Re: [seul-edu] hard times with Linux

[TJ Miller <tjmiller@datc.tec.ut.us>]

On Monday 14 May 2001 10:04, you wrote:

> > Hello, I have a small LAN at my office and I've installed Linux Mandrake 8
> on a P233mmx with 32 RAM. My plan was to make this computer as a file
> server for my office and also a web server to test some scripts (learnloop,
> phpnuke and others)

First and foremost, new does not necessarily equal better, IMHO. Also, the 
distro only installs generic binaries that are not 100% suited to your 
particular machine. In order to get a decent system out of Mandrake, 
you'll have to go in and configure/rebuild the kernel, mostly to dump the 
stuff you really don't need (support for USB for instance. )  Sorry, but 
Mandrake 8 IMO dumps way too much unnecessary stuff in there...

The beauty of Linux is that all you really need to do, especially in your 
situation, would be to install something better suited to the machine 
(Caldera and Red Hat work beautifully with older Pentium MMX machines, and 
has some basic but very usable server packages as well)  and then install 
what you need, when you need it. You'll only have to make sure your libraries 
and kernel are current if you intend on sticking in the absolute latest stuff 
:) 

Also, a great newbie admin tool for samba is swat ("Samba Web Admin Tool") - 
the distro should have it, otherwise Freshmeat does.  You can use it from 
anything that has a web browser, but still you get password security out of 
the deal. 

HTH.

Regd's,
TJ Miller jr.