Hi guys. I have an old computer at home that has 64mo RAM and is a Pentium 180Pro with 4G of HD. Its not doing anything, and I was wondering what I could do with it. I have a website that uses PHP and MYSQL running on some linux webhost. I would like to set up my own server, mainly for the reason that I want to get experience on how to do it. I have cable Internet access, so its pretty fast. I wonder if with this old computer it would be feasible to run it as a web server, and if it would have a decent speed (to run the database requests and render the pages with Apache). I guess I would have to run Linux as a terminal (I have a copy of RedHat 9 and Ubuntu with me, but I couldnt possibly install Ubuntu 5.10 when I tried last time; didnt check with RH yet). So if it is possible to do this, do you know any good tutorials on the subject?

Thank you!
Maxime

Download the ISO for either 6.0.1 or 6.5 RC of MITEL e-smith. Burn it and install. Presto .. Redhat Linux 7.3 running PHP. Should take less than an hour after you've burned the CD to be up and running. That box is going to be _slow_, but that's just the way it is.

okay, I'm a newbie, so this site is not letting me post the url directly .. so you're goig to have to figure this one out:

double-ewe, double-ewe, double-ewe dot contribs dot org

I wonder though, since it will run as a server, do I really need to use the graphical interface, or should I just run it from the terminal, and then with ssh? This way, all I'll need to plug is the power and the ethernet cable. Is it possible?
And if I run it in the terminal, can I then get newer versions? Otherwise I still have RH 7.2 which can run GNome.

You are TOTALLY going to love e-smith. It does _not_ run X or any other GUI as it's aimed at being a server/firewall and installation is bullet-proof. PHP will run out-of-the-box. It'll serve DHCP addresses or get one from your DHCP server. You can set it up so you connect to it with SSH. I do that, but as a security precaution, it is not set up like that after installation.

Alright thanks for the info!
Do you think I should get the latest one 7.0, even though it is stated as a Pre-Release but it is said to be the current version?

Thanks,
Maxime

Of course you could, but I have no experience with it. I can speak to 6.0.1: It's a full release. 6.5 is an RC abandoned in favour of 7. 7 is also an RC and a whole new ball of wax on a new distro. If you're not using it as a firewall they it will _probably_ be just fine. I'm using my install 6.0.1 with latest yum updates) as a firewall. There's no way I'm going to use something that's only a couple of weeks old for security reasons. I generally think that the newer OS's tend to expect that your PC is faster and more powerful so they push the envelope. With an old box like you've got and presumably a fairly simple PHP set, if I were you, I'd go with what I knew was going to work with an older system, i.e. 6.0.1. YMMV. If you do go with 7, I'd like to hear how you made out.

OK thx for the info. I'll give a try to 6.0.1, and see if I like it. I'll look after for some tutorials on how to set it up and make sure its all secure, unless I see its pretty straightforward.