Linux or Windows on a Neoserver??

[CompNerd]

Sould i install Linux or Windows 2000 server on my COMPAQ Prosignia NeoServer Celeron 366 8.4GB 32MB its sole purpose is to be a fileserver for my house and an FTP server when im away from home im going to upgrade the hard drive to a 60gig and put 128 megs of memory also whats the best way to install the OS this server doesnt have a CDrom or floppy drive

 

[splice]

I'd go with Mandrake Linux 8.0... damn fine release. Installs are quick and painless.

 

[shathal]

Another vote for Linux, though I tend to prefer the SUSE distribution. Great manuals, great price, great support/update-pages .

Beats paying M$'s license fees any day as well .

It depends on how confident you feel with Linux & what you want to do. really. Usually people who have to ask "Windows or Linux" aren't very confident with Linux in my experience.

It depends on what you think you can deal with better.

Linux is cheaper & makes more effective use of resources.

M$ is "easier" (you get your Dumb-End-User GUI and rarely need to face a DOS-prompt), but costs a lot & has a lot more overhead on the system resources.

I hope this helps you a little .

 

[CompNerd]

well i have no experiece with linux but i wanna learn so ill probably pick up a book and ill get linux from linuxiso.org so i probably wont have any documentation

 

[shathal]

Then I would definately recommend SUSE - they have among the best manuals.

However, Linux is one OS which you preferrably want to have someone to talk to locally, if something goes wrong or just not as you want.

It's quite command-prompt dependant, so I hope you're not afraid of typing & will miss those GUI's (though X-windows alleviates that somewhat).

Hrm ... better then to maybe start playing with Linux on a small system, where if something goes wrong nothing bad will happen. A server as "testing ground" is never a good idea, if you don't mind me giving you this counsel.

Get used to Linux first - only once you are confident with yourself, you should move on to the server ... hope this makes sense. I don't want you to be "prodding in the dark" without a clue as to where to go. Linux can be quite scary in the beginning to some ppl ... esp. if it's their "first time".

Hope this helps somewhat .

 

[jhu]

i'd go with freebsd, but linux is fine too. either way you can run the thing headless. you also do network installs of these free unix-like oses so you don't need a cd drive.

 

[BreakApart]

Another vote for Linux...

Try Mandrake 8.0, very easy to learn with.
Linux will be around for many years, now would be an EXCELLENT time to learn the basics.

 

[Garion]

If you're just wanting a file server, why not stick with the base Neoserver install? You can always pull it's hard drive out, plug it in another computer and ghost it onto the new drive. Should result in the same config on a bigger drive.

Just be careful that the box can support a larger drive and more RAM. Who knows what Compaq did with that thing when the built it to save some bucks.

- G

 

[CompNerd]

i dont have any of the install software for the neoserver i got it as is from compusa for 30bucks couldnt pass it up