I'm currently building and testing apps on my laptop on Windows XP having installed php, mysql and apache. I'm already running a website on a web hosting package using a Linux OS not sure which. However I'm keen to upgrade to a virtual server hosting package with root access to give me more control and access to the php.ini file etc. I intend to stay with my current host who offer virtual server access with a default OS of

CentOS 5 + Plesk 9

and options to instead have:

CentOS 5 minimal
openSUSE 10.3 + Plesk 9
openSUSE 10.3 minimal
Debian 4.0 (etch) minimal
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS minimal

I know very little about Linux and have been trying to do some research into which OS is better or what differentiates them. I'm looking for some guidance around things i should consider so i dont regret the decision later on.

For example i tried loading up the app i've been working on locally to my hosting space and now realise it must be a slightly older version of php than that installed on my laptop as it doesnt recognise try, throw exception commands etc.

Any advice? Thanks.

I personally use Ubuntu as my operating system and have used servers with Ubuntu installed, therefore I would personally go for that, I would suggest maybe learning a bit more about linux as it will only help when it comes to setting up and configuring a server :) once you get comfortable with any of the linux distro's you will find server admin a whole lot easier :)

I think your, question, can be answered a little with this
thread: linux distro you think is the best for a programmer ?

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Can anybody advise me how i partition my hard drive and run multiple OSs. I have Windows XP on my laptop I want to keep that then create a hard drive partition and install a Linux OS to check it out? I have downloaded Open Suse 11.1 and burned the ISO.

Also - once I have installed the new OS how does it work i.e. how do I select which OS I want to use when booting up?

Step 1:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=How+to+create+a...+on+Windows+XP

Step 2:
Boot into the CD this should be done once you put it in ur drive and restart, if not you need to go into you bios and change your boot sequence so the DVD drive is first. Then just follow the onscreen instructions.

Once installed open suse automatically installs grub and you are able to choose the OS you want to go into when you start your computer

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Sorry if i appeared lazy not just googling it myself. In any case done a fair amount of reading and am going to start by installing CentOS 5 alongside Windows Xp on my laptop. I;m a bit fearful about damaging the laptop in terms of having on re-install Xp if it all goes pearshape. In any case CentOS has a number of install options i think dependent on processer i.e. X86 or i386 - any idea which one i need to choose or how i find out which one i choose?

Also once i've created the HD partition on my laptop and burned the CentOS 5 ISO boot disc is this used to install the OS on the newly partitioned HD space after which time i wont need to use the boot disk again?

If you have a CPU that uses the x86 instruction set (i.e. i386) then the x86 will be the one you choose (most likely that is the one you have, if you have a 32bit CPU)

However if you have a 64bit CPU (AMD64 or non IA-64 Intel cpu's called IA-32e or EM64T I think) then most likely it will be labeled x86-64

For most CPU's on the general market:
x86 = 32bit
x86-64 = 64bit

Its obviously a bit more complex than that, but most of today's CPU's are build on the x86 architecture, unless your running something ridiculous.

Correct, most likely it will also install GRUB or a similar boot loader to switch between either windows boot partition or the penguin (as mentioned previously).

I would advise creating a backup DVD or similar of your windows installation before tinkering with partitions etc just in case.

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mysql> SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`clue` > 0;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

If you are not sure which one your processor supports, x86 should be a safe bet. Getting a 64-bit linux really doesn't mean much since so few applications are actually built to run in a 64-bit environment. Applications such as firefox will build on a 64-bit machine, but take absolutely no advantage of it. This is only the case for desktops, not servers.

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For servers, 64-bits will be quite a painful one. Lots of applications out there (especially PHP) will require tons of libraries in 32 bit. Since most of your libraries will be in the 64-bit library, you will need to work out the configuration and do some manual symbolic links to the normal path PHP will find.

IMO, you should not be getting 64-bit unless your gonna do the easy (apt-get, yum) way.

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I don't believe its in a server context

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mysql> SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `users`.`clue` > 0;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

Skipping past all this 32,64 bit junk I think that captainmerton you are worrying way to much about which version of linux you are going to install. It really does not matter. Ubuntu is the easiest to work with for a new linux user. They will all run php in basically the same way.

The reason your php is running differently on the server then on your laptop is because the server is still on php 4.x (hints the no try catch) and your laptop is probably on 5.x. Big difference there.

If you chose to dual boot make sure to always install the windows os first starting oldest first. So if you were to dual boot windows xp, vista, ubuntu and centos. Install them in the order of xp, vista, cent, ubuntu. This way you get the newest grub when you are done. Make sure to back everything up because you may lose it all in the process. I have done triple and quadrupal boots on my laptop but there really is no reason to. 1 linux 1 windows is all you should ever need.

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Just to be clear I mainly want to build a development environment on my laptop. I intend to upgrade to a virtual server hosting package shortly (on account of the kind of issues i've encountered already re. try catch statements and old versions of php) and i'll be going on CentOS 5 as i have no interest in Linux as a desktop personal pc user only to run a web app i'm developing hence the choice of CentOS and not Ubuntu. Thanks for the help and advice guys. Much appreciated.

in all honesty that is a very good point, if you have the time to try out a few different distro's of linux (on your machine) then I would definitely say do it.:)