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I have a Symantec Gateway 5000 series which is end of life this year. <br />
I am considering a deployment of Linux Firewall for about 1000 users.<br />
While I have some Linux experience, I need advice to help me get started in the right direction.<br />
Like which distribution to use?<br />
Will using a properly configured Linux gateway firewall deployment compromise security as compared to one of the corporate gateway appliances?<br />
<br />
<br />
Donnie
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I have a Symantec Gateway 5000 series which is end of life this year. 
I am considering a deployment of Linux Firewall for about 1000 users.
While I have some Linux experience, I need advice to help me get started in the right direction.
Like which distribution to use?
Will using a properly configured Linux gateway firewall deployment compromise security as compared to one of the corporate gateway appliances?


Donnie

Linux Gateway Firewall

A Linux distribution is an operating system made as a software collection based on the Linux kernel and, often, on a package management system and are available for a variety of systems. A typical Linux distribution comprises a Linux kernel, GNU tools and libraries, additional software, documentation, a window system (the most common being the X Window System), a window manager, and a desktop environment. Most Linux systems are open-source software made available both as compiled binaries and in source code form, allowing modifications to the original software. Over three hundred distributions are in active development, including commercially backed distributions (such as Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu) and community-driven distributions (such as Debian, Slackware, Gentoo and Arch Linux).

Linux Distributions

The variety of Linux distributions creates myriad issues relating to configuration and operations when computers are networked, not the least of which is the use of various network management applications, some of which are included with specific distributions, while others are standalone applications.

Linux Networking

The Linux operating system, in all its flavors, has its own share of security flaws that allow intrusions, but there are various mechanisms by which these flaws can be removed, generally divided into two parts: authentication and access control. Authentication is responsible for ensuring that a user requesting access to the system is really the user with the account, while access control is responsible for controlling which resources each account has access to and what kind of access is permitted.