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Computer guys: What linux is would you recommend


Steve R.

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Guest 78novaman
I just got done installing Fedora Core 9 a couple of weeks ago and it's pretty slick. May not be the best for 1st timers. Check out Mandriva 2008 for that.
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I'm using OpenBSD for mine. Might not have all the bells and whistles, and some facets are limited (2T max partition sizes), but unlike Linux, every single frackin' thing is documented, and those docs and man pages are kept religiously up-to-date.
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Gentoo

LOL

 

I just got done installing Fedora Core 9 a couple of weeks ago and it's pretty slick. May not be the best for 1st timers. Check out Mandriva 2008 for that.

Fedora Core 9 is not bad at all and I have never used Mandriva

 

I'm using OpenBSD for mine. Might not have all the bells and whistles, and some facets are limited (2T max partition sizes), but unlike Linux, every single frackin' thing is documented, and those docs and man pages are kept religiously up-to-date.

OpenBSD can be pretty hard for some people.

 

Ubuntu + samba = cake walk.

Ubuntu is pretty easy but I am prejudiced against it.

 

Do you have any linux experience? All and all I would say to try out Fedora Core 9 or Ubuntu 8.04. I personally use CentOS exclusively at work and we are using it as a file server as well. CentOS is a RedHat clone for those that don't know. Is this a private personal file server or are you going to open it up to internet access?

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OpenBSD can be pretty hard for some people.

True, but I'd rather have correct, complete, and up-to-date docs over the thousands of HOWTO and "Well, this worked for me, but if your config is different all bets are off" method of Linux. Trying to set up a PPPoE-based bridging firewall with linux+iptables was a royal PITA. I had it finished in less than half an hour after reading just two oBSD man pages.

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CentOS is primarily used when you have loads of scripting or process intensive applications.

If you didn't know CentOS = RedHat. The CentOS people just take the RedHat sources and recompile them to make CentOS. Since it is RedHat you can install Oracle, WebLogic, NetBackup, or any other enterprise software on it without having to jump through any hoops.

 

True, but I'd rather have correct, complete, and up-to-date docs over the thousands of HOWTO and "Well, this worked for me, but if your config is different all bets are off" method of Linux. Trying to set up a PPPoE-based bridging firewall with linux+iptables was a royal PITA. I had it finished in less than half an hour after reading just two oBSD man pages.

I totally know what you mean. I like to do everything command line so that I actually know what is going on and document it all. For a while now I have been threatening setting up a wiki online and just inviting a few friends to it to start putting documentation together on some of the stuff that I have done. Did you see Linus Torvalds comment about OpenBSD users recently?

 

"Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't

stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in

that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the

point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them."

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This is AJ's girlfriend: For linux I use SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux at work for file servers at work, but you have to pay for licensing so my opinion for you is to try out Fedora.
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If you want, quick and dirty CentOS 5 instructions, just replace the $CAPS variables with your info

yum -y install samba

groupadd staff

useradd -g staff -s /sbin/nologin $USER

mkdir /samba

mkdir /samba/$SHARE

cd /etc/samba/

 

vi smb.conf

workgroup = $WORKGROUP

server string = $SERVER

directory mask = 0770

create mask = 0770

directory security mask = 0720

security mask = 0720

load printers = no

; cups options = raw

printcap name = /etc/printcap

printing =

[$SHARE]

comment = $COMMENT

browseable = yes

writable = yes

valid users = $USER

path = /samba/$SHARE

 

smbpasswd -a $USER

testparm smb.conf

chmod -R 770 /samba

chgrp -R staff /samba

/etc/init.d/smb restart

chkconfig smb on

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Guest mrhobbz
True, but I'd rather have correct, complete, and up-to-date docs over the thousands of HOWTO and "Well, this worked for me, but if your config is different all bets are off" method of Linux. Trying to set up a PPPoE-based bridging firewall with linux+iptables was a royal PITA. I had it finished in less than half an hour after reading just two oBSD man pages.

 

If you can't google and find a fix/solution in 15mins something is wrong.

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I started on Gentoo, it might not be the easiest but after working really hard, playing with it for many hours, and reading all the documentation I believe I learned Linux and my ways around it alot better than I would have if I started with Ubuntu. I also like Slackware.
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I started on Gentoo, it might not be the easiest but after working really hard, playing with it for many hours, and reading all the documentation I believe I learned Linux and my ways around it alot better than I would have if I started with Ubuntu. I also like Slackware.

 

emerge world

Walk away and come back many hours later. :)

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Did you see Linus Torvalds comment about OpenBSD users recently?

 

"Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them."

Yep, saw that. It's been the source of great amusement on the openbsd-misc mailing list lately :)

If you can't google and find a fix/solution in 15mins something is wrong.

Don't make me laugh. Crap... too late. Linux continues to be an absolute mess when it comes to documentation, every distro does packages differently (emerge/apt get/yast/rpm/...), distros do config differently (rc/scriptfile/...), and I wouldn't be all that surprised if I was shown that some are still using a.out rather than ELF for executables. Not to mention that Linux has in the past, and probably will in the future, tear out and replace entire subsystems within the same minor branch (CFS for SD in 2.6.23). Sure, I could easily find a sort of current HOWTO on iptables for SuSE 10.1, but what if I'm running Mandrake 6.0, and have just been keeping my kernel+userland up to date?

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Guest mrhobbz
Yep, saw that. It's been the source of great amusement on the openbsd-misc mailing list lately :)

 

Don't make me laugh. Crap... too late. Linux continues to be an absolute mess when it comes to documentation, every distro does packages differently (emerge/apt get/yast/rpm/...), distros do config differently (rc/scriptfile/...), and I wouldn't be all that surprised if I was shown that some are still using a.out rather than ELF for executables. Not to mention that Linux has in the past, and probably will in the future, tear out and replace entire subsystems within the same minor branch (CFS for SD in 2.6.23). Sure, I could easily find a sort of current HOWTO on iptables for SuSE 10.1, but what if I'm running Mandrake 6.0, and have just been keeping my kernel+userland up to date?

 

IPTABLES? :\ Phail boat comparison. IPTABLE rules all have the same syntax, the only difference will be what path your flavor sticks it in by default and possibly a few differences between versions...

 

 

A.out works... ELF is not horrible faster either, ELF has what...... slightly smaller binary files. Also as far as I know the C libraries and GCC are only compiled for ELF right?

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