Loooooooong story short:

Have a shared server somewhere, purely for development reasons.

Turns out my webhosting company cannot install certain modules from CPAN, and they're giving up.

I am very techy, but NOT on the Linux side of the world.

Have an unused 64 bit laptop. Do you think it's realistic of me to try and turn it into a server using RedHat and using the user supported forums?

All I need are Apache, MySQL, and some Image::Magick modules.

Do you think this is too much effort for someone who hasn't used linux commands in over a decade, and even then...was just a few memorized ones?

Honest answers allways appreciated.

Thanks,

Sergio

I'd say go for it. Other wise you will never learn linux.

Only one way to find out
I'd say do it.. doesn't hurt to give it a try.

If you dont want to pay Red Hat for support, use CentOS instead.

I wouldn't use a laptop for a server in most cases...they arent made to be run 24/7.

Why Redhat, just curious...

+1

It would only be running whilst I am developing.

I just heard it's the one to use...

No, Slackware is the one to use. All packages are in one DVD, apache, mysql, imagemagick...

You can use almost any Linux distribution as a server. The more you already know about setting up a Linux server, the less it matters which distribution you choose.
But assuming you don't already know much, I think Centos is the best choice (unless you plan to pay for support) and Slackware is not a reasonable choice.

Centos is Red Hat Enterprise Linux minus the paid support and the trademarks. For an experimental server (if that is what you mean by "development"), the license checks for update for a paid license can get in the way and the paid support likely won't fit your needs as well as the free support here at LQ. So if you think you want Red Hat, that means you want Centos.

I haven't installed Centos in a while, so I'm not sure the following is still true, but when I last installed it, that required a good internet connection (better than I have at home) to download the .iso file for the DVD (using multiple CD's for install makes it harder), then the install seems to override most of what is on the DVD by massive download from the repositories. So compared to Mepis, Ubuntu and Debian installs I've done, a Centos install needs a better internet connection (or a lot of time). So that might argue against my primary recommendation that Centos is best.

I'm sure those are very easy to install via yum right after installing Centos. I don't know if they are among the many applications and services you can select while installing Centos. It doesn't matter much whether you select them while installing Centos or add them later.

I don't know about configuring Apache or MySQL. Depending on your level of knowledge, those might require some learning.

You don't actually need much command line stuff to set up and maintain a Centos system. Quite a lot of the controls are available in beginner friendly GUIs. Those who really know the command set can do more and do it faster in command mode and often suggest everyone else should also use command mode. For most operations, I disagree. GUI is much better for operations you do only rarely and don't recall.

An exception to that is yum. Centos has at least one really lame GUI for adding, removing and updating packages. In my experience, that isn't a good enough GUI to be worth using. If you want to use Centos, learn how to do package management at the command line with yum. That really isn't difficult (yum has a significantly more beginner friendly man page than most Linux command line utilities).

Hey Sergio you should be aware that all Linux enterprise cost $$. But you should also be aware that there are community maintained projects base on enterprise developments. So if you want to use RedHat but you dont have the cash for it then you choose CentOS which is the child of RedHat.
There are more distros out there that offer networking tools already in. So really is all up to what you want.
Some people even prefer non Linux distros for server such a *BSDs or Solaris base and then use Linux for clients to access the server assuming you are going to run the server headless.

Good luck to you.

CentOS has a "netinstall" option that downloads only what you need, and the latest version too:

http://www.if-not-true-then-false.co...-installation/

I agree. An Unique Selling Point of "just because all packages reside on one DVD" isn't that strong ;-p


What he could do is D/L the CentOS-6.2-x86_64-netinstall.iso (SHA1: 4858a8870cc5048876edd51dead25b9c718fcfbe) from http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/isos/x86_64/ and do a base install. (I don't know about 6.x but Centos-5.8 base install was about 6 or 700 megs scrubbing a few packages.) After that he should run 'yum -y update' and then add the common RPMForge and EPEL repos Centos uses (see http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories) or Remi Collet if he's looking for the latest versions of MySQL and PHP.

Thanks, I'll try that the next time I install Centos. I have no reason to think the OP has a slow internet connection. I was just mentioning an issue in case he had a slow internet connection, and I am replying now in case he didn't follow the fact that your solution to the problem I hypothesized is only important if he actually has that problem.

Hi "sergioq"
well,
it could also be done with your current Windows if you install VirtualBox on your machine running Windows and then install guest OS Linux (whichever you want)

... just my suggestion.

Regards