Last update 06-Jun-2001
Linux Distributions.
Which distribution
Linux is available in several distributions, they all have advantages and disadvantages for bbs use. Which distribution to pick is very personal. You should also consider the fact if the bbs machine is the same machine on which you do your daily work on or if you use a seperate system for the bbs. I will describe the distributions below for use on dedicated bbs computers, that means you don't do daily work on them and don't use them to play games. Most important is that this is my personal view.
Slackware
I am using MBSE BBS on several Slackware distributions. You can make a very small setup for MBSE BBS like Zipslack. Not included is the mgetty package.
Redhat and Mandrake
I write this as if these are the same which isn't true of course. From MBSE BBS's point of view they are almost the same, so that's why I treat them as the same distributions. For people with little Linux experience these distributions are a good choice if you can spare the diskspace. I haven't found a simple dedicated setup for the bbs, so the safest way is to install allmost everything, which is quite simple. This will cost you about 1200 Megs. Maybe that someone more experienced with these distro's can give more details on how to build a small server. Please note that from RedHat 6.1 and up the startup script (/etc/rc.d/init.d/mbsed) is different than before. Maybe this is needed for Mandrake 6.1 and up too.
SuSe
Since SuSE 7.1 the setup scripts are working and tested. Older distro's might work.
Debian
The installation works on a Debian 2.1 and 2.2 distribution without any problems. How to build an optimized Debian system is not tested by me.
Famous last words...
I don't have the diskspace for all kinds of Linux distributions to install at the same time, with the current size of Linux, I only have 2 versions installed. Also, I don't buy every new distro that's available. If you have a problem with that, just send me the new distro on CD to test by snailmail.
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