Distribution

[Brian D]

> Hi All,
> 
> Big surprise at work today. Some of the agency's
> systems folk are interested in learning about Linux.
> 
> (Background: A few of our folks came to us from the
> mainframe world. A lot of them came from the
> agency's
> social service technical side and were taught our IT
> side. This means Windows servers and mainframe
> applications. They don't know anything else.)
> 
> Now a couple of them want to put Linux on a server
> recently pull from the line. (I figure no more than
> three years old & fairly powerful when new.)
> Basically
> they want to do a test drive and see what all the
> fuss
> is about. I doubt they are more than marginally
> interested in Linux for the desktop at this time.
> 
> Any suggestions for distributions and documentation,
> and/or books would be welcome. Downloading and
> burning
> ISO's on Windblows machines would be no problem.
> Connecting a Linux box to the Holy Network is out of
> the question.
> 
I would recommend Redhat, Mandrake or Knoppix
for a first-time install. I haven't actually done
a Knoppix install so can't speak to it's ease of
installation. RH and Mandrake are quite nice installs
for a person coming from the M$ world. They generally
do a good job of hardware detection. They also have a
number of types of installs now. It's a good place to 
start playing without subjecting noobies to overload.
If you are looking to make a firewall then it seems
that IPCOP and LEAF are popular choices. I have LEAF I
am installing on a box right now, in between other
projects like finishing the bed and baby's room. ;)

Brian

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