 | Member with 349 posts. | | Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: California Experience: Advanced | |
hello, PK-her0.
Actually, you can run many different servers on top of practically any Linux distribution. For instance, i have a small server runnnig on my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop system which i use to stream media from my computer to devices around my home (such as my Roku player or an Xbox 360).
Apache, as mentioned in your post, is actually a Web server which can be installed on top of a LInux distribution, or in some cases is included in some distributions by default. My way of explaining this may be incorrect (and if it is then would someone with more experience please correct me) is through this analogy:
A Linux distribution is kind of like a plain. You can use the distribution as-is, or you can use it as a platform on which to install and configure multiple different servers (such as a Web server, a mail server, etc). I know that, at least statistically, Debian (which is free and open source) is one distribution which leads in the server market. I know of many who use it as a standalone desktop system, and I have seen others who use it to host Web sites and do other things.
I run Ubuntu as my main deskto system (I migrated away from Windows about five years ago), and I have been able to get a Web server (Apache), a SFTP server, and an SSH server up and going fairly easily. It took some time and a lot fo reading (mainly because I knew next to nothing about servers), but in the end thigns were not so hard.
So as far as a server operating system goes, almost everythign (which I know of) in the LInux world as far as servers go are mainly free and open source.
I wish taht I could offer more advice to you on this, but there are others here on this forum who are much more knowledgeable in thsi area I am sure. |
Linux as a server