Help needed Linux Web and e-mail server

What he forgot to mention is that with linux, we don't see the need of a gui for a server, so debian's default cli makes it a good distro for server use.

if you would rather have a gui, you can install debian's default GNOME, or use suse, red hat's FEDORA [ not red hat 9, it's way to ancient, like windows 3.1 in comparison ], Mandriva, or, if you are really adventurous, Slakware or Gentoo.

the rule of thumb, when picking a distro for company use if it only has one cdrom, then it's useless for what you need.

check distrowatch.org, there are 300 or so linux distros, most of which are single cdrom versions.

pick he ones that catch your interest, and get the latest version from their mirrors. they are free to download, and use even in a business application.

Sendmail kinda sucks in several ways, at least compared to some of the other MTAs available for Linux. I, too, use Postfix -- whenever I install Debian on a system, I have a tendency to replace Exim4 with Postfix right away.

Qmail has its benefits, but it also has some problems. One of the problems with it is that it's not actually an open source application. This leads to several of the other problems with it, like the fact that other MTAs are getting more supporting development as more developers get involved in open source MTA development -- people who previously supported Qmail out of the goodness of their hearts, or whatever, are mostly beginning to jump ship to Postfix. Security patch support is lagging on Qmail, many of the modules for it have been severely neglected of late, and so on. Perhaps worse, it cannot be used commercially without paying for it (or breaking the law).

I generally recommend Postfix above all others. Sendmail has had its issues with security in the past (those are pretty much behind it, but the perception of security issues leads developers to neglect it) and is not as well designed as some of the other MTAs in terms of its basic architecture. Exim is kind of a pain in the butt to configure and maintain, sometimes -- it requires a significant investment of time to be able to really master it for custom configuration. Qmail has issues related to being closed source, as I mentioned above. Postfix is the most highly modularized and among the easiest to manage of any of them, which helps to make it my favorite.

You have taken the best first step, "ask the experts". I use Fedora and it was easy to set up the web server part. Especially if you have a static IP. The email is another problem. I used sendmail and setting it up required that I contact my local Linux GURU. If you want to get familiar with the script files I suggest Fedora with Apache and sendmail. It will be harder but you will an awful lot in the process.

Good Luck!