I'm unfamiliar with Debian (obviously), so I downloaded the live ISO thinking it might help me out. From the live GUI, I doubled click on the install icon on the desktop and proceeded – it gave me a install with GNOME and a bunch of other software that has no business being on a web server. Generally.
So the first part of my question is,can I install the base/non-GUI version from the Live disc? If so, how? If not, can someone point me to the correct download for the amd64 bit version?
A side question – is going with Debian over Ubuntu really going to yield that much of a performance increase? I'd like to warm up to Debian because there is a strong likelihood that I'll encounter it professionally, so it will be a good learning experience. If there isn't much difference between it and Ubuntu's server edition, I may just go with that because I know that distro better. Since this is a learning exercise for me, would anyone have any additional or other suggestions or considerations for me?
I basically want what would be the Debian equivalent to Ubuntu Server – a simple, bare-bones, non-GUI OS. I'd prefer to install my http server as well – I'm not yet sure if I'll be going with Apache or Nginx or handling http requests my self in node.js…
Best Answer
Download the netinstall iso, boot it and select non-graphical install. I actually made a video once for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOGSupJury4
The difference between ubuntu and debian is the way they are doing package testing. Debian is all about stability and ubuntu is more about all the new things (less stability).