boutbusiness23
IS-IT--Management
Not really familiar w/Linux...where could I get a copy of Linux to learn about it?
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Linux? 1
- Thread starter boutbusiness23
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Hi boutbusiness,
The first thing that you should probably understand is that there are many distributions of Linux. You can more or less think of a distribution as being a version or a brand-name. However, every distribution is basically the same under the hood. It's just the configuration and installed software of a particular distro that makes it different. For every distribution, there is a large group of supporters who consider theirs to be the best distribution.
If you have a separate computer you want to try it on, I'd recommend that you try Ubuntu. This is the same distribution that Dell has recently chosen to use for their Linux computer sales. The home page for Ubuntu is and you can find the download link and a lot of other information there about it. You'll want the Desktop Edition.
If you only have one computer, I'd like to recommend a live CD distribution to try first. A live cd allows you to boot your computer to a (almost) fully functional Linux distribution without actually changing anything on your hard drive. Ubuntu's installation CD is also a live CD, but it runs a little slow if you just run it from CD. For this, I'd like to recommend Knoppix. The Knoppix home page is [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.knoppix.com[/url]. Knoppix is actually an excellent distribution in its own right, but it's designed to run exclusively from CD.
This is going to be a large download. It'll be close to the size of a full CD, 650M. Some distributions are much larger, though. Also, it'll be in the form of a CD ISO image. This is a file that contains the data files, and formatting information for a full CD. You wouldn't burn this file to the CD as you would with other files. Instead, you need to use a program which recognizes the ISO image and burns it to the CD with the proper layout. You may already have software that does this. If you don't, I think you may be able to try AVS Disc Creator (ref:
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-- Ghodmode
Give a man a fish and he'll come back to buy more... Teach a man to fish and you're out of business.
The first thing that you should probably understand is that there are many distributions of Linux. You can more or less think of a distribution as being a version or a brand-name. However, every distribution is basically the same under the hood. It's just the configuration and installed software of a particular distro that makes it different. For every distribution, there is a large group of supporters who consider theirs to be the best distribution.
If you have a separate computer you want to try it on, I'd recommend that you try Ubuntu. This is the same distribution that Dell has recently chosen to use for their Linux computer sales. The home page for Ubuntu is and you can find the download link and a lot of other information there about it. You'll want the Desktop Edition.
If you only have one computer, I'd like to recommend a live CD distribution to try first. A live cd allows you to boot your computer to a (almost) fully functional Linux distribution without actually changing anything on your hard drive. Ubuntu's installation CD is also a live CD, but it runs a little slow if you just run it from CD. For this, I'd like to recommend Knoppix. The Knoppix home page is [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.knoppix.com[/url]. Knoppix is actually an excellent distribution in its own right, but it's designed to run exclusively from CD.
This is going to be a large download. It'll be close to the size of a full CD, 650M. Some distributions are much larger, though. Also, it'll be in the form of a CD ISO image. This is a file that contains the data files, and formatting information for a full CD. You wouldn't burn this file to the CD as you would with other files. Instead, you need to use a program which recognizes the ISO image and burns it to the CD with the proper layout. You may already have software that does this. If you don't, I think you may be able to try AVS Disc Creator (ref:
--
-- Ghodmode
Give a man a fish and he'll come back to buy more... Teach a man to fish and you're out of business.
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boutbusiness23
IS-IT--Management
do you know what kind of software would be best for servers? Linux or Microsoft?
sleipnir214
Programmer
Most distros come with all the servers you could want including web, mail, ftp, ssh, telnet, and dns just to name a few. To make your web server more functional, perl, php and mysql packages are also included. Depending on the distro you choose, you may end up with as many as six CDs. This is a lot of software. Did I mention that it is all free? Compare that to a bare bones Windoze server. Then check the price of adding servers and security. Linux may be found a little wanting in the desktop environment world compared to Windows but is second to none when it comes to a reliable, secure server. If you haven't made up your mind yet on a good distro, I'd like to throw a couple names at ya. You can't go wrong with which has its roots in the Red Hat when it used to be free. If you would like to get your mits on an enterprise version, you might want to look into CentOS is Red Hat Enterprise Linux with all the branding and graphics removed. It is perfectly legal and it is free. There is no shortage of places online, including here at Tek-Tips to get help learning linux. CentOS comes packaged with its own manual as well as one you can access online. Let me be the first to welcome you to the world of linux. Have fun on your journey.
As far as knoppix, Ubuntu is a live cd as well as an installable cd. Easy to learn too, as I have my retired inlaws running it as a home based pc. can you say computer illiterate? Well they have no trouble making their way around the net and anything else with it.
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