Can I run Linux mint on a Dell R610?

BTW

What would you recommend as an OS?

Thanks

The only "supported" Linux distros are RHEL and SUSE. You may have luck with others, but those are the only ones tested by Dell. Ubuntu has tested 14.08 and 18.08 on the R610, so they would be fine if you are looking for Linux … not that that includes only the SERVER releases of Ubuntu. Ubuntu does NOT test the Desktop release on servers, so again that falls to you to test. 

If you are going to be doing mission critical services/data on it, then you'll want something supported. if it is not super important or there is some tolerance for downtime or random/occasional issues, then try Mint (I'm not saying you will experience downtime or issues, but you should not have the expectation that there will not be any).

All current Windows versions will work on this machine, as will ESXi (then you could run your Linux distros as VM's).

Thanks! I will keep this in mind!

no role stated,  say 1 HDD and simple file server of some kind, what is PURPOSE (ROLE)? 10,000 possible.

look on your dell support page R610 ,  been there yet and click OS tab?

what you see there is what Dell Support, (all)

so if not there ,  you are on your own

or go to mint forum , google that. and go there and ask there but you many find not answer but why not try it first.

The server will not catch fire,  try it. see what it does,  the dell support applications may not run at all or be flaky.

click OS here. tab

wysiwyg:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-r610/drivers

SecureBoot disabled?

Hello,

I just attempted to install Mint 19.1 (Cinnamon) on an R610 I have here, but it wouldn't even begin to load the installer. I tried twice, but both times got the same behavior; the installer did not even begin to load.

If you know you want a Linux flavor, I can say that I have successfully loaded versions of Cent, RHEL, Ubuntu, and Debian. SuSE has official support, so it should also work.

As for a recommendation, it really comes down to what you know and what the server's role is going to be. Hard to make any recommendations without knowing those. 

Ok, just checking :)

Some Linux distros have valid certs for SecureBoot, some don't.

Yep, that was a lesson I learned the hard way when I was trying to get some Linux version installed at home some years ago. I don't know how long I was at it until I just happened to try disabling Secure Boot and it came right up.  I was living in an area with dial up internet only and a terrible cell signal at the time and just had to grind away trying different things.

LM should run fine on it, im running LM 19.1 x64 on a PowerEdge T310 and works fine, even have Virtualbox on it running Windows 7 and Windows 10. It's a Xeon with only 8GB Ramm at the moment but upgrading to 16 shortly.

Much better also with an added 1GB nVidia video card. Not sure what the specs on your R610 is but probobly newer that mine.

WHat's the specs on your R610?