danny - 4:38 am on May 12, 2007 (gmt 0)

I recommend getting a managed server - one where you're the only person using it, but the hosting service will install updates and upgrades and generally look after things for you.

This may restrict what you can do a bit - they will probably only support certain distributions and configurations - but unless you want real bleeding-edge stuff it shouldn't constrain you much at all.

I'm a professional Linux system administrator myself, but if my web sites were big enough to warrant a dedicated server I'd probably still get someone else to manage it for me. What happens if there's a major security bug found while I'm away for two months, for example?