need help with web stuff.
 

it has been a while since i've played with linux. i stopped due to other activities and school. but the summer and graduation are close by and before i go to college i want to get settled into linux again, because im sure that it is where most of my interest lie.

i thought a good 'project' that will help me ease back into linux would be to start a site and have it hosted on linux. however there are a lot of newbish things that i have questions about.
i am familiar with windows (aren't we all?) and how it works as far as hosting, web design, etc. but ive not a clue how it differs from linux or how to use linux to host.... or to design. all of the 'designing' i had done had been with dreamweaver and im not sure if it's compatable with linux. also i hear it is easier to insert such things as perl and what not into the site but have no clue where to even begin or what to use it for.

i hope i kinda gave the jist of what information i am trying to obtain. perhaps a simple link to newbie guide to linux and relations with it and the web.

bah im such a newb, lol. thanks for anyhelp to get me back on my feet!

Web hosting on Linux is pretty easy (as witnessed by the fact that I manage to do it). Your question, however, is a bit broad, so I'll just throw out some basic information. The primary Web server used on Linux is the Apache httpd. You can find out more about it at http://httpd.apache.org -- I'd suggest using it, as it's pretty easy to find help on the net for it.

Assuming you want dynamic content, you have many, many choices. PHP is a popular scripting language -- see www.php.net for details. I like PHP a lot. Also, you can do CGI scripting with Perl, Python, or any other language. Perl and Python can be integrated directly into Apache (mod_perl and mod_python), which increases performance but has some security implications that you should be aware of. You can also use Servlets (Java server side scripting) with Tomcat, which is another Apache product and can be integrated with the httpd.

You might want to look at getting a simple Apache install set up and serving static content as a first step and then go on to developing dynamic stuff.

thank you very much!

yes, my post was really vauge, but i really needed a place to just start from scratch and apprently apache is where i begin to look into. thank you for your help. im not looking to jump into PHP or CGI right away i just wasn't sure as to what the name was for those more dynamic languages (if that is what you call it). again thanks alot!