Really? Wow, I did not know that. I am using KDE for the GUI. Is their a reason for not using either package? So, it would just be the Command-Line? Learn something everyday. Thanks
Security is the main concern, the X Windowing system has never been all that in terms of security - I think they still recommend you don’t run it on any Internet exposed servers (don’t quote me on that though). You’re presenting a much larger attack surface to any hackers etc. the more you have installed on a server.
I’ll just add. If you go with linux, I would choose CentOS also. I have it on a box (along with Win Server box), and couldn’t be more pleased with it. Very easy to use, Great UI, and easy to find your way around. It’s the closest you’ll get to a Windows OS…without the price.
CentOS is a Linux distribution, it’s based off of a well known distribution of Linux and is used by many hosting companies - Your best bet is to get an old PC and try it on there, or a cheap VPS from somewhere like VPS.net and have a play around with it.
Installing MySQL with CentOS is pretty trivial for the standard version that comes with the OS i.e.:
yum install mysql-server
Similar for PHP:
yum install php
Although to work with nginx you’ll need to do a bit more than that as advised in the above articles.