It's probably a tad too elaborate to be an Inbox post but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.
In a couple of months I'm coming into a bit of money and would like to build myself a ballin' linux-based system that is capable of performing all of the tasks mentioned in the subject line (Web hosting, Cloud storage server, Game Server).
At the moment I'm running Windows 7 on my machine and it's just too darn unreliable even though I am extremely anal retentive when it comes to keeping my system clean :P . Try having WAMP (Apache, PHP, MySQL) run an owncloud server & website, a radio station, a vpn server and an additional website. Having it crash is a bitch and causes all sorts of unpleasant scenarios... pardon my french. Although my pc is on 24/7, it's still a pain in the backside!
Is there a flavour of linux that could perform all of these tasks? Possibly with the help of virtual machines with oodles and oodles of RAM?
why would you want a linux "flavour" that can do all of the things when every linux can do the same with more or less work you have to put in! I would go (since it's a server) with Debian because it's rock solid and the community is awesome
Do you have the hardware allready? Because im quite advanced when it comes to linux compability and would like to help you out.
By "flavour" I meant a Linux distro... apologies, that's me being a Linux noob. Debian does indeed seem to be the best option; I've only heard positive things about it.
Don't have the hardware yet but I'd like to get it within the next two months. If you could suggest some parts that would be awesome!
Just a small suggestion for learning some stuff quickly: yunohost.org. It's a Debian based personal cloud distro that literally allows a full cloud setup in minutes. Once you have it running with the automated setup, it's easier to see how it works and to customize it than to start from scratch configuring services one by one. And there is also an application server in there.
Na jut (ums auf Kölsch zu sagen), viel Erfolg und viel Spass...
Cheers for the suggestion. Seems like a great piece of software and hopefully it's not as buggy as the standalone owncloud software.
One question concerning yunohost: Is the data encrypted when trasferring files (https) ? I didn't find anything relating to that on their homepage. And is there a calendar and contact application? I've already set up the owncloud calender app to sync with DAVdroid on my phone... which is pretty nifty.
Yup, will use the protocol you want. Yunohost is actually Debian with Roundcube, Owncloud and some other stuff preconfigured, plus an easy to use GUI for configuration at install, and an easy to use html-based GUI for management of all the applications. Owncloud uses CalDAV, but there are multiple CalDAV server options and other protocols available, linux has indefinite possibilities and choice lol
Just going to put out there that Ubuntu is pretty strong in the server field, too. They are doing lots of cloud stuff and try to integrate everything. It's basically Debian with newer stuff and more enterprise features.
yeah i kinda agree with it but the problem is debian is solid as hell and ubuntu is kinda buggy. This is why i use it only as a Prototyping distro! If i need to do something such as Developing a new Nagios Plugin i just boot up my Ubuntu box and install Nagios, Perl, Python and everything else in a matter of seconds!
Everyone has to start somewhere! ;) i was such a noob when i started, i even had no deeper knowledge in windows
So here we go, since its a Server scenario i would go the AMD way because more core's allways better for Server's (of course if you can afford a Xeon get one)