Hey All,

It's been quite some time sinçe I have been here, but let me get straight to my point.

I was thinking with all of the Linux distros that have been created/attempted, I haven't seen any that could really help the webmaster a whole lot...listen up developers, here is the idea.

First, based on the Auto Installer for Lamp / WordPress, note I personally don't prefer WordPress at all, and I would rather use LEMP over LAMP but that's not important for now. Here is what is:

I would like to see developers focus on distributions that make the general process of installing a Ubuntu distribution (as example) with the latest version of Ubuntu including LEMP sever PLUS WordPress all from the distribution download. We shouldn't have to download ANYTHING AFTER INSTALLING the distribution, just configure it.

Note: On the latest version, I mean to have some coded variable that automatically downloads the latest version (as of the current date) as I have seen some scripts of this type that when I eventually downloaded and tried it, I couldn't get the script working because the version was no longer available.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, I don't prefer WordPress, but I am more of straight php code type person over the WordPress like cms person. So I was thinking along the lines of a Linux distribution with php based scrips setup for different types of websites. Say for example, a distro that after it is installed has a script plus theme for that particular website. E-commerce as example, in which plugins can be developed and loaded into that distribution for that particular script.

End result should be creating Linux distributions that give the website owner/admins a one-shot installation that when finished, puts them in the drivers seat in terms of being ready to configure their website.

Regardless if the website was a Blog, Photo-Gallery, E-Commerce Site, or whatever...

Note: I would also encourage developers to code in their own scripts into the Linux Distribution such as:

E-commerce based (self explanatory)
Donation based self explanatory)
Entertainment based (joke sites, emulation sites)

Note: Even if you have use ideas from other e-Commerce websites wouldn't be a bad idea, but don't go beyond using the ideas, stick to your programming skills / brand, but use ideas from the other scripts, but don't try and take a premium php script for example and build a Linux Distro from it, I am just suggesting on building the linux distro, and creating your own php scripts into the distro, sort of like what Retro-Pi has done for the retro gaming scene.

Hope I explained it good enough!

Good luck in your ventures and if you need some more ideas I can be of some help in the idea department, especially for e-commerce based sites.

I am hoping some of you already have a foundation already set for something like this as I would like to see what you have done so far, and maybe I can be of some help...

Brian

Hi Brian, welcome to the forum

What you're describing is definitely not in my area of expertise but perhaps your ideas might be integrated into a distribution at some point in the future.

Regards...

I like the gist of your idea.

If it were me doing it, I'd implement your LEMP environment as a package (or a set thereof) and drop it into the install iso before writing it to the installation media (dvd or thumbdrive). That way there's nothing to download after installation, just a package install from local media, and you avoid the overhead of maintaining an entire distribution.

If the extra step of adding packages to the install set (and maybe removing others to make it all fit on a dvd) seems like too much of a hassle, the project could provide a script which does it automatically (takes install iso as input, writes it to a filesystem so it can be modified, removes some packages, installs the LEMP packages, creates a new iso as output).

Huh, Slackware comes with LAMP stack out-of-box, it only needs to be configured. Sounds like almost exactly what you are looking for. (Aside from nginx.)

I did look into nginx some time ago when setting up my server and it is available on SBo, plus some other packages like phpMyAdmin, WordPress, etc.

Rolling your own ISO with custom packages is a breeze with scripts that are currently available from AlienBOB.

I'm not trying to sway you to/away from your distro of choice, but if you can run/admin a Slackware server you will be way ahead of the curve and then customizing your own distro of choice would be (with a little learning) a breeze.

Hello and welcome to LQ.


I'm not against your ideas, just pointing out current.

There are hundreds of pre-made virtual machine images out there. Any one could be installed to a physical system. Places like Turnkey linux offer built images.

There are web sites like SuseStudio to create a custom distro.

Popular distros tend to offer users a number of things. They usually aren't limited by design. One feature is the ability to install a large number of common programs.

Nice concept, but likely an ultimate disaster in the making.

If I have read it right, you want a distro that a newbie/computer illiterate can install, fill in the blanks, & have a server up & running on the internet.

Who is going to maintain this server? What happens when it gets hacked? How is it going to be updated?

No, I think someone who wants to run a server should at least have some knowledge of the pitfalls they will be faced with, & have an idea of how to deal with the problems, after all, the website may be linked to their bank account.

Maybe I misunderstood the original post, but it sounded to me like he wants a distribution that experienced LEMP developers (such as himself) can use to instantiate functionally complete LEMP servers, needing only configuration and not downloading of additional packages.