Should I Win2K Adv Srvr ----> Lunix for personal server?

[coloradoiscool]

Hi all.

I have scoured the Forum, but am still left with a few basic questions...that I somehow might have missed the answers.

I currently run a windows 2k advanced with exchange 2k on a personal server. I'm thinking of switching to Linux and have come from a SCO unix background years ago. Here's a couple of my silly questions:

1. Can I sucessfully (as a very rusty Unix syadmin) put together a stable and secure Linux server and simultaneously use a gui interface to surf the web, email, staroffice, etc.? I currently use my W2K server to read emails, word process, etc.

2. Would I be able to sign my own SSL certificates and avoid a $$$-charging CA?

3. Can this be accomplished on an Athlon-based system (hardware-compatibility issues?)

4. Is remote access pretty straight forward such that I can update web pages (I guess through ftp) from wherever I may be? As an aside, is there a way to update web pages through http on a Linux server, to get through my employer's proxy?

Thank you for your responses. I guess I'm a little brain-dead with w2k and would like to stretch myself a little; broaden my knowledgebase. Email serving reliability is an important factor as I have 30+ email users.

Lastly, my distrobution choices are SuSE 7 or RedHat 7 with postfix...any thoughts?

Thanks again!
Henry A.

[DrDrake]

Athlon: Buy a KT7-Raid and a thunderbird, your set. More importantly get a video card with linux drivers.

Yes you can surf the web while running a server, but a true server should be doing just that: serving. Either way it will be more powerful than ADV 2k

We generate SSL keys on our server, but you still must buy the certificate.

Webpages are extremely easy to setup via remote, all via console. We make scripts that do it in under a mintue. If you have questions on setting up a linux server you can email me @ webmaster@advdata.net and I will be glad to help you.

I personally prefer Mandrake (everythign is optimised, especially if you got a athlon), but the other admin here uses redhat 6.2. I would say go mandrake 7.2, not near as many bugs as redhat 7. Also if you are using Xwindows, mandrake comes with many fun programs

[Dr SuSE]

1. Can I sucessfully (as a very rusty Unix syadmin) put together a stable and secure Linux server and simultaneously use a gui interface to surf the web, email, staroffice, etc.? I currently use my W2K server to read emails, word process, etc.

Yes to all of theses questions.

2. Would I be able to sign my own SSL certificates and avoid a $$$-charging CA?

Dont know, I've never done that.

3. Can this be accomplished on an Athlon-based system (hardware-compatibility issues?)

I use AMD chips on my Linux boxes and it works great! You can check the hardware database at www.suse.com (http://www.suse.com) to find out if what you have will work.

4. Is remote access pretty straight forward such that I can update web pages (I guess through ftp) from wherever I may be? As an aside, is there a way to update web pages through http on a Linux server, to get through my employer's proxy?

Ya, it's very easy. You should have no problems with this.

Thank you for your responses. I guess I'm a little brain-dead with w2k and would like to stretch myself a little; broaden my knowledgebase. Email serving reliability is an important factor as I have 30+ email users.

I use Sendmail and it's very stable and fast. Your users will enjoy it. You can also setup Sendmail to use the Real Time Black list which your users will love since it cuts down on spam big time.


Lastly, my distrobution choices are SuSE 7 or RedHat 7 with postfix...any thoughts?

The answer is simple. Get SuSE 7