Where do I start or "set a new home linux server"

Where do you start setting your new Linux VPS ? Well let's start with which distro should i be using ?

For me it was my old friend Ubuntu .I'm an Ubuntu user for a couple of years now  , I'm used to the shell commands and some environment settings so i choose Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server.

It came bare naked !

Just an openSSH server installed

So i had installed :

• LAMP ,apache ,mysql ,php5
  
• wordpress on it
  
• postfix as MTA
• mailscanner + spamassin for mail filtering
  
• dovcot for pop3s
• and some basic shorewall predefined rules
• MRTG for traffic
  
• and as a mistake clamav
  

All went smoothly without any issues except clamav lib which turned up to be too much resource consuming and had it removed from the VPS.

I had to have  a fall back for my mail so i set up a Google apps account and added a MX record with higher number so in case my mail server will be unavailable all mail will be routed to Google apps