DigitalDilemma

Pack it into a json or CSV oneline string and shove it in a CLI password manager you can access in a scriptable way from both users. (I use the linux tool, ‘pass’ for this).

Alternatively, save it to a dropfile that only both users can access.

No idea, but ArchWiki has some of the best linux documentation around.

For a server os, do things like consider stability and ease of upgrading between major versions.

Debian does both of those things extremely well.

If you’re playing around with changing distros and your data is valuable, I’d try and find somewhere to back it up to, myself.

Ok - and what sort of cpu load do they have?

htop will also show the cpu bars and the breakdown of that - whether it’s pure cpu or iowait, which is when the cpu can’t do anything because it’s waiting on disk or network.

And how’s your memory usage looking?

I’m guessing you’ve already turned it off and on again. If not, seriously, do that. It works more time than it doesn’t for random weirdness.

Run ‘htop’ and sort by CPU (it’s a friendlier and better version of ‘top’. That’ll show you what processes are using the most CPU

Whilst you’re in there, check the free memory. If that’s low, or swap usage is high, then use htop to sort by memory usage to find what’s using the most.

If you see processes you don’t recognise, hit google and find out why. It’s very unlikely they’re malicious, but it’s far less common on linux than Windows to have random processes doing unknown stuff. If it’s using a lot of cpu or memory, there’ll be a reason. It might be a dumb reason, but you will be able to find it out.

And then when you know what the guilty process is, if it is that, and it’s not critical - you can stop it with systemctl and narrow down what’s afoot.

Debian for about two decades: It would take something pretty major to shift me - probably a hostile takeover, major policy shift or commercialisation, none of which is likely.

At worked we shifted from Centos to Rocky for the obvious reason, and are happy with the choice so far.