I've got a system running MS Server 2k3 with 9 NTFS drives. I want to get rid of 2k3 and install linux on this box. I'm under the impression that the hardware requirements are much lower for linux than for MS Server, so I plan on swapping hardware (mobo, cpu, and memory) with a lower powered system (PIII 600MHz with 256MB).

My main goal for this change is to provide a file server for my network, an FTP server, and a webserver for personal use (couple of pages at most). I would also like to run an IRC client, FTP client, Newsgroup downloader, and Bittorrent client on this Linux machine to free up resources on my desktop machine (MS XP) for games, video editing, and DVD ripping.

So, my questions...
What easy to use distro will allow me to run the servers and also use my NTFS drives?

Also what are the hardware requirements to get good system performance?

What programs should I use?

Keep in mind that I am a Linux newbie.

Red Hat. The best (i believe) for a server. Go to staples and buy a copy of RedHat Worksation. It costs around 80 dollars, I know, but its been proven in a magazine, (computer shoper, or pc shopper, or something like that, I believe) that Red Hat support is better then Microsofts, and Novells. Plus you get Up2Date, and RedHat, to me, is very very straight forware. You wont get lost.

Thank you for replying.

Does Red Hat read/write NTFS?
What about the hardware requirements? Will a PIII 600 w/ 256MB run the GUI?
I can run Azureus under Linux, but what are some good FTP clients, IRC client, and usenet binaries downloader?

I'm not sure if a redhat kernel can read/write NTFS out of the box, but if you compile your own kernel with NTFS reading/writing support enabled, and you may be able to.

Redhat will run on your computer, its compiled for i386, so is Debian, and Slackware if you're interested. I believe that Mandrake and Novell SuSe are compiled for i586, and they would also be working on your older hardware.
To my experience however, the lader will run faster on your older system ie SuSe and Mandrake. If you want to save money get Mandrake. However If you have money SuSE, because it does have a easy to use configuration tool called YAST. And it comes with a nice manual.

Sounds like a big undertaking.
Can other distros be compiled with NTFS support?

I'm definately trying to go the cheap route, but NTFS support or some type of workaround is my priority.

1) It's the kernel that has to be compiled with NTFS support and that can be done on ANY distro.

2) There is no one "best" distribution. From what you described you want it to do, just take your pick. They will all work. If you want to pay for support, there are companies that will support any distro.

3) This type of question is asked several times a day. Browse through the distributions forum or use the search feature.

Your going to want a 2.6.x kernel

http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/

This won't suit his needs I'm afraid. The write support is limited to existing files and the result of any changes must preserve the file size.

@Morjam
You can either[list=1][*]Try using the Captive NTFS driver, http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/[*]Format your partitions to a linux-friendly format (i.e. ext3,reiserfs, etc)[*]Continue using Windows[/list=1]

1. Try using Slackware for your distro. Lightweight, not bloated like Red Hat, and designed for servers.
2. Please use that little search button.

Sorry to dig an old thread up but I first came into using Linux with ClarkConnect. Their disto is pretty neat and very easy to use.

www.clarkconnect.org

Think v3.0 is out soon

rhe (red hat enterprise) is probably the most stable version of linux I've seen which will be ideal for server environment. I believe the ones they sell at the score still only got kernel 2.4 there, not sure though.

If you just want easy installation, suse or mandrake will be good, both of them has nice gui installation interface, things just work right off the box such as NTFS support (you definitely want kernel 2.6 for that, excellent support for NTFS) writing to NTFS can be destructive, at least that used to be the case, I heard there are "safer" NTFS driver that allows you to write to, haven't used myself yet. Both suse and mandrake have nice gui for you to administrate server settings, however, a gui also slow down your machine, most linux server does have gui at all, since you're new to linux, I think it would be a good start.

If you're deciding to go with red hat (free one), try red hat 9, i will recommend that over fedora, matter of fact, i don't think anyone has mentioned it in this thread.