Hi, I have a an old computer that I want to set up with Unix that would mainly run Apache server/PHP/MySQL and basically run like a web server primarily... But on the other hand it should be fully capable as an OS, including a GUI that would'nt take a year to learn... Basically I'm looking for which edition of Linux to install that would run completely good on this system, but wouldnt be so stripped down as to making it almost unusable for anything but the basic intentions... Thanks a LOT! Larry

I advise you to use Slackware distribution. I would never give Slack up. On the other hand a "proffessional" distro is Debian, but as good as I can understand it won't be an important server as long as you use it as normal home user too. Allthough Mandrake is the best solution for newbies (it is easyer to use). Alex G.

Thanks. Does that mean that each distribution is only different in the GUI? I could just use KDE or something no? I looked at Debian but it takes around 7 cd's! That would be much much larger than Windows! This system would barely run Xp properly... I'm completely unfamiliar with Linux/Unix so all this is Chinese to me... (I've been doing major internet searches recently but while learnig some, I'm also winding up more confused than before...) Would it possibly make more sense to just install XP and then Apache and that would be it, or is there truly a major difference in efficiency between Windows and Linux? Because this system is so old that is the primary reason I thought that Linux might work better with it... I guess what I would want is a simple/small installation that would include an OS, Apache, PHP, MySQL, as well as the abilty to add 'modules' and GUI's like KDE and Gnome etc... (ie. to expand...) But when I search I find that within each distribution itself there are thousands of variants! For example if I look for 'RedHat' I get thousands of other ones that are 'based' on it, and I have no clue as to what that means, which one would be most fitting, or even if there is truly a big difference between them all... If someone could please enlighten me a little on how to choose, or if you still think that I should just install 'Slackware'? Thanks a lot, Larry

This is probably not what you want to hear but basically you could use any distro, it's mainly down to personal preference. There are some like mandrake aimed at being user friendly (but the bloat hurts the performance) there are some aimed at being small and lightweight like DSL, there are many aimed at doing just a specific task (including webservers, although I can't name any). My personal preference is currently MEPIS. I think the 7 debian cd's will be a collection of packages, you don't have to install all of them. You probably want to avoid the two main "GUI's" (KDE and gnome) and use something a bit more light weight like fluxbox, each distro will come with it's default one but you can isntall any one you want to use. The best way to choose is to look for something thats fairly popular and check that it's support forums are very active. I'd also go for something which claims to be easy to install, the last thing you want for a first system is something that takes ages to get fully up and running so mainly for that reason I'd personaly recomend MEPIS (debian based).

if, as it appears, you have never used Unix/Linux, the GUI will be the least of your problems. Among the bigger problems are a smallish amount of ram (64MB) for a server - unless there will be few clients? How much disk? You do have a CD?

Thanks I'll look into it. Dlonra- its not meant to be a server for a LAN but a small web server, which I assume doesnt need too much memory/disk space/proccessor power etc. as long as it isnt used too much (its not for some big commercial applications... Larry PS- If anyone has anything else to add to help out in me choosing I'd greatly appreciate it- after looking around further, all that happens is I bump into more and more version of Linux!

Install MEPIS, it's such an easy install that it's ideal for a first time. (as is mandrake but it's a bit more bloated) The only bit that requires some thought is the partitioning. You can read up on it or for simplicity make a swap partition double the size of your ram and one other partition for everything else. Then change it's GUI to a more lightweight one since your low on RAM. (for the kind of light use your talking about running something like KDE would be your main resource drain) have a look on there forums at mepislovers for more info on partitioning and changing the gui.