Ok, I've never used Linux, and I'm looking for a distribution I can learn
with. That being said, I'm an experienced programmer/db admin/Windows
admin, and I've never had any trouble learning new things about computers
when I needed to. In other words, I don't want to get stuck with a dumbed-
down newbie version that can't do shit.

So, what I'd like is a Linux distribution that:

(1) Can serve as a domain controller
(2) Supports VPN (Virtual Private Networking)
(3) Isn't dumbed-down for newbies but is either somewhat documented or
sufficiently well-known that I could most likely get help at this group or
elsewhere when I'm stumped, and
(4) Is free.

Am I asking for too much? And if I am, is there a Linux distribution that
fits most of the above requirements but not necessarily all?

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized
I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

In article <Xns943972FBA8F81Mekkala@199.45.49.11>, Mekkala wrote:
any of the mainline distros

any of the mainline distros

any of the mainline distros

define free. Either way the answer is most or all of them


Any of the mainline distros. Note -- I only stated any of the mainline
distros, as there are many small very specific task oriented distros out
there.

Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> wrote:
Linux per se isn't going to be a domain controller in any sense. You want
Samba.

To what? Again, this isn't really a Linux issue directly. You
can use software like FreeSwan to establish ipsec vpn's or perhaps
you want a pptp server instead. But it's not really Linux..

Just about any of 'em. You might look at the new Fedora (see
http://aplawrence.com/Reviews/fedoracore1.html ): I rather liked
it though some other reviewers have really disliked it. It certainly
would serve to get your feet wet and you can move on from there if
you like.

--
tony@aplawrence.com Unix/Linux/Mac OS X resources: http://aplawrence.com
Get paid for writing about tech: http://aplawrence.com/publish.html

In article <Xns943972FBA8F81Mekkala@199.45.49.11>, Mekkala wrote:
Something like Mandrake is very much newbie-oriented but it is not
crippled in any way. Any of the major distributions have the works.

That's Samba. Comes with any major distro.

No problem.

Well, Debian is probably the best documented distribution. It also doesn't
make you feel like an idiot or hold your hand too much, it just does what
you tell it to.

Debian is the most free. Many major distros are free as in "free beer"
(Debian, Fedora which is the descendant of free Red Hat, Slackware,
Mandrake at least). Debian and Mandrake are probably most committed to
freedom. SuSE is not free in either sense, but it's not expensive either,
and is of good quality.

No, you are being very reasonable.

--
Juha Siltala
http://www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/people/jsiltala/

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:18:09 +0000, Mekkala wrote:

Samba.

There is stuff for that. Never used it though.

Go for Debian or Slackware.

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:18:09 GMT, Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> wrote:

.... mandrake or debian (or suse via ftp install) to start with.
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
Very few profundities can be expressed in less than 80 characters.

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:29:37 +0000 (UTC), Tony Lawrence <apl@shell01.TheWorld.com> wrote:

.... my opinion is that fedora would be a second-level distro.
newbies should refrain from immediate use
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
There's a fine line between courage and foolishness. Too bad
it's not a fence.

On 20 Nov 2003, Alex Flinsch <alex@localhost.localdomain> screwed up his
face, groaned, pushed hard, and farted out the following message in
news:slrnbrpumc.bb6.alex@homer.linux1.lan:

Can you give me some personal recommendations of mainline distros I
could look into? And where I'd find them for download?

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly
realized I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

On 2003-11-20, Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> wrote:

Mandrake
RedHat
Debian (not quite as easy to install)

www.linuxiso.org


--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! YOU PICKED KARL
at MALDEN'S NOSE!!
visi.com

Mekkala wrote:

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Gentoo. Since OP says he is not a newbie
to computers, I'd say go for it. Gentoo (www.gentoo.org) is definitely not
for newbies. But it is a great way to learn about Unix. I found the docs to
be excellent. To make things interesting, you can even go for a stage 1
install where you will be compiling everything from scratch.

A high-speed net connection is definitely required. You may get by with a
phone connection, but it will be rather frustrating. Plan on spending about
a week to get everything installed. You can probably get a machine up and
running within the first day.

Sam
--
Sam I am
Spam alert! Reply-to address is bogus
nospam at sympatico dot ca is where I can be reached

Madhusudan Singh wrote:

You did, if you ever used Desktop-Sharing!

Yep! And after you've gone mad, secretly try SuSE (especially "dumbed-down"
for people migrating from Billie's toys to Linux) It's worth it!!

"Newbie" is commonly not meant as a discrimination. It's the keyword for:
"Prefereably explain too much to ensure comprehensiveness".

Greetings
Torsten Kaiser

--
Wenn man Vorname und Nachname mit einem Punkt verbindet, bin ich auch per
e-Mail zu erreichen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
concatenate my names with a dot for e-mail

mjt <mjtobler@removethis_consultant.com> wrote:
I've seen other folks say similar things, but I don't see it. It
seems to me to be a simple install and any halfway competent user
should be immediately productive.

What do you see as difficult or dangerous here?


--
tony@aplawrence.com Unix/Linux/Mac OS X resources: http://aplawrence.com
Get paid for writing about tech: http://aplawrence.com/publish.html

On 20 Nov 2003, Sam Iam <me@privacy.net> screwed up his face, groaned,
pushed hard, and farted out the following message in
news:bpj341$1or9j5$1@ID-211346.news.uni-berlin.de:

I may look into that... depending on the size of the OS's in question, I
might install both Gentoo and Mandrake (I've heard good things about
Mandrake from a friend of mine as well).

I have broadband cable, I'm assuming that'll be fast enough. Dial-up?
It's been years since I've used that. I'd hate to have to muck through
a 56K connection again :P Of course, it wasn't too long ago that 56K
was top of the line

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly
realized I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

On 20 Nov 2003, mjt <mjtobler@removethis_consultant.com> screwed up his
face, groaned, pushed hard, and farted out the following message in
news:5O7vb.11861$Wy4.9009@newsread2.news.atl.earth link.net:

Remember, as long as it's common-sense computer management, I probably
won't have a problem. Do you mean that Fedora would require extensive
knowledge of Unix/Linux, or is it fairly self-explanatory if you know
computers?

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly
realized I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

On 20 Nov 2003, Torsten Kaiser <nospamplease@pcdweb.de> screwed up his
face, groaned, pushed hard, and farted out the following message in
news:bpj46o$8hl$05$1@news.t-online.com:

Yeah. Except, as I said in my original post, I *don't* want something
"dumbed-down". My main weakness here is having little knowledge of the
Unix operating system. Besides that, I can do anything required, and
with any kind of reasonable resource I can learn easily.

Yes, yes, I know. My concern is just that I want a lot of
functionality, a lot of cool things I can work with and experiment with
so I can understand the capabilities and limits of the Linux operating
system. While something "dumbed-down" might be easier to work with at
first, I also lose the functionality I want to see. I have enough faith
in my learning abilities that I'm not too worried about screwing
anything up -- it would be quicker for me to spend the extra time
learning a more advanced system and have access to the functionality I
want, than for me to install an "easy" AOLish (well, ok, but you know
what I mean) version, learn that, then do a completely new install of a
more advanced system.

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly
realized I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

On 20 Nov 2003, Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> screwed up
his face, groaned, pushed hard, and farted out the following message in
news:Xns943972FBA8F81Mekkala@199.45.49.11:

Ok, thanks, guys, you've been very helpful I think I'll look into
Mandrake at first, and add partitions for other distributions if I decide
I'd like to check others out.

--
Mekkala, Atheist #2148
"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized
I was talking to myself!"
--Peter O'Toole.

Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> wrote:
No. No Unix knowledge necessary at all. See
http://aplawrence.com/Reviews/fedoracore1.html

That's of course assuming that you just want to browse the internet,
get email, write a doc or two and print. When you get to the VPN
and Domain Controller stuff, yeah, you are going to need to learn
at least a little bit - but isn't that the point? You want to
learn about this stuff, right?

--
tony@aplawrence.com Unix/Linux/Mac OS X resources: http://aplawrence.com
Get paid for writing about tech: http://aplawrence.com/publish.html

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 18:35:01 +0000, Mekkala wrote:

http://www.distrowatch.com/

Mekkala wrote:


Well, any moden distro (I happen to be partial to RedHat/Fedora)
installs a complete GUI desktop with all the whiz-bang GUI config tools.
So by default you have a "dumbed down" install.

Once it's installed, you find that each GUI tool is actually a front end
for a command line tool, so you can wrench to your heart's content.

-Dondo


--
What am I on?
I'm on my bike, o__
6 hours a day, busting my ass. ,>/'_
What are you on? --Lance Armstrong (_)\(_)

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 21:03:34 GMT, Mekkala <joremovedathiskimtoreply@attbi.com> wrote:

.... my comment was leaning more to the fact that fedora is
a sort of 'bleeding edge' distro, so problems are sure to
surface, something a newbie doesnt need to be dealing with
(initially, at least). if a newb gets turned off by the
issues, they might leave
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
When you're not looking at it, this fortune is written in FORTRAN.