I'm trying to become better with Linux, from a server standpoint. I'm going to try and get a few tasks together that will help me learn the OS better. I've already thought of installing and configuring Apache and Samba. What else would be a quality learning experience for me? I'm not looking for anything too tough.

ssh, remote admin, all types of monitoring, logging, srtc.

play around also in making everything routine...ie. scripting

and most important, have fun!

Yeah, scripting seems like something really important in Linux administration. I'll probably end up just writting some java code for that stuff when I get to it.

Configuring Apache and Samba will help you learn for sure. I haven't done Apache (yet) but I've 2 Samba file/print servers setup and its been a hoot to learn (and not that difficult if you don't mind reading).

If you have access to a few extra PCs (maybe old ones) you can try what I'm planning to do in a few months (I have some old p100s and 496es lying around). I'm planning to set up a streaming MP3 server of some sort with the old machines placed around the house as audio stations...that sort of thing.

Should be fun to figure out.

Yeah, the samba file server should be a fun time for me. I've got a few PCs laying around, so I figured I'd put them to good use. I've also got a second router laying around. I should probably figure out how to get that setup as well. I'd then have 8 ports and two internal networks.

It would be a good idea to learn Perl well enough that you can at least read other people's scripts. For your own scripting, some simple Perl skills might be more what you need than Java, and it's not too hard to pick up for anyone with previous programming experience.

I'm a Perl fan (can you tell? ), but to be fair, there are a lot of people who prefer Python for sysadmin and general scripting tasks. Tcl/Tk also has a following.