I've only ever used desktop Linux and don't have server admin experience (unless you count hosting Minecraft servers on my personal machine lol). Currently using Artix and Void for my desktop computers as I've grown fond of runit.
I'm going to get a VPS for some personal projects and am at the point of deciding what distro I want to use. While I imagine that systemd is generally the best for servers due to the far more widespread support (therefore it's better for the stability needs of a server), I have a somewhat high threat model compared to most people so I was wondering if maybe I should use something like runit instead which is much smaller and less vulnerable. Security needs are also the reason why I'm leaning away from using something like Debian, because how outdated the packages are would likely leave me open to vulnerabilities. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding any of that though.
Other than that I'm not sure what considerations there are to make for my server distro. Maybe a more mainstream distro would be more likely to have the software in its repos that I need to host my various projects. On the other hand, I don't have any experience with, say, Fedora, and it'd probably be a lot easier for me to stick to something I know.
In terms of what I want to do with the VPS, it'll be more general-purpose and hosting a few different projects. Currently thinking of hosting a Matrix instance, a Mastodon instance, a NextCloud instance, an SMTP server, and a light website, but I'm sure I'll want to stick more miscellaneous stuff on there too.
So what distro do you use for your server hosting? What things should I consider when picking a distro?
I always use Rocky Linux or Alma Linux, since I have extensive experience with enterprise Linux and RPM packages. I have Fedora on my main desktop computer. Both Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are rock-solid and are ideal for any kind of workload.
Also, Debian is a good choice if you know how to manage DEB packages and you feel comfortable with APT.
Fedora is a good choice if you want fresh packages and are willing to upgrade your server every 6 months (following the Fedora release cycle).
Rocky Linux and Alma Linux follow a similar slow release cycle of RHEL, wherein you can install your server and not have to worry for years (as long as the packages are updated with dnf update) Debian is also a slow release distribution, which makes it good for servers.
Apt4RPM was a beautiful thing. I wish we still had that as a common tool, as yum and its incapable 'up'grade dnf are just worse and less capable each time. I shudder at the crayon-eating that'll go into whatever 'succeeds' dnf.
I have been using
dnffor years, both on desktop and servers, and never had a problem with it. I have the opposite idea, it's getting better withdnf5, I think it's a great tool and upgrades not only the regular packages, but the entire distribution during new releases without any problem. I upgraded my notebook from Fedora 38 to 39 and finally to 40 throughdnf, no complains.