Which Distribution of Linux Should I Run?

[kitt_katt]

Hi, everyone. I just signed up today after my hubby told me about this forum. He's scottm, and uses webmasterworld religiously. I'm in charge of a network, and I'm looking at replacing our NT servers with Linux next year. I want to start experimenting now so the transition will go smoothly. I'm a newbie to Linux and I am unsure of what distribution to get. I was going to try Debian, but then I also saw Mandrake. I would go with RedHat, but I have a feeling they'll end up being costly like Microsoft. I'd appreciate any advice that you all could give:)

Kitt

[jpjones]

Looking to replace your NT servers to do what?
Handle email? File sharing? Act as a domain authentication server?

There are packages available for all flavours of Linux which can handle all of these functions.
E.g. Cyrus for Email, Samba for File Sharing & Windows Logon functions.

RedHat has the advantage of having a nice simple graphical installer, which I have used several times without problem. It practically configures itself, which is a good feature for a novice! I can't comment on the Debian or Mandrake installers, not having tried them.

If you're not afraid of downloading updates, compiling and installing them yourself, then any distribution will do. I've started from a base redhat 6 to get an OS onto my boxes, and then recompile & upgrade as necessary from source code. For any problem I've come across I've managed to find the answer by querying google or the newsgroups with the particular error code.

Hope thats of some help,
JP

[kitt_katt]

Thanks, JP. The NT servers are Primary and Secondary domain controllers. The primary is just a file server and it authenticates our users on the network, and the secondary is a Lotus Notes Domino server
(e-mail/applications). I'm tired of Microsoft's costs and the unnecessary services & apps they're including in 2000 & 2003.

[dingman]

I very much lean towards Debian, largely because I find it easier to manage after the installation than any other distro. It's not as easy to install as the others, but there's no reason to ever have to go through the installation more than once per box, and there are ways around doing it even that many times. After that, updates are as easy as 'apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade'. If you subscribe to debian-security @ lists.debian.org you can also get e-mail every time a new vulnerability is discovered in a packaged app, and as long as you have the right line in /etc/apt/sources.list you can get the security update in place with the same pair of commands.

Especially if you're installing on something else first to get the hang of things, I think Debian's management ease after the fact is a far weightier point in its favor than the imperfect installer.

On other subjects, do you have any familliarity with other *nix flavors, or is all of that new territory for you? If you know another *nix or two, the learning curve for Linux ought to be fairly easy. If not, you might want to think about commercial support for a little while, as a back-stop while you're still getting up to speed. I know there's some support included in a purchase of RH, though I don't know how much. I also know that there are third-party support contracts available. The only one I know off the top of my head that I'm sure supports Debian is Progeny Linux Systems, but I'm sure there are others. I just know about that one because Progeny was founded by the same guy who started Debian, and they are nearby. (Comparatively. Only ~1.5 hours in the car, which makes them way closer than N. Carolina.)

[dingman]

Just to add, my wife's computer seems perfectly happy with my Debian machine as PDC, file server, and print server. I've never actually done it with a bigger network, 'cause I've usually been in environments where we didn't give a darn if windows boxes could connect to those services (Lucky me. :)) or where there were no *nix machines at all (Not so lucky :().

[kitt_katt]

Thanks, Dingman. I've downloaded Debian, and am currently installing it. I have a year to get myself up to speed before I replace these servers. You can have linux as a Primary domain controller? I've been digging into this since Monday and I have learned so much as to what I can do with them. I'd love to rollover all of my servers, but I'll just start with these two. I'm a newbie to linux, and I'm sure there's so much to learn. I do appreciate your response:)

[dingman]

You can have linux as a Primary domain controller?

Yup Samba [samba.org] is great. PDC, WINS server, file server, print server, you name it. With newer versions of Samba, you can make a Linux machine fill any niche in a Windows network as well or better than a real windows box.

I can't remember exactly where within their site I found the necessary info to set up as a PDC, but once I found it, it wasn't that hard to do. I did have the advantage that since I wasn't migrating from a Windows PDC I didn't have to worry about transferring the authentication data. Maybe with Win using LDAP now that's less of a problem - I certainly don't know. 'course, if it's a smalish number of users, you can always create new users for them with the same name, copy their files over, issue new passwords, and consider it enforced password rotation ;) Anyway, for Unix/Windows interoperability, Samba is a godsend.

[kitt_katt]

Well, Dingman, then SAMBA it is:) Can it be put on another Linux server and have that act as a BDC? Unfortunately, I have approximately 350 users, so I'll have to figure out how to move the authentication stuff over:( I should slow down a bit and get my test server up and on the network first:) This is pretty exciting stuff.

[dingman]

Can it be put on another Linux server and have that act as a BDC?

Yes again, though this time I can't say I've done it myself. When there's only one machine actually running windows in the house, and only one offering Windows network resources, you don't need a BDC. In fact, if I knew Windows better it would probably make more sense to configure my wife's machine to use IPP and NFS like the Linux boxes rather than running a whole NT domain for her. But for me, setting up Samba was easier.