server help (linux)

[Source]

First of all, I personally don't like to suggest Debian for a number of reasons. The main reason is the default config with the IPTables actually is shocking resulting in all ports been open (because they expect the users to want their own configuration), which allows for FTP backdoors and other things like multi-port DDoS attacks (just alot faster than using only port 80). Of course this can all be fixed by configuring IPTables to only have the ports you need open, but its just a pain when other distributions already have things like this done. Hypertext however does have a point about good repo's but you can get exactly the same things on CentOS5, Fedora, Ubuntu and others.

If you were looking for an OS with a virtual desktop of somesort, install Ubuntu as it comes with some nice easy methods (even server edition) to get RXSserver (I think thats the name) which allows you to connect to it like windows remote desktop, but into a Gnome environment instead. From their you can easily move files, set permissions etc.

Now if you want to use a really nice low footprint OS, use CentOS4 or 5 as I find it handles memory usage perfectly whilst keep a nice calm and collected CPU usage.

Most of this stuff is probably not that much of a help, and I'm probably wrong on some of it, its just my own personal experiences.

Edit//

Just thinking about it, most VPS(s)/Dedicateds don't offer free DDoS protection so your box will become under attack during somepoint in its life. However I found a really nice software solution which works well under small - medium attacks but any mass SYN packet attacks then the chances are the software just wouldn't be able to null route the packets and IP's fast enough. Anyway get: http://deflate.medialayer.com/ - I have been using it in conjunction with hardware protection just as a fallback on my servers and it has been brilliant, even on the content servers we don't have Hardware protection it seems to be doing a great job. If you want to know how it works, it just checks regularly how many persistant connections are made on particular ports (its pre-configured to port 80 as they presume you have closed other ports) and if 1 IP has over 150 connections it add's it automatically to the IPTables blacklist which null routes the IP. Null route in lamens terms is where it tells the server to ignor that IP and the packets it sends, blocking it (like a default firewall for windows).

Again i'm not 100% sure on all that info, so if I am wrong feel free to correct me in a mature way rather than the OMG YOU PHAIL.