Simple one: What Varient of *nix is easiest and best for a home server?

Werewolf

Werewolf

Werewolf

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Hi

I've been meaning to try and learn more about *nix and html, so it occurred to me the obvious way might be to try to combine them both by setting up a simple server for my home network that I could play with (and possibly do a decent website that I could then move/copy onto my web hosting).

So the question is, what would be the recommended version of nix to play around with for a newbie, with a view to using it to run a private website (basically to let me try out web stuff on, on my home network not on the internet), probably using apache.

The only thing is, my budget for this is going to be small, so if possible I'd like to use an old Dell I've had lying around as it's pretty much silent and small enough that it won't take up much room (it's only a P3 700, but I should have plenty of ram for it, and it's already up and running).

Rather annoyingly, I actually threw out about 3 other systems that could have been modified to run as a server a couple of months ago (although none of them would have been as small/quiet as the dell as they were all socket A athlons).
 
I didn't mean to start an argument between users of the different distros ;)

Thanks for the advice so far, what I've decided to do is grab a pair of 80gb WD drives from my 'box'o'bits™'* and I've put them both in the Dell, with the idea that I can install Centos on one, and Debien on the other and change between them with a simple change of the drive cable (I want to avoid messing with boot manager and multiple boot OS's at the moment).



*Well one of them, I'm not sure how, but I think the parts breed when I'm not looking (it would explain the odd hybrid soundcard, modem I disposed of a while back).
 
I've run into my first minor issue with debian* - apparently there is an error with dev /ad0 during partition (it can't find it:p)

From a quick google it looks like the partition manager may not be happy.
I'm going to have a bit more of a play later (possibly use a windows disk to wipe the old windows partition that is on the drive), and probably set up one of my spare monitors, as at the moment i'm having to swap between monitor settings to check information :)

On the plus side the Dell isn't a P3 700, it's actually a P4 3.06 with 512mb of DDR ram, so better than I'd thought.


*Well apart from the first DVD I burned didn't work.
 
argh I remember the last time I tried Linux I at least managed to get to a desktop/working command line :p

I'm having problems with debian-6.0.4-kfreebsd-i386 which basically doesn't want to see the hard drive...it gets to the point where it's meant to be doing the partition then gives an error about dev /ad0
Debian 6.0.4 i386 simply gets to the install screen then gives some message about "unsupported graphics mode" (I think it is), before going weird.

And Centos 6.2 installs fine, but then I get to a login at boot that does not accept the password I gave it during the instal (reinstalled twice now to use easier passwords).
I'm not sure if it's because it didn't give me a login name and is expecting a default on (I've tried admin/Admin/ADMIN/root/Root/ROOT etc), and at the moment i'm too tired to go looking for a simple guide as I've been trying to get one or other for a large part of the day.

Wolfy is too tired to be patient tonight.
 
I'm not 100% sure why I chose the freebsd version, I think it was automatic as I recognised the name from a previous play with linux many years ago.

I've downloaded the i386 netinst image now, and will try that this evening :)
 
I got Bebian installed last night :)

I tried the netinst option but had the same graphics problem, so read the help fully and bypassed part of the automated installer via the help menu, which let me specify the graphics mode myself.

It's kind of like installing Windows 3.11 from Dos :) (I haven't done much with command lines in 10+ years).
 
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