[Web4lib] Which Linux Distribution for a Library Web Server?

[Joshua Ferraro]

Hi Keith,

At LibLime, we use Debian Sarge for most of our systems. Index Data
maintains a debian apt source that has the latest versions of their
apps (including the latest yaz which you'll need for ZOOM Perl). Also,
the latest CPAN version of Net::Z3950::ZOOM has a bug in the Makefile.PL,
if we bug Mike Taylor he might upload a fix ;-). In the meantime, just
comment out the line:


#   OPTIMIZE          => "-Wdeclaration-after-statement -g -O0"

If you need more recent versions than supplied by the package 
maintainer you can always check out backports.org.

Hope that helsp.

Cheers,

--
Joshua Ferraro                       SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
President, Technology       migration, training, maintenance, support
LibLime                                Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS
jmf at liblime.com |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |2(888)KohaILS

On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 08:59:21AM -0400, Ross Singer wrote:
> Keith,
> 
> I migrated from Debian to Ubuntu for these issues (timeliness of
> 'modern' packages).
> 
> If you're comfortable with the 'Debian way', you might want to take a
> poke at Ubuntu 6.06 -- there are debs for PHP5/MySQL 5, Perl, YAZ and
> Net::Z3950 shouldn't be much of a problem.
> 
> Fedora is also popular and will probably yield similar results, but
> the 'Redhat way' is somewhat different than Debian, so it all comes
> down to comfort.
> 
> Given the amount of community support surrounding those two
> distributions, I don't see much reason to use anything else.
> 
> -Ross.
> 
> On 7/6/06, Keith D. Engwall <kengwall at catawba.edu> wrote:
> >Dear folks,
> >
> >I have built a linux web server for our library web site, and am 
> >contemplating which distribution to use.
> >
> >Our library web site (http://libweb.catawba.edu) uses PHP and MySQL 
> >primarily, but there is at least one application that currently uses Perl, 
> >YAZ, and Net::Z3950.
> >
> >Currently, I'm having a go at Debian sarge. While it has been mostly 
> >successful, I've noticed that there is no deb for MySQL 5 and I've had 
> >some trouble installing the ZOOM Perl module, so I'm wondering if I'm 
> >barking up the wrong tree, distribution-wise.
> >
> >While I've got plenty of experience with standard web design, I've only 
> >scratched the surface when it comes to newer web-based applications, so I 
> >want to try to go with a distribution that others have used successfully.
> >
> >Any thoughts, opinions, etc., would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Keith
> >-------------
> >Keith Engwall
> >Head of Library Systems and Technology
> >Catawba College
> >kengwall at catawba.edu