what would be the best distro for a web server that can serve about 30 people at a time without blinking? preferably easy to use cuz i have never used linux much before.... but i know its more secure that windows server editions! (and cheaper...)

Any distro will do, but some are simpler to administer than others. Some distros are optimised as server distributions and others as general distros that can be used for multiple purposes. I personlly prefer CentOS.

thanks, i forgot to say, i need somthing pritty (read: very) unbloated as im going to be running this on a machine with a <500mhz processor probabally (or possibly a duel slot 1 PII system)

Well, try something like Slack or Debian. I am sure CentOS or RHEL will run fine on your processor if you just install the packages you need and use a lightweight gui.

packages?

and doesnt slack require compileing..... i dont have a clue what compiling is.... let alone how to do it

I'd stick with a trimmed down version of suse of mandrake with a light gui (or no gui once you have it set up)... That would be easier for you...

Can you be a bit more specific about how you want to do this. Is it for a local lan or via adsl or T1? I have some info and links on adsl Internet servers on my site at http://www.oats.org.uk/linux/server.htm .

Have a look at SME Server 6

easy to set up
good documentation

http://contribs.org/modules/news/

live long and prosper
floppy

Dude, go for Debian woody (stable branch).

debian woody? linky?

and this is for a web server to hoast websites for people to access over the internet, and its ADSL

whats T1 lol?

edit: i forgot to say i will need to be able to set up ftp accounts for differnt people so they can access only certain folders, how would i do this?

Here goes....

As usual, ANY distro will work...Personally I recommend FreeBSD over Linux for webservers, as it will outperform any other OS on equivalent hardware, and it's the #1 webserver in the world... However, FreeBSD can be a little daunting for someone with no experience, but it's not 'hard' and documentation is excellent!!!

Slackware is a great choice, and NO, it doesn't require compiling, that's Gentoo... Slackware is about the oldest Linux distro still around, and it's greatly stable and robust. It focuses on simplicity, stability, security, and performance. The only thing some people have concerns with is the lack of a good updating tool. Which means you just watch the changelogs on the slackware site, when updates are released, download and install them... Debian woody is okay.. but very outdated... Debian sarge is a little more current, but technicaly not considered 'stable' It's a fine distro though, I just never got really comfortable with it...

Back to compiling.... You CAN compile on any distro.. but it's unnecessary on most--compiling is the process of getting the source code for given packages and compiling them into usable items on your computer--which is generally a simple automated task accomplished by the following:

-download source code in a .tar.gz (or similar) file
-extract the contents
-enter the folder of the extracted contents
-run 'make'
-run 'make install'
-done...

this is done witht he command line.. but obviously.. isn't too difficult..

Some people recommending newbie oriented distros(Mandrake, SuSE, CentOS) These are fine... and generally stable.. but if you want better performance (which it sounds like) I would recommend Slackware or FreeBSD...

Good Luck!

Don't forget "./configure". That is what creates the Makefile.

ah yes.. true you are..however, it's not required with ALL source compiling.. small things such as window decorations and whatnot, often don't require that step.

(and I hope he would do more research before doing that to compile source code )

ok, i think i will probabally try freebsd first, thanks for the advice

umm, linux and bsd does support multiple processors right?

It has to, all top 500 cluster work on linux. Talking about multiple processors Rocks is a great Clustering tool. Make a cluster in 15 min ......... flat!