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Looking for where I can find some info on Linux.
I'm after setting up a couple of boxes with it on, one as an Email server, one as a firewall and packet shaping device... I believe Linux is the way to go for these but don't know where to start :p
Just after some tips of where to look for basic info on setting up Linux etc.
Also what's a good distrubution to start with, I've heard that Mandrake is a good one for newbies ?
Mandrake is often recommended as the easiest to set up. It depends what you want from a distro really; if you want to to just have things work or if you want to learn the inner workings of Linux. If it's the latter I'd suggest either gentoo or debian, but they do come with a steeper learning curve.
There's no real central hub of linux information that is kept up to date that I know of. Best thing to do is sit down with a lot of coffee and get stuck into the mandrake docs from the beginning. If you get stuck just shout and the linux hexus peeps will be happy to help I'm sure.
Regarding Email Servers, the two best ones that I've used are postfix and qmail.
Linux 2.4 has a built in firewall in the form of IPTables. It's very powerful but also very complex. Arnos firewall:
http://rocky.molphys.leidenuniv.nl/
is excellent. You just edit to the top config so that it's relevant for your network and run the script.
If you use redhat, mandrake, Suse you learn redhat, mandrake, Suse, however if you start with Slackware you learn Linux. Version 9.1 is pretty easy to start up. Personally id av a go at Gentoo,Debian,Slackware if you want a higher learning curve, and RedHat,Suse,Mandrake or even Lycoris if you just want a feel of linux.
You could even try college linux, i found that to be very good when i had it. I belive its based on slackware tho i cant remember tbh. Its easy to use and is very easy to install. As you use linux more and more youll probably swap back and fore between different distros untill you find one that you are happy with. Theres no real right or wrong distro to start with, its just that some set more of your system up for you than others. e.g Redhat detects your mouse and configures it for you where are with gentoo you have to set the mouse up your self if your unfortunate enough to have a mouse thats not recognized by default.
Personally I migrated from Linux to Free BSD. Still unix based, but more uniform than various linux distro's. Also with the added advantage that most linux apps will work with it too.
I started with RH8 and found the whole learning curve incredibly steep.
If you only want to use the stock version,it's prety easy, but if you wnat to open up hte hood and tweak the engine, it's a big ask for a newbie non-programmer IMO