Toyswins wrote:
>
> I'm not an expert by any means but a couple of years ago I had a copy of
> Red Hat 5.1 which installed just fine on a 486/66 with 8 Mb RAM. It was
> awfully slow and the hard drive was small, don't remember how small. No
> GUI loaded nor much else, but it loaded. Sorta' like DOS, you can load
> a minimal install and it'll work, but not much else.
Linux is like horses. There are the slow, strong, workhorses that
pull the wagons and plows. Then there are the show horses, racers
and the like. The former will make you a lot of money, but
generate
no interest or hype. The latter get all the attention but are
generally expensive toys or hobbies.
A linux server without GUI or even X windows, works like a plow
horse. My boxes handle email, web, cache, DNS, ftp, Radius and
the accounting and database servers. They do this without
fanfare, for hundreds of days at a time. They are rackmounted,
have no video, keyboards, sound, modems or any fancy stuff. Just
an ethernet and serial ports. They run RedHat 5.2 and take care
of Nook Net business in a reliable way. I can always count on
these boxes to run without reboots, memory leaks, freezeups or
other problems. They need a bit of minding, trimming of log
files,
and a few little things, but generally just run in the background.
They make $buck$ for Nook Net.
On the other hand, I sit at a workstation running Mandrake 6.1,
X Windows, flat panel display, with all the goodies on it. It
makes me no money to speak of, but is the box I stare at all
evening. During the day, at my office, I have a RH 5.2 with
XFCE2 and I spend all day in front of that one and its flat
panel display. My secretary Sara spends her day in front of
a Mandrake 5.3 box with KDE and Applix. My wife spends evenings
with another Mandrake 5.3 box.
These desktop boxes get all the attention, and is what visitors
see when "they want to see what Linux looks like". But in
reality, its the headless boxes at the Net Center that are the
heart and soul of Nook Net. God Bless Linux this Christmas, it
made Nook Net possible.
--
Ramon Gandia ============= Sysadmin ============== Nook Net
http://www.nook.net [EMAIL PROTECTED]
285 West First Avenue tel. 907-443-7575
P.O. Box 970 fax. 907-443-2487
Nome, Alaska 99762-0970 ==== Alaska Toll Free. 888-443-7525
