So I’ve been working on getting Apache all set up on here and also getting a mailserver going. It’s just not a fun task. After spending hours trying to figure out why my virtual servers weren’t working in Apache, I found out that it was the “SELinux” garbage that I installed that was causing me problems. It completely changes all the permissions rules for Apache so that only files owned by ‘root’ can be read. Now why would I want root to own everything? I suppose you could argue that it keeps an arbitrary user from being able to run content that might cause your box problems. But if I setup the box properly, then only certain people can access my virtual web servers anyway. I can also setup Apache to run pages as the specified user and control how much CPU time, memory and other resources they get. So why would I want everything owned by root? I thought the best way to secure a box is to do as little as the root user as possible?
The mailserver setup is tedious also. I haven’t finished that yet. I think I can receive incoming mail on it now, but I haven’t even tried. I suppose today I just don’t have the patience for it. I think that is why Microsoft products are popular with some. They don’t have the patience to take care of all the tiny details that one might have to worry about in Linux. Maybe I’ll finish that up tonight, but most likely I will not even bother.