Text 8079, 64 rader
Skriven 2006-11-20 22:34:04 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
   Kommentar till text 8055 av Bob Klahn (1:275/311)
Ärende: server
==============
On or about: 11-18-06  17:01, Bob Klahn did engage All regarding, but not
limited to: server

 BK> Ok, Suddenly I may have a "NEW" computer. It's a Compaq Deskpro
 BK> EN, 733MHZ pentium III. Don't even know how much ram. It had XP
 BK> running on it, but it had to be wiped as it came from a business
 BK> office. I was thinking of going back to the original OS, Win 98,
 BK> but I plan to use this as a server for my home network. So, Linux
 BK> comes to mind.

Hello Bob. (In chorus, as in a twelve step meeting. B-)

If my past experience (Mostly on the HW side.) is indicative, you should have
no issues with your box, other than finding the right sized Torx driver. Often,
a medium sized slot screwdriver (Don't know the #.) will suffice. Desk Pros'
are still proprietary in many - many ways, but most of the stuff can be
circumvented by generic, off the shelf parts should the need arise. Most
kernels should be a turn-key solution for it, but you might want to find out
about what I-O chips are used, the brand and model of onboard NIC, vid card,
and that sort of thing.

I will likely echo MKs words, in recommending Slackware. You may need to
approach the install in a couple of different ways before you become
comfortable with it, but it is very straightforward to operate. Others can
limit your options with future program installation. Even if they install
easier, does not always indicate that they will be easier to maintain. (I beg
for corrections on this, or any of my comments.)

I will try to caution you, *not* to stop on the cusp of success. What I mean by
that, is when a person is one tweak, and a file edit from a smokin'
installation, they usually give up. There's no shame in that, but the rewards
are never theirs.

What I might suggest, is:

        A) Visit your library, not so much for the reading material, but for
the books that include distributions on optical media. The first few chapters
will be old news to you, very fast. The rest may quagmire you with quirks
specific to each distribution. Start your nuts and bolts research off, when you
settle on a favorite flavour. Concentrate on partitioning ideology for the
time. EG: Provided you have enough RAM, I've found, and read the swap partition
is almost a non-issue. I think you "need" one, and it has to be a cirtain size,
but is used so little... (</= 0.5G)

        B) Try out as many of those distributions as you can, before you settle
on a flavour you will be comfortable working with. I will again plug Slackware,
even though I doubt you will find anything in book form on it.

        C) Visit the Compaq website, (It might be folded into HP by now.) and
fill up on their "Service Packs" or whatever they are calling them now. There
is a "Setup" set, that runs the whole BIOS program from DOS floppies. That will
be a necessity.

Good luck!




... James

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