The time has come...

[Pope Viper]

As some of you have seen, I've been fighting some pretty irritating issues with my Windows 2008 server, so now is the time for me to start getting Linux knowledgeable, and take the plunge.

I'm going to start with a VM, so I can futz around without causing too much damage, while getting familiar with Apache,

Here's what I've got:

Windows 2008 R2, running IIS 7.5, PHP 5.5, MySQL 5.6. Running the following:

- Calibre
- Ampache
- Xenforo
- Plex Media Server

I've got several hard drives worth of data that my Windows workstations will need to be able to access (budget files, music, videos, etc)

I've got three Windows 7 work stations.

All that being said, what would be the best distribution for me to start working with?

 

[Lisa]

@Biker is a pretty good source of Linux knowledge, as is @Mike54

Good luck!

 

[CTXMedia]

Debian

 

[MattW]

CentOS

OS choice is all down to personal preference. My production boxes have always been CentOS (cut my teeth on Red Hat at that is what we use at work) so that's what I'm more comfortable with.

 

[Slavik]

Same as Matt, CentOS all the way. But it comes down to preference, try a couple of distros and see what you like.

Take a look at this: http://xenforo.com/community/resour...tos-openlitespeed-percona-with-pictures.1844/

It's only part 1, but rather than just follow the guide, try and work out why your doing the things it tells you to do, and you'll understand the basic principles behind using yum and compiling things from source.

 

[Walter]

Debian or CentOS

 

[Pope Viper]

Yea, that's what I figured, I'm DLing ClearOS, Ubuntu, and now Debian/CentOS.

Hope to God you guys are patient with the questions.



I'm an old Atari 400/ MSDOS guy who's now sick of Windows (at least on a server level).

 

[karll]

I've been using Ubuntu on the desktop for several years, so then the transition to using it on a server (well, VPS) wasn't big.

But yes, Debian and CentOS are probably some of the better choices for a server.

I'm an old Atari 400/ MSDOS guy who's now sick of Windows (at least on a server level).

I remember I was sad when MS started to push Windows, as I liked MSDOS so much ...

 

[rellek]

Debian is always good.

 

[Pope Viper]

Well, I started with CentOS, and following the first part of Slavik guide: http://xenforo.com/community/resour...tos-openlitespeed-percona-with-pictures.1844/


Good grief, my eyes have started to glaze over. This is quite a learning curve. Looks like I need a Dummies book.

I'm stuck the end of the guide.

I've got Lite speed running, got MySQL running. I need to figure out how to setup the FTP server, get my database and files moved over, as well as get a mail server running.

Something tells me this is going to take a while. Just wrapping my ratbrain around the various command lines to get packages, get them setup, configured, etc is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

Curse you, Windows!!

Something tells me this is going to take a while.

 

[HannahP]

Something tells me this is going to take a while.

Or you could save yourself about a million hours of your time (after which you'd still only be an amateur) and just buy hosting.

Unless this is your job - or your time is absolutely worthless to you - it's considerably less expensive to pay someone else to buy, manage and maintain the server(s).

 

[Gregory Lynn]

Or you could save yourself about a million hours of your time (after which you'd still only be an amateur) and just buy hosting.

Unless this is your job - or your time is absolutely worthless to you - it's considerably less expensive to pay someone else to buy, manage and maintain the server(s).

Where is your sense of adventure? Sure you can pay some one to do it for you. But its not even a quarter of the fun you have from doing it on your own.

Greg

 

[MagnusB]

Best advice, if you want to be a bit more comfortable with Linux, get an old computer, and set up a desktop version of Arch Linux. Their wiki has an excellent beginners guide, and you are forced to use the command line extensively. It might not really relate to setting up a server, but it will help you understand the terminal and once you have it running it should prove a real confidence boost.

 

[fos]

I have had the best luck with CentOS and linode.com for a virtual server. I don't think you can beat Linode. I had dedicated servers prior to 2009 when I switched to Linode. A linode is a much better bargain. Over the years they have upped available resources without raising their cost.

Jeff

 

[Pope Viper]

I'm going to do that for my forum, just need to make sure I can find a solution that will give me the email access.

Other stuff (Calibre, Ampache), I'll have to host at home due to space considerations.

 

[Slavik]

Good grief, my eyes have started to glaze over.

Glazing is good

 

[TPerry]

I've got Lite speed running, got MySQL running. I need to figure out how to setup the FTP server, get my database and files moved over, as well as get a mail server running.

I was going to set up an FTP server on my systems - but went with SFTP instead since I was already using keys with SSH. Much more secure. The only downfall is I have to have keys installed for any computer I want to connect from - but that's really limited on the ones I use (my laptop, my netbook, my iPad, and the servers & Mac here at the house).

 

[HannahP]

Where is your sense of adventure?

Look at us, equating sitting in front of a machine to adventure. Our foreparents are rolling over in their poorly dug graves.

 

[Fred Sherman]

IBM AIX

 

[OSS 117]

Hiring someone else to maintain a server is really useful if you don't know anything about them and don't have the time, or can't manage the mass amount of data needing to be maintained. The latter being why I choose maintained hosting.