Thanks deesto.

My delima is that I need to build a new server for my business. nothing complicated. I am stuck with Windows clients because of my business software so it just needs to do the following:

1-File and print server for Windows boxes-SAMBA is a must.

2-Internet connection with firewall, DHCP and NAT. Must support UPnP so that messenger can do video conversations thru the firewall.

3-Possible web server and email server.

4-MOST IMPORTANT-Must be EASY to administer and have lots of freindly GUI's for configuration. I'm a stupid Windows freak and I'm slow learner (Windows will do that to you).

But now I refuse to pay thousands for Windows 2k server software when I can acheive the same thing for a couple of hundred with Linux. But I want to try before I buy.

A few months ago I played with Caldera and RedHat. Caldera had lots of GUI's and I liked Web Admin to configue SAMBA but it seemed to have a lot of problems. I figure it had to do with Corel becuase my Word Perfect 10 crashes daily. Then I tried RedHat and I got so confused that I gave up.

Now Corel sold Caldera to SCO. I'm wondering if SCO has made Caldera any better?

RedHat has new GUI's to help with configuration. Is it now more "Stupid User" friendly?

Please help me find the Distro that will work for me. No need for fancy programs or new fangled hardware support, just a good solid server for the following hardware.

Asus A7V133 Mobo with 512M SDRAM.
Athlon XP 1600 CPU
2-IBM Deskstar 40G (Mirrored with onboard promise RAID).
2-D-Link NIC's
ATI video card 2XAGP (forgot the model#).

I would appreciate some suggestions on what Distros are the most "Stupid User" freindly. Not the best distro's in your situation, but the best for MY situation".

Thanks.

No problem.
As far as "stupid-friendly" distros, Mandrake or SuSE might be your best bet. Red Hat does have GUIs for most things, but not everything, and some people (myself included) have had some bad experiences with the latest version of Red Hat (8).
You can download most distros at www.linuxiso.org . Once you pick one and install it, I would suggest Webmin (www.webmin.com) for GUI administration. It's web-based and offers configuration for just about everything under the sun.

I'm Tri-booting between Redhat 8, XP and 2K. All runs well with a bit of GRUB tweaking. You need to install 2k First, then XP and then Redhat. Any other order will Screw it all up. You also have to LABEL your existing Windows Paritions when you install GRUB as your bootloader in the MBR of the Primary boot partition.

Getting NVIDIA drivers to work can be a bit tricky but it worked without hazards for me.


Only thing I should warn you of is don't use the EXT3 filesystem if you ever want to use GHOST to dupe your drive. It won't detect the FS as EXT3, but rather as EXT2 and that doesn't copy correctly.

I recommend starting with EXT2 to begin with if you are going to use GHOST at all, ever on your linux drive.

Wait till windows notices that there is a better OS on your machine, and then all hell breaks loose. I personally have Red Hat 8.0 and i love it. It looks awesome and i can't wait to fire up my new network and see how it handles being a server.

i am also brand new to linux so as i get better i am sure i will have more opinions, but for now, its is nothing but great.
<metal!!

Seems like they are setting up a 'style' (or lack there of) to move into a new domain of OS... perhaps shying away from GNU - Free SOftware! grrr er atleast it's practices. gr gr gr gr gr

personaly i do not use kde or gnome any office stuff, i just like to run as server.Everything is fine but where is my favorite console program Linuxconfig....?

Any idea?

RPM package dependencies!!!!!! AAAARRGGGHHHH!!!!!! :/

And how a distro can some with 5 CDs worth of data and no video player is beyond me?

And I cant seem to install most applications without some kind of error that something is missing. Hard to believe with 5 cds.

After 2 weeks of using RH8 I have to say that it sucks.

it's PHP + MySQL support = teh suck!

mm Do most of you use grubs to do dual bootings?

I use grub to dual boot my laptop with Win2k and RH 8.0 with no problems.

I use LILO for a 4-Linux-distro plus XP machine

grub yea. it reminds me to eat.

Also using GRUB.

LILO is also a good choice. It just depends on what you like better. For those people that like to argue about this choice, it's not really fair to say one is better than the other because it depends solely on your situation and your preference. They both accomplish the same task.

If you find out for example that one is quicker than the other on your machine(s), it doesn't automatically make that one better, because that may not be true for someone else.

If a whole bunch of LILO users want to join together and overwhelm the GRUB users with reasons why LILO is better, that still does not make LILO better than GRUB. And vice-versa.

Hope I killed that old cat.