simn_stv

:-\ ...really?

I first started out with Redhat 9 back in '05; solid distribution and wonderful package management system backed by a pretty solid company. I'd recommend use of Redhat based systems (CentOS precisely) on servers. I use Ubuntu on my workstation (Desktop installation) and i've had to patiently fix issues manually, i've never used the server version of Ubuntu but my experiences with the desktop it keeps me away from using it on a production server. Debian on the other hand is very solid but the learning curve is a bit steeper which may not be an issue for you, it depends.

I'd just build straight for PHP 5. 3rd party modules can be plugged into (most probably) your framework of choice frameworks.

CodeIgniter is pretty straightforward and quite powerful, for some deeper level stuff, cakePHP or Zend Framework will do!

md5 and sha1 hashes are probably not 100% secure, but what is ever 100%??... using appropriate salts for your hashes could be suitable for the app ure working on. Of the 2, i'd go with sha as it has a larger bit length (160 i think) compared to md5 (128-bits) and as a result more secure, "for some definition of security" ; )...

took me about three days to get amp running on my linux system, but trust me it was worth the exercise, cos of the amount of stability and control i have...did i mention that the installations were from source ... so i'd go with linux (or any *NIX) as a preferred server OS anyday...

just download your versions of mysql (http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/) and configure them to different ports...should do the trick.

sure ubuntu is good candidate for a newbie but i really doubt if debian could be classified as an easy distro for any newbie to use as a first... in my own experience, it's even easier to pick up and get up to speed with fedora/centos than it is with the "almighty" debian ... but if such a newbie just itches for something a bit harder than the norm, then u could use the debian, help abounds everywhere though so he might no have problems as such.. i would also like to recommend suse, fedora, centos, mandriva...just a few