I highly recommend Mandrake Linux 8.1 for exactly this purpose.
Knowing only a little about linux I managed to get a competent
linux+apache+comswiki box set up this summer. If your machine has
even a modest graphics card to run X windows, Mandrake's installer
hides the worst of the install from you, offers reasonable default
disk formatting for server use, and suggests server-related packages
for you. Mandrake auto-detected all the hardware I threw at it,
which made life much easier. Good luck.
> > Just a thought. You might consider taking an old PII, stuffing 256+ Mb
>> of Ram in it and loading it up with Linux, Apache and ComSwiki. Problem
>> solved. Most departments have such boxes lying about, waiting to be
>> scrapped.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> John
>
>What build of Linux do you recommend for a semi-beginner? I installed RED
>HAT 5 on a SPARC some time ago, got it working fine then my interest shifted
>to GIS. Now I want to take an old Gateway, 512mb ram, 9gb SCSI hard drive,
>install Linux, Comswiki, and potentially SAMABA. Any suggestions/thoughts?
>Thanks for your help. JOE.
--
Dan Ringrose, Department of History 01.701.858.3037
Minot State University, Minot ND 58707 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
