this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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If you want good support: Debian.
Other options include Alpine and Slackware (the former is the base of many OCI compliant containers, it's lighter than Debian usually).
No, Gentoo, Void and Arch are not server distributions.
FreeBSD is also pretty good, although at this point, the only real argument I have seen for the BSDs is their close-ness to Unix more than anything else. If that is something you really need, you know where to go
Gentoo, at least, is an unspecialized metadistribution that can be used for whatever purpose you can come up with. It can certainly be put on a server, but for someone lacking Gentoo experience the learning curve might be a little steep, and depending on exactly what software you want, compiling it may take a while on an older machine.
So speaking as a Gentoo user, Debian is a not-unreasonable choice for this use case. It's certainly stable enough.