Red Hat Linux/Apache, FreeBSD 4.2 or Cobalt RAQ servers ?

What are their pros and con?

Wow! I'm surprised you haven't gotten hundreds of replies already!

There are several answers to this;

1. Religion - die-hards that swear one os is better than another. This is a never-ending discussion (battle) and no one ever convincing someone from the other-side to switch teams.

2. Experience - if you know how to use something, the "best" for you may be to stick with what you know. If you are Unix expert, than using Unix will probably be good for you; If you are an NT expert, than you might do better with that.

3. Application-specific -- if your application is very
criticial, or has very unusual requirements, it may be
best to pick an OS that fits the app. Best example
is a real-time embedded system. For that type
of app, force-fitting a Unix or NT, just because
of criteria #1 or #2 would be a poor choice. It would
be best to learn a real-time OS (Vxworks, or whatever)
even though there is a higher learning/adoption
curve.

Most of the time, the real difference is the person. An expert with NT can make a server run far better with NT than a clod with no Unix experience can do with Linux, AND VICE-VERSA.

One last thing is TIME - if you stick with one os, rather than trying to be familiar with several, even if not always optimal for every task, you may have the
time to maintain your expertise.

Staying on top of security fixes, os changes,
versions, updates, etc. takes a lot of time. An unpatched, non-updated OS of one flavor is usually not as good as an up-to-date patched and secured version of any type.

Juggling multiple OS's is humanly a lot more
challenging than "going deep" with just one.

Originally posted by kaz
which operating system good for dedicated server?

What are their pros and con?

Another reason for lack of replies might be that you asked too general of a question. A dedicated server, means a server dedicated to a certain task (short definition). It would be helpful to know what. Also to list pros/cons would be a rather long post.

Does anyone have any URL's of sites that debate this?

I myself have found freebsd to be the easiest and most stable *nix OS availble. I would suggest freebsd

Depends on how much you're willing to learn, etc.

A RaQ will be the easiest to learn/use, but won't be able to handle as much load (generally) as FreeBSD or RedHat can.

There's a lot of other factors involved. For instance, do you plan on running CPanel? That would rule out everything except RedHat. You really need to think about what you're going to use the server for and how user friendly you want it to be.

I personally agree with cbaker and like FreeBSD, but the other operating systems are acceptable as well.

CPanel is good. If i going to use CPanel, i must use Redhat. I personally like FreeBSD since i had being using it for quick a long time.
What about using wmin (did i spell wrongly?) instead of CPanel?
Still need to use Redhat?

Webmin (http://www.webmin.com)
Supported Operating Systems:
Sun Solaris 2.5 , 2.5.1 , 2.6 , 7 , 8
Caldera OpenLinux eServer 2.3
Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 , 2.4 , 2.5 , 3.1
Redhat Linux 4.0 , 4.1 , 4.2 , 5.0 , 5.1 , 5.2 , 6.0 , 6.1 , 6.2 , 7.0 , 7.1
Slackware Linux 3.2 , 3.3 , 3.4 , 3.5 , 3.6 , 4.0 , 7.0 , 7.1
Debian Linux 1.3 , 2.0 , 2.1 , 2.2
SuSE Linux 5.1 , 5.2 , 5.3 , 6.0 , 6.1 , 6.2 , 6.3 , 6.4 , 7.0 , 7.1
Corel Linux 1.0 , 1.1 , 1.2
TurboLinux 4.0 , 6.0
Cobalt Linux 2.2 , 5.0 , 6.0
Mandrake Linux 5.3 , 6.0 , 6.1 , 7.0 , 7.1 , 7.2
Delix DLD Linux 5.2 , 5.3 , 6.0
Conectiva Linux 3.0 , 4.0 , 4.1 , 4.2 , 5.0 , 5.1 , 6.0
MkLinux DR2.1 , DR3
LinuxPPC 2000
XLinux 1.0
LinuxPL 1.0
Linux From Scratch 2.2
Trustix 1.1 , 1.2
Cendio LBS Linux 3.1 , 3.2 , 3.3
Ute Linux 1.0
FreeBSD 2.1 , 2.2 , 3.0 , 3.1 , 3.2 , 3.3 , 3.4 , 3.5 , 4.0 , 5.0
OpenBSD 2.5 , 2.6 , 2.7
BSDI 3.0 , 3.1 , 4.0
HP/UX 10.01 , 10.10 , 10.20 , 10.30 , 11
SGI Irix 6.0 , 6.1 , 6.2 , 6.3 , 6.4 , 6.5
DEC/Compaq OSF/1 4.0 , 5.1
IBM AIX 4.3
SCO UnixWare 7 , 2
SCO OpenServer 5
MacOS Server X 1.0 , 1.2 , 1.3

Originally posted by kaz

What about using wmin (did i spell wrongly?) instead of CPanel?
Still need to use Redhat?

Something to think about. Webmin and Cpanel are very different. Webmin is for administrators and CPanel/WHM is for both (users and administrators)

If you are planing on hosting sites, you will probably be better off with Cpanel/WHM, on the other hand, if you are going to use the server to host your own sites you definitely want to go with Webmin :)

I will probably prefer cpanel. I'm looking at http://www.burst.net/cp/ right now.

Licensing Costs/Fees
Internal - $35.00 / Per Month
External - $99.95 / Per Month
what they mean by internal and external?

is it easy to configure with cpanel? any security tip for cpanel? i am very scare of lamer /hacker trying to destroy the server.

Internal, you have the server with them. External, you have the server with cpanel at another NOC.

My server is somewhere else. How to get cpanel install on my server then? Buy the script? How much?

Cpanel is great, however, it is very, very, very, very buggy. Internal means that is what you pay for CPanel if you have a server with burst.net. External means that you have your server somewhere else. So in other words, if you are not going to have a server with burst.net, you have to pay $100.00/month.

Also, keep in mind that if you are not going to have users who need all those features it might not be worth it. Webmin is 100 times more stable, has more features in it and is totally free. Then again, if you are going to have users you might want to go for Cpanel, but be ready to face the bugs!!! :D

Originally posted by bert
Cpanel is great, however, it is very, very, very, very buggy. Internal means that is what you pay for CPanel if you have a server with burst.net. External means that you have your server somewhere else. So in other words, if you are not going to have a server with burst.net, you have to pay $100.00/month.

Also, keep in mind that if you are not going to have users who need all those features it might not be worth it. Webmin is 100 times more stable, has more features in it and is totally free. Then again, if you are going to have users you might want to go for Cpanel, but be ready to face the bugs!!! :D

I agree Webmin seems to be quite a bit more stable. Has anyone heard anything good of Plesk? I have installed it and played with it a little bit, but it does not seem too appealing.

Plesk is very nice, however, it lacks features for the end-user as well. I guess we are all stuck with Cpanel until something similar comes out. :)

I goto agree Plesk, isnt that appealing and does lack some features.

I have always preferred Webmin, very stable, tons of features/addons and best of all its *free* (which most people like to see).

any other webhosting script to recommend? what is WHM? that webhost manager that come with the cpanel?

If i won't have only webmin, if my client need setup pop3 email,mySQl, they need to email me and i got to be SUPER busy. So, i don't want this to happen to me.

Kaz:

WHM (Web Host Manager) is for the administrator and CPanel is for the users. Both come together for the $100.00/month.

Webmin does what WHM does, but with many more features. Webmin is pretty much only for admins.

If you are going to have clients and you do not want to setup all those services for them go with WHM/CPanel

CPanel/WHM

External - $99.95 / Per Month .

Burstnet give me the script and i install myself?


VDI charge $100 per license for using the CPANEL/WHM

do i actually get the script?

That I don't know. Our servers are with a company that offers the CPanel/WHM with the servers.

If you don't have your own server yet, you might want to consider:

http://www.venturesonline.com/
http://www.site5.com/
http://www.weinbar.com/
http://www.burst.net/

All those companies will give you CPanel/WHM with a dedicated server.

do any of the above company you mention allow adult,warez materials?

Actually, I don't think the adult part is as bad as the warez part. You are going to have a very difficult time finding a host, but don't quote me for it because I don't know. I think you are going to have to ask them.

Originally posted by kaz
do any of the above company you mention allow adult,warez materials?

I am not sure about the adult part, but warez is pretty touchy. Not so much that warez implies pirated software, but is 90% of the time tied in which illegal sites like child porn and so forth.

I don't know of any reputable hosting companies that will allow you to host warez material. There are however companies that will allow adult hosting (but make sure to actually get it in writing from the company first so they can't change their mind on you later).

Originally posted by kaz
CPanel/WHM

External - $99.95 / Per Month .

Burstnet give me the script and i install myself?


VDI charge $100 per license for using the CPANEL/WHM

do i actually get the script?

You don't 'get'the script per se, you are able to run it on one server. I'm not sure if the prices include installation or not.