Well, server 1 has sites transferred over to server 2, and now backing up things, so I'm closing in on being able to free up funds from 1 server to get onto a LAMP stack.

(Getting a bit excited about the big move! )

@wrait808

It's problematic in that a single article or two won't have the "smoking guns". But that's to be expected.

But look at it this way... they're fucking with nature in fundamental and primal ways, and they are NOT testing these monstrosities to find out if they are safe or not -- they're just releasing them on people. These people have infiltrated the FDA with yes-men. (You can verify that -- I've checked.)

They don't understand what they are doing, and they expect us to believe that it's safe? Huh? These are the same fucking people that ran Auschwitz! Like WTF?!? Dr. Mengele at the helm and we're supposed to believe them?

That's just the beginnings of the horrors. There are many more. Force sterilizations. Chemical experiments on unwilling subjects. etc. etc. etc. You can find this stuff in both the mainstream and alternative media.

I'd rather play safe than sorry. What they're doing is simply far too dangerous, even if they have good intentions, which at this point, I don't believe.

Hey Renegade,

It looks like I'm late to the party.  Good luck with your transition.

Just some thoughts in case they come in handy...
1) OpenSuSE is a pretty solid distro.  It has it's ism's, but YaST makes it a pretty strong player for a new convert.
2) Centos is RedHat.  So is Scientific Linux.  This is important as a LOT of server apps are built for RH.  99% of them can run on SuSE. It just seems that a lot of documentation assumes RedHat and so you sometimes have to translate and adjust slightly.
3) Centos/SciLinux/RedHat do not have a direct YaST replacement.  You can install something like WebMin to take up the slack.  It's really only good for 1 at a time systems, but that probably covers your need.
4) Fedora is not RedHat.  I wouldn't use it for a server.
5) Damn near everything in can be configured in a plain text file somewhere.  Most of the system stuff live in /etc. 
6) Learn the basics of vi.  It's always available and very handy for quick file edits.
7) Do use LVM for partitioning your disks.  Nothing says cool like adding a new hard drive into your existing FS structure.
EXT4 or BTRFS.  EXT4 if you want solid tools.  BTRFS if you want cutting edge. (BTRFS has it's on LVM built in... cool)

PM me if you get really stuck. I can usually find someone who knows the answer 

WOW! Thanks!

You've hit on a few things that I was wondering about already, and other points that I wouldn't really know to ask.

As for vi... sigh... Yeah... Learned it a long long time ago, used it for a bit a few years ago, and know that I'll need to use it again... It's good when you get used to it, but it's very easy to fall out of practice with it!

And thanks for that comment on Fedora -- I was wondering about it as it seems like everyone offers it as an option.

At the moment, I'm very strongly leaning towards SuSe, and your comment on OpenSuSe has me perked about that. I'll need to have a peek on it.

Thank again!

Let me toss in my 2cp worth here 

Fedora is what Red Hat uses as their "bleeding edge" testing ground, so it's not near as stable as Red Hat Enterprise, and has a much shorter release time frame.  As others have said, don't use it for a server OS.

CentOS is Red Hat Enterprise repackaged to be free, so if you like Red Hat, that's the way to go.

Personally, I like Debian, so I'll put in a nod for that.  Debian is what powers many other distro's out there including Ubuntu.  I have been using Debian on my servers and it's not only rock solid, but updates and any security fixes are taken care of right away, and they have a long release cycle so you don't have to worry about OS upgrades all the time, and you get support for what you are running for a long time.

As for CMS's, if you like DotNetNuke, the check out PostNuke on the *nix side.  Both are based on PHPNuke which started out a looong time ago, it's just that with these others, you get the features without all the bugs and security holes! 

As for hosting options, I'd like to mention ServerBeach.  I know you have mentioned going the VPS route, but with ServerBeach you can lease a dedicated server for under a hundred bucks a month.  That's for a low powered server, but one that gets the job done depending on just what you want to do with it, and how many sites you want to host.  If you catch a special, you can get some even better deals too.  I have been a customer there for eight or nine years now and have had literally perfect service with this company.  They started off as part of Rackspace, but got spunoff and sold to Peer1.  All in all they are a great company to deal with, with good prices and great support.  The servers they lease are "un-managed", which means it's a do it yourself gig, but for me, that's just what I wanted. 

If you need any help, or have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a private message or reply here, and I'll be glad to help in any way I can.

Hope this helps, thanks!

Laz