I am hosting a minecraft server at home. What is the best Linux distro to download so I can boot Linux for server hosting and windows for everything else?
If you're only loading up *nix for the sole purpose of a Minecraft server, go all the way and use a distro that was meant for servers. I'd go with CentOS or even MineOS CRUX, which is kind of at the far end of the spectrum because it has been designed solely for hosting minecraft. MineOS is so lean and mean, I got amazing performance just off a virtual machine on my windows laptop. :-D
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." — Robert Heinlein
I wouldn't host both Linux and Windows on the same box, but that's me.
If you've got a whiz-bang high-end CPU box with a lot of RAM, then I might consider having it run Windows and VirtualBox, and then run a MineOS CRUX virtual machine that way.
It is basically Ubuntu, but more stable, lighter on resources and it is compatible with nearly all hardware out of the box. I used to use Ubuntu (was forced too) and it is a messy OS that is based off Debian unstable.
I use CentOS because I can do everything in console (and use Webmin for those things I don't want to do in console). Its also a proper server OS that doesn't load the box up w/ crap you'll never use.
Three mentioned; Ubuntu Server, Debian and CentOS are all great choices. Ubuntu has a lot more "stuff" in it, so if you are looking for something semi-lightweight for a VPS I would recommend Debian. It's package management is top notch and it will run fine. CentOS is also a good operating system for explicit serving, if you are looking at running LAMP stack on your server, it is also my recommendation. Most other distributions will sink in quality a bit or be too difficult for a simple server even though they may offer maximum customization (Arch, Gentoo).
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." — Robert Heinlein
If you've got a whiz-bang high-end CPU box with a lot of RAM, then I might consider having it run Windows and VirtualBox, and then run a MineOS CRUX virtual machine that way.
It will run fine as long as you don't throw a lot at it. Dual booting for that purpose you'll find it will annoy you more than anything,
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Advanced Guide to server-ip and server-port settings.
I second that, I love Ubuntu. It's the most popular Linux distro so there is a ton of documentation and users to help you out.
It is basically Ubuntu, but more stable, lighter on resources and it is compatible with nearly all hardware out of the box. I used to use Ubuntu (was forced too) and it is a messy OS that is based off Debian unstable.
If you need a GUI, don't use Cent.
tl;dr Debian is the best of all worlds.