Pre-installed Linux for web developers?

Question

Does anyone know the ISO image of the updated Linux distribution intended for web developers with one, some, or all of the following features:

• The LAMP stack is easy to configure (Apache 2 is easy to install, the directory structure of virtual sites (hosting), PHP is installed, mySQL is installed)

• Ruby / RoR is set up for beginners to start with

• Subversion configured for multiple repositories

• The firewall is configured to act as a web server (port 80 is open, not by much)

• Python and Trac are installed and integrated with Apache (with support for Multi-Environment)

Background:

I have a powerful new workstation and you want to configure several virtual machines for testing, development and version control, preferably on Linux. Cars will not be available to the public.

I would like to save as much installation as possible and set up the work - setting up everything that from the above list will cost me weeks if I do it myself.

Bounty

I had to put this on the shelf now due to other, more pressing projects. The proposals made are already a brilliant list; I asked generosity to try to collect as much information as possible, so this may be a reference question on this issue for future generations.

I will reward generosity, either on the basis of popular voting, or on a whim, from what looks like the best solution for me.

Answer 1

Seriously, I think it's best to create your own. Some people, for example, use Redmine instead of Trac. Finding a preconfigured virtual machine with these specific settings will be difficult.

So, having “create your own” as a prerequisite, I believe that you have the following options:

Use the VM Aware distribution

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The Ubuntu server comes to mind: it has the ability to set up a minimal installation specific to virtual machines .

Download the ISO image of the server, boot from it, press F4 on the initial screen and select "Install Minimal Virtual Machine".

• Less than 380 MB of installed space
• Specialized server core (-virtual)
• Optimized for VMWare ESX, VMWare Server, and Intel or AMD x86 KVM architecture.
• 128 MB minimum memory
• The graphical environment is not preloaded because it targets the server’s virtual device.

IMHO, you will spend no more than a day setting up your virtual machine to your tastes, not weeks. Using apt-get will save you some time in almost all packages in your feature list.

... and if you want even more customization, you can even try using vmbuilder .

vmbuilder is a script that automates the process of creating a ready-to-use VM based on Ubuntu. No need for a JeOS CD image. Currently supported hypervisors are KVM, Xen, and VMware.

Use a well-known distribution and “split it up”

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Install and separate some functions or create a small image in real time and use it.

Use Linux From Scratch (LFS) and build the system only with the necessary software

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This is the most difficult question and you will spend a lot of time.

But you can have a really small distribution and understand how the Linux system works. Understanding how everything works, you can only install what is needed in your setup and use lighter executables such as Busybox .

There is an old project called Debian From Scratch (the last update since 2006, so I don’t know how reliable it is) to run the same LFS, but using Debian.

(...) is a unique distribution that allows you to install a Debian system with almost the same level of control as what you get with Linux From installing Scratch, but with Debian Benefits (easy to upgrade and maintain).

You just want a complete Damn Small Linux solution

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Well, you can try Damn Small Linux , it's only 50 MB and Debian Based, and I consider this the most famous minimal distribution ( you can check out more distributions on this list ). I just don't know how this will work in a web server development scenario.

Final tip

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In all situations above, after configuration, save your virtual machine as standard for future use. Or better, use snapshots, each of which has slight differences that may occur with your installation (be careful, although managing too many snapshots can be a little cumbersome).

"I do not want to customize my own"

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If for some reason you didn’t like my approaches or I didn’t have too much time to follow my advice (“create your own virtual machine”), you can check this question on ServerFault . There is a list for a bunch of devices from different distributions.

... but if you are going to test a bunch of them to make sure they meet your needs, why not just use the time taken to create them?

Icing on the cake: use Vagrant to control vms.

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Vagrant is a tool for creating and distributing virtualized development environments.

By providing the automatic creation and provision of virtual machines using Oracles VirtualBox, Vagrant provides tools to create and configure lightweight, reproducible and portable virtual environments.

This means that Vagrant helps you automate a lot of things that you usually do when creating a new virtual machine (these functions are listed on the official website):

• Automatically create a virtual machine using Oracle VirtualBox
• Automatically provision virtual environments using Chef, Puppet, or just shell scripts
• Full SSH access for created environments
• Assign a static IP address for your virtual machine, accessible from your computer.
• Forward ports to host
• Shared folders allow you to continue using your own editor.
• Batch environments in redistributable boxes
• Tear down the environment completely when you are done
• Easily rebuild a complete environment with a single command

I would create vm with the same configuration (well, almost the same) as my production server, so some platform issues will not appear only during deployment.

Answer 2

Configure the version of Debian or Ubuntu Server Edition. It is easy to configure, and it takes one day to install / configure everything that you indicated above with the help of training programs, even if you are a beginner, and nothing is buggy.

Answer 3

This is a very specific list! The quick execution of my Google-fu leads me to Noys , who pre-installed the following software.

• Apache 2.2
• MySQL 5.0
• MySQL Admin
• MySQL Query Browser
• PHP 5.2 with some important extensions (PDO, MySQL, PEAR)
• Xdebug
• NetBeans 6.5
• Subversion with Nautilus Integration
• Firefox 3.0.7 with some great extensions (Firebug, web developer toolbar, Greasemonkey)
• gFTP
• GIMP 2.6

Any distribution with a decent package manager should make sure you work a lot for you.

Answer 4

Try searching the VMWare device catalog . Select "Operating Systems" and find "LAMP"

Answer 5

I do not know one thing. I would suggest creating your own distribution or image. If so, please distribute it.

Answer 6

You can try turnkeylinux . They have all the necessary images from the LAMP stack in ROR.

Answer 7

Why don't you use one of the BitNami stacks depending on the specifications of the project? It seems to be a waste of resources to install on just one virtual machine (unless you really need all the time).

http://bitnami.org/stack/

Personally, I would create a virtual machine with the installation of a Ubuntu (or Debian) server and just apt-get the necessary packages needed for the project. If you are having trouble installing the full LAMP stack, take a look at HowToForge manuals . Installing most projects - with standard configurations - is really not that difficult.

BTW "Configuring Subversion for Multiple Repositories" - you can create as many repositories as you want using svnadmin, you only need to install subversion ( apt-get install subversion ) and configure your repo after creating them.

Answer 8

There is one that I know about the name Excelixis 1.0 (formerly Workbench linux). Check it out here: - http://excelixis.wordpress.com/excelixis-details/

It is based on Ubuntu 8.04, and the ISO developer seems to suggest that with the next Ubuntu LTS (10.04) there may be an update for it.

It has the following predefined: -

Development

 * GCC, G77, Sun JDK, FPC, Python * Eclipse (+ All Callisto Repository Plugins) * NetBeans 6 * Monodevelop * Anjuta * Glade * Gambas 2 * Lazarus * wxGlade 

Web Design & Development

 * Apache, PHP, MySQL Servers (XAMPP) * Kompozer * Bluefish * gPHPEdit * Cssed Editor 

Development utilities

 * SVN WorkBench * Geany * PoEdit * HexEditor * ManEdit * Umbrello UML Modeler * regExxer (advanced search & replace tool) 

Graphic arts

 * GIMP * Inkscape 

Network

 * Firefox Web Browser * Thunderbird Mail/News Client * Filezilla FTP Client * Transmission Bittorrent Client * Wireshark Packet Sniffer * Pidgin Instant Messenger 

Answer 9

Turnkey Linux is the solution;)

http://www.turnkeylinux.org/

Answer 10

Since I know no boundaries, I was just listening to my provider. He sent me his apt.list servers and batch selection (Debian Linux). Also, I got a truncated Apache httpd.conf, so I could configure almost 100% emulation of my actual web server.

This is not a turnkey solution, but very useful if you want to test your deployment. Although I used it rarely, and ooops IIRC he was on a stolen laptop.

Answer 11

You can check our project, BitNami you can get either separate virtual machines or installers for Trac, LAMP, MySQL, Rails, etc. Its beauty (in addition to freedom) lies in the fact that you can mix and match installers using a modular system and create an ideal environment (aka "stack"). Stacks are autonomous, so when you don't need them, you can simply delete them. You can store multiple stacks at the same time and they will not interfere

Answer 12

I don’t know the one that specifically meets these requirements, but I experimented with bootable CDs of PCLinux OS, where you can intensively configure the system after it starts (installing directly from the Internet using easy-to-use tools) - I'm not sure if it saves the resulting image, but if you run it in vmware, then instant shooting of the system does not require any problems.

If you want to create your own image (e'g ', if you need to redistribute the boot image), I would suggest you look at the linux puppy, which is very easy to configure.

FROM.

Answer 13

Check out eBox and features

Answer 14

You said you were looking for virtual machines, so I looked at VMWare devices and found two that might interest you

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/289

 Trac Python Subversion (Client and server components) Apache web server PostgreSQL MySQL SQLite The underlying operating system is OpenBSD. ruby18-base-1.8.4nb1 Ruby 1.8 based release minimum package ruby18-subversion-1.3.0nb3 Ruby bindings for Subversion 

The only thing missing is PHP and Ruby on Rails, which should not be difficult to install on your own.

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/134

 Apache2 (2.0.54) PHP (4.4.0) MySQL (4.1.12) PostgreSQL (8.1.2-1) phpPgAdmin (3.5.6) Ruby 1.8.4 Ruby on Rails (1.1.2) 

Both of them seem to contain most, but not all, of what you are looking for.

This last link seems to have Ruby and php, but I'm not sure what else. I'm not going to check the torrent site for work lol.

http://www.kickasstorrents.com/ubuntu-php-ruby-on-rails-django-web-development-vmware-appliance-t3040351.html

Hope this helps

Answer 15

I don’t know if this is available!

Actually, in accordance with the above answers, most likely, it is not available. A team can be created for this.

The demand must be improvised, and the team can work on it and release it as an open source.

What do you guys feel? (I would be happy to be part of this team.)

Answer 16

How about this?

http://lamppix.tinowagner.com/

Answer 17

SuseStudio.com

Create a device - or your own custom Linux distribution - with a few clicks. Customize it in your heartfelt content and share it with the world!

SUSE Studio is an online Linux image creation tool for Novell. Users can develop their own Linux OS, device software, or virtual device, basically choosing which applications and packages they want for their “regular” Linux and what it looks like. In addition, they can choose between openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, GNOME, and KDE, as well as many other features. The user can create a fully functional system with Firefox, 3D graphics and any applications that he or she can find installed. SUSE studio that powered the fan "Chrome OS", which was a semi-partitioned system loaded with a version of the Google Chrome developer, a Google links web application and OpenOffice.

Answer 18

Your question doesn’t quite fit, but maybe something else you are asking about:

You can create linux servers that are ideally suited to your needs with the PuPHPet.com GUI . This allows you to choose everything: from the PHP version to MySQL, phpmyadmin, packages, etc.

The resulting configuration file can be used to configure a real server (see page) in a few minutes and with one click or create a local virtual machine with these parameters automatically using Vagrant (which is a technology that creates virtual machines from small configuration files that you create e.g. from puphpet.com).

I wrote a very detailed guide on this. Even if you are completely new to PuPHPet and Vagrant, you can set up professional (!) Linux servers.

How to configure (or several) a server / LAMP stack inside a virtual machine for local development using Vagrant and PuPHPet

Answer 19

Clinker

It covers all aspects of software development, and they call themselves the software development ecosystem.

It includes:

Repositories (Git + SVN)
Continuous Integration (Jenkins)
Checking the source code (sonar)
Repository Management (Nexus)
Project Management (Trac + Redmine)
Deployment Environment (Jelastic + Engine Yard + Heroku)

They have both a hosted solution and a free installation package.

Answer 20

Use the Puphet Gui tool, which is ideal for linux website developers with customization options that you can simply select, it creates a package in the ur environment, and you can just execute it. It creates a virtual machine and installs all the packages on this machine.

Handy: https://puphpet.com/