Which Linux Distribution?

[Paddy]

OK, perhaps i didn't really rephrase it that much...

I hear Debian and Gentoo... any advances?

[rugger]

Originally posted by Paddy [MU]
OK, perhaps i didn't really rephrase it that much...

I hear Debian and Gentoo... any advances?

I strongly recommend against using either of these distributions as your first distribution.

Debian will have you pulling your hair out over the install.

Gentoo will have you sitting around for days while your system compiles. Thats if you can work out the setup and get your network working.

I recommend the following:
1) Slackware. If you want to go hardcore, start with slackware. It isn't perfect, but you will learn a lot and be ready to move onto something even more hardcore, like gentoo or debian. It also has a half decent installer that will sort of guide you through installation. It is a 1 disk download. (2 extra disks, but not needed for install)

2) Redhat. If you don't intend to be a real hardcore linux user, this is a good place to start. It has a decent install, and it guides you a fair bit, but it isn't too weird that stuff doesn't work properly on it when you recompile things. Redhat is a 3 disk download. (3 extra, but not needed disks) Redhat will give you basic linux knowledge, but it won't force you to become a uber-user and you will get the experience to decide if you want to learn more (slackware, debian, gentoo), or less. (mandrake)

Now, I don't really recommend mandrake as an inital distribution because:
1) It tends to be more difficult to do low level things in it because of all the extra top heavy polish it has.
2) You really need to learn how to operate the OS at a fairly low level (like compiling programs and kernels) if you want to run mail servers and stuff (and keep them secure)

But these are just my recommendations.

[thop]

for your first linux experience try SuSE, it will make your life easy. stay away from slackware! once you've got some experience go slackware or debian/gentoo.

[Paddy]

two people, lots of opinions!

OK, let me try again. I will use any OS, although i'd appreciate some help. If thop can talk me through setting up a mail/http server then i shall use SuSE. If Rugger can help with Slackware, Red Hat or debian then that's what i'll go for...

Sorry for being a PITA!

[rugger]

I will help you with slackware install, and probably redhat too.

I don't think very user friend distros are the way to go, since they tend to coddle users too much and they never learn anything.

[Paddy]

hehehe

I want to learn, but i have to have the mail server up and runing within the next 20days. That's when my existing email addys go down.

[Paddy]

I've been reading up on mail servers... I'm not sure if it is a bit overkill, but then what the hell!

I want to create valid internet email addresses, be able to receive POP3 and IMAP and then filter messages to the appropriate account.

I have discovered that Exim, Postfix, Qmail and Sendmail are quite popular although they look fairly complex for a linux newbie like myself...

Any suggestions?

[rugger]

Postfix is by far the easiest to setup mail server. Mail servers are amazingly easy to set up. You just tell postfix:

1) your domains.
2) Ip addresses that postfix will accept outgoing mail from (so that your box does not become an email relay for spammers)
3) Other minor details I can't remember at the moment.

POP3/IMAP will ussually come with your distribution. These do not need to be kept secure unless you intend to download your email over the internet. (you can firewall these off)

Having your own mailserver is not by any means overkill. Having your own mailserver means:

1) your not at mercy of your ISP's mail server and it's avaliability (for both incoming and outgoing mail)
2) you can do virus filtering at the server, rather than at your desktop
3) you can have as many email addresses as you want, and you can spool mail up to your heats content.
4) You can use the protocols you want to use to access your email.

Additional, you can run on your server:
1) Caching DNS server. You can serve your domain name from here, or simply use it to do lookups for domain names, so that you do not rely on your ISP's DNS server
2) Squid cache. You can use the squid cache to do ad blocking, and as a general cache for your network. Squid is a HTTP/FTP/HTTPS proxy.
3) Web server. You get to use the dynamic languages you want, rather than what your ISP forces onto you. You can also intergrate your email system with it, so you can access your email over the internet.

And you know whats great, Linux will do all of the above for at least 50-100 users on that single machine.

[Sasq]

As for mail, personally I use quickmail/vpopmail

[Admiral]

Originally posted by Gear


It's .... about right. But if you install all Gnome 1.4 or 2.0, all KDE 3.1 (or 2.2), lots of games, OpenOffice, all HowTo's/Docs/FAQs, and many other programs, you can end up filling it up. But if you select your packages carefully, you should be ok. One notice though, it's wise to have a separate /home partition for your files, so that if for example you want to reinstall it (sys broken, or smth), you keep you files, and most settings...
And don't forget the swap partition, usually 2x ram, but no more than 500MB, if it's just for your home machine, because if you fill it up (ram + swap ~= 700-800) you really have some problem: memory leaks (hint, hint Bugzilla, sorry Mozilla), or way to many apps running, and the system shoud crawl because of the HDD seeks for new 4k pages in swap, while reading others...

I assume you have broadband, from the CD(install ISO's) links you listed before... good 4 you...

Nah, just a sucky cable connection shared with 10 other guys over a LAN. Took me roughly 30-40 hours to d/l the 1.8 gb


Guess I'll give it 5gb. I have a 45gb IBM split in half, one partition is FAT32 with 98SE on it, the other NTFS with XP Pro.
I plan on resizing the NTFS partition when I get hold of Partition Magic.
Must I really do two partitions, apps and swap, or they can live together on one 5gb partition ?

[thop]

postfix/qpopper

[rugger]

Originally posted by Admiral


Nah, just a sucky cable connection shared with 10 other guys over a LAN. Took me roughly 30-40 hours to d/l the 1.8 gb


Guess I'll give it 5gb. I have a 45gb IBM split in half, one partition is FAT32 with 98SE on it, the other NTFS with XP Pro.
I plan on resizing the NTFS partition when I get hold of Partition Magic.
Must I really do two partitions, apps and swap, or they can live together on one 5gb partition ?

You should use a separate partition for swap, as performance of swap files is less than swap partitions.

Of course, if you have lots of memory, you could always do without swap

[Paddy]

I borrowed a copy of Mandrake 9.0

I was very impressed with the OS as a whole, although i couldn't navigate at all : Practice i guess!

I need to set up a mail server withing in the next few days.. I can't help but wonder if 2K/exchange would be a better option, if only because I have it and can manipulate the environment easily...
I tried exchange a while back, but i discovered that it didn't support POP3 unless you had the SBE edition...

Just thinking out loud...

Any opinions?

[rugger]

No, don't use exchange

[Paddy]

is there another mail server proggie that i culd use?