Please suggest a distro - Server for a small office

[din]

Thinking of making one PC Linux Server and other PCs win clients - for a small office.

Main requirement is LAMP. Actually .... not main, whole requirement is LAMP :)

At present I use XAMPP in Windows, but prefer to use Linux server.

Which distro will be best suited for me ? I have Fedora latest ver DVD. I had a chat with TuxFan, he suggested me to go for CentOS.

Prefer some auto / pre-configured LAMP setup, but if thats not available, not a big deal, will manage it.

Oh, I forgot, the PCs are not very new, like AMD XP 2000+ etc. 512 RAM in all PCs I think (not more !)

Thanks in advance.

[mehulved]

Something based on slackware. It's quite a solid distro and ver5y much inclined for usage as a LAMP server or try debian, another solid distro for the servers.

[praka123]

debian may be-try Etch or even Lenny(testing) stable enough.

[infra_red_dude]

the pc config is quite ok. i agree wid prakash. even i'd suggest debian etch.

you may try CentOS also. tho i'm not sure if it has out of the box support for lamp.

[din]

OK, I will check with the ILUG here in Cochin for Debian DVD. Debian install is easy ? I remember installing Debian 4 yr back, but for me it was a nightmare then (forgive me, I am not an expet, thats why I felt so, I know Debian is considered as a very good distro). I installed Linux in text mode, but prefer some easy install :)

I started Linux with RH 6.1 I think, when it was pure luck to see the desktop lol. Familiar with IBM AIX (the UNIX variant), Mandrake and many other distros. But I couldn't try any distros last 2 yrs, so I am not aware of the latest things in the field of Linux.

Oh, I think the PC which I meant has only 256 RAM, is it ok for Debian ?

[praka123]

Debian works with that memory.make ur system lean.use apt to remove unwanted packages(Synaptic gui).run a small window manager like icewm etc if u want more performance.use debian's "main" repository if u want the legendory stability.
Now,RedHat(RHEL) and its forks(centos,whel etc) are having good gui tools to set up server side.even RH/Fedora is the only distro am aware which enforces firewall by default(using lokkit script).
So its ur choice.For production systems,FreeBSD is the last answer as it is rock-solid.
U can go to Mindstorm Book stall in north railway station road to get these DVDs/CD's.also some rainbowinfotech was distributing Linux CD's in Ernakulam earlier,as is suncochin at palarivattom(sun os training centre). :)