which Linux distro should I use to test our MediaWiki?

[Jay Bollyn]

We are eventually going to buy a Dell PE2900 with Red Hat Enterprise pre-installed, when our webserver MediaWiki goes into Internet production.

We want to test the MediaWiki on a Dell GX400 PC, strictly on our Intranet. The app requires PHP5, which would seem to rule out Debian 3.1.
The test phase will take longer than 30 days, so a 30-day evaluation version of RHE would not be appropriate.

What should I install on my test server? We obviously want the smoothest transition from test phase to production. I have minimal linux experience.

We would rather not pay for the test software, but if that is the only realistic way to go, that is what we will do.

J.

[Ivan Krastev · Accepted solution]

I suggest to use Fedora or Ubuntu. See more for each release and guide for choosing one - http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

regards,
ivan

[Ivan Ferreira]

You can start with CentOS, its a redhat clone and if you later want to use red hat you won't feel any change.

Debian is a little difficult to start with.

[Jay Bollyn]

Thanks guys,

I think we will probably go with CentOS on the test machine. I want the transition to production RHEL to be as smooth as possible.

I also think the distrowatch.com website will be very useful.

I let myself be drawn in to installing Debian 3.1 on the test machine, only to find out later that my mediawiki needs PHP5. Debian 3.1 only suports PHP4 at this time.

Mostly my fault for not doing my homework. It was not time wasted, but the time was not spent as productively as it could have been.

J.

[John Collier]

Jay,

I know you closed this off already, but I have to put my bid in for Fedora Core.

It is not only Red Hat based, but it is pretty much Red Hat's sandbox, simply meaning that pretty much everything that eventually makes it into the commercial versions of RH go through FC first.

The other nice thing is that all of the commands will be essentially the same and the only way you should know you are running something different at the time of switchover is by looking at the splash screens on boot and possibly the default backgrounds if you use a GUI.

[Jay Bollyn]

Thanks John,

I am glad to get the additional suggestion.

I have already burned the CentOS CD-Rs, so getting the app running on that OS is my next step.

I will update this thread in a couple days.

J.