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which linux distro?

Hi there - I am a Unix / Solaris admin. Recently I have been wanting to learn some Linux as it is obvioulsy getting more and more popular. Question is which one might I try - Debian, Slackware, RedHat, any others? I have used bootable linux cd's like knoppix and phlak but not a "complete distro" Also, my UNIX experience is all command line - I know many Linux distros have GUI's available - is this something "worth" learning or is it sort of frowned upon the way the Solaris GUI is sort of frowned upon by experienced Solaris admins? Finally, would you say Linux is UNIX - just a different flavor so to speak? Or is it completely different? I am doing my own reading on this but I just wanted to see what you folks have to say. Thanks.

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jlevie

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paullamhkg

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mrsmileyns

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I think I am going to build myself a Redhat 9 box - downloaded the iso's lat night. I was reading system requirements etc. How do you think it will do on a PII 400 mhz 128 meg Ram? My other but more expensive option is a PIII 700 mhz - do you think I can get away with the cheaper option if I throw another 128 meg Ram in it? Not going to do anything heavy with it - maybe a personal mailserver running qmail or an internal dns server. Maybe run some light web pages with Apache.

jlevie

If you'll give the 400Mhz box something in the 256M or greater range I think you'll be pretty happy with its overall performance. The Firewall/DNS/Apache/Mail (with Mailscanner+SpamAssassin+ClamAV+Sophos) that I use for my home network is a 450Mhz/256Mb system and it works acceptably well.

mrsmileyns

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thanks for all the help folks