I'm thinking I might build a machine just to put on my lan as a storage device, backup and for files I don't use on an everyday basis etc. any recommendations, specificly a linux distro or the like

12/9/2005 9:11:41 PM

Are you looking to learn anything or you just want a distro to get something done?

I like FreeBSD personally, but that's a little to high end for most people, as noone wants to edit config files anymore (just HAAAAVE to have a GUI for everything). And they 6.0 release of FreeBSD just came out, just to let you know.

12/9/2005 9:28:46 PM

Just get Fedora 4 and install with KDE or Gnome. There are standard install options such as servers and such so its all GUI and point and click install.

I have a box here at home that runs a webserver and file server and uses Fedora4.

Check out http://fedoaraforums.org for questions and help if you need it.

12/9/2005 9:45:24 PM

^^I'm not opposed to having to pick something up but I just want something reasonably efficient and hastle free, ie i'm lazy

I've got access to windows server through the CSC/MSDN but I figured It might be a little too unstable

yeah I'm familiar with fedora just looking to get some opinions thats all

[Edited on December 9, 2005 at 9:46 PM. Reason : more]

12/9/2005 9:45:49 PM

Well for what its worth.

I installed it from the basic option as a file server and have not had to touch it.

12/9/2005 9:52:18 PM

ive got a file server running windows 2003. ive often thought about installing linux on there just so i could learn. something i really like is being able to remote desktop into my windows server and run some stuff if i need to.

can you do a similar thing with linux (ie fedora). i typically store this computer by itself in the closet with just a power plug an ethernet cable. can i use vnc or something to login to the "desktop," whichever i use (like gnome or whatever fedora uses) ?


/clueless about linux, other than ls, cp, and mv

12/9/2005 10:36:49 PM

yeah VNC is on Fedora

12/9/2005 10:54:31 PM

Quote :

"I've got access to windows server through the CSC/MSDN but I figured It might be a little too unstable"

Windows Server 2003 SP1 has fixed a lot of things here and there. The install processes itself is almost exactly the same as XP ... your desktop looks slightly different on boot. I'd personally go with whatever you feel most comfortable with/can find enough guides for off of Google.

12/10/2005 8:30:13 AM

dsl, gentoo, or slackware. if you want something easy and have relatively old hardware (socket A athlon era) check out this distro of linux called college. it's an older kernel since it's been abandoned but it sets up a lot of stuff for you but doesn't suck like rh

12/10/2005 12:34:11 PM

Never heard of that one before.

My feroda build is running on a A proc just fine.

Serious advantages to it or what?

12/10/2005 12:36:41 PM

I'm not commenting on fedoras compatibility, I'm talking about an easy os that's not bulky like redhat but very functional and does a lot behind the scenes making it easy on the installer

12/10/2005 12:44:10 PM

was finally able to get the parts I wanted and and downloaded Windows2003 through MSDNAA. That shit is hella easy to setup plus has great support for streaming media (a large portion of what I want to store on that machine). To be honest though its not a viable solution for most people since the OS is expensive as hell.

1/18/2006 12:28:34 AM

^ yeah and since most of the people that actual know what a streaming media server is and know how to set one up would never know how to get it.

1/18/2006 9:26:37 AM