I understand why the relay technical setup guide instructs using ORPort 443in torrc — it’s optimal for censorship circumvention but this is a privileged port and many newcomers likely won’t know that it will require granting permissions, let alone how to allow said permissions to bind the port.
Also mention the option of using ORPort auto IPv4Only as a temporary/discouraged alternative as like myself, many will struggle to find a way to make ORPort functional when only IPv4 is available and we’re still trying to figure out how to get/use permission to bind Tor to port 443.
A Fedora release is maintained for ''approximately 13 months", afterwards you have to upgrade. It seems you are not used to Linux yet, so (imho) it might be a good idea to start with something which needs less maintenance…
You do bring up a fair point, less maintenance is preferable. However, I chose Fedora because of its faster upgrade cycle – which would equate to faster security patches. I figured that would make it a more secure host for the relay. Would switching to Debian make binding Tor to port 433 any easier?
Strongly disagree with your opinion regarding the availability of security patches. You might get more recent package-versions with Fedora, but security fixes with Debian are usually blazing fast and this is no reason at all to prefer Fedora.
And yes, with Debian tor works out of the box, even on a privileged port - no questions asked
With that being clarified, I’m sold! I’ll be switching my installation to Debian later today.
Perhaps it would save people time if a hint of this was included somewhere in the guide that Debian (and any others applicable) require less setup to get Tor running. For example, a setup complexity rating with ratings “simple, involved, and complex.”
