a nVIDIA card you could probably find the drivers for it since there are native linux drivers for nVIDIA cards.

i havent tried slack

definately dont install mandrake, it is all graphical by default, and corrupted and crap everytime you update anything
definately dont install gentoo, with such old hardware it will take several days to build it, and your not really getting any optimization with such an old processor anyway

im still thinking debian is your best bet, i ran it on my p166 and p200 like years ago..

by default it wont install anything you dont need (except for it installs some ppp stuff which is easily removable)

you can pick and choose precompiled packages using apt-get or aptitude


anyway thats my final recommendation ;)

I installed Mandrake 6.0 on my 133 MHz (16 MB RAM I think), a very long time ago (2000), and it wasn't nearly as bad as intangir described (for me).  I never used any graphical interface, etc, and it had everything I needed and ran smoothly. 

However, nowadays slackware might be your best choice... debian would probably be fine as well.  It's not that big a decision.  Just go for something simple without too many bells and whistles.

..Is it a crime to suggest RedHat?

[quote author=Rule link=topic=10766.msg103109#msg103109 date=1110414476]
..Is it a crime to suggest RedHat?
[/quote]

Absolutely.

[quote author=Rule link=topic=10766.msg103109#msg103109 date=1110414476]
..Is it a crime to suggest RedHat?
[/quote]

Actually, it is running RedHat right now, but I'd like to switch to something better updated...

You could use Fedora which is by the developers of Red Hat.