I'm interested in what server systems do You use (Debian Linux,Free BSD etc.),how (apache2,samba,proftp etc.),how do You run them (own server hardware,dedicated - general parameters etc.) and what's most important - how do Your systems work. Practical opinions are very important. Thanks!
CentOS 4.4 X86_64 Apache2 PHP5 MySQL5 ProFTPD ISPConfig Webmin OSSEC-HIDS (Installed using the Perfect Setup guide) I like CentOS a lot and it runs great. I do not run a lot so the server is allways fast. After the Perfect Setup guide I installed a few extra things like php5 and MySQL5. But for the rest my system is standard. Althought there is a control panel I still use Webmin a lot. Just like it to control things that are not in the ISPConfig panel. And I am still a little bit afraid of the command line .
I find OpenSuSE to be usefull (other distributions are like that to) and userfriendly.I didn't have the pleasure to try CentOS yet. I'd like to add another thing to my post/question. How about security ? Attacks ? How often do they occur?
With OSSEC-HIDS you get a report when somone tries to access your system. And the first few day's I noticed that it is quite often that they try to login to ssh for example. But always with root, root is disabled for ssh, so no problem. After a few days you get used to the warning mails : ). For webmin I do not use the root as login but a different name and loooong password. I use php safe-mode where I can. And so far everything is running good and stable.
I personally find openBSD great for system stability and security. Slackware is fantastic as it is very stable, has a huge user base and has had the most longevity of the various distros. And Fedora. Its the first distro I ever used and I loved it. Its fast and stable and for me it ran like a dream.
I'm using this for my servers: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_sarge They are dedicated systems from Strato and Hetzner.
