[aetherh4cker]

Alright, I'm a Windows user, and I always have been.

I was planning on building a machine specifically for Unix/Linux, but I have no idea where to begin. I didn't plan on spending very much, maybe $500-, but what I wanted to focus on was a server.

Something I could have users login to. I'm not sure for what exactly, maybe to host a web page of theirs. Maybe something they could telnet into, or I've heard of PuTTY? You know what I'm talking about?

Alright, I have absolutely no idea on how to get started for a Unix/Linux machine, but I'm not a complete Windows retard. True, I've only ever used windows, but I have experience in coding a little C++ and Java. Not enough to do a whole ton, but that might give you a general understanding of my experience with computers. I like to think I know my way around pretty well.

Alright, so here is where I ask for help. What do I want to do? I had a friend that was going to install one of the BSD distros on my computer, but it completely fried on me, and then he went away for two years. So, how do I get started? I'm kind of leaning towards BSD, and I'd really want to use that one if anyone could help me with that one.

I'll be building a computer likely with ASUS ATX motherboard, AMD processor, pretty basic 'decent' computer parts unless someone tells me I should go in a different direction with Unix/Linux. From there I'm as new as newbies get.

I'll likely be 'hosting' this server on my cable connection, so it won't be nothing super amazing, just something that I can learn with.

Any and all help is appreciated. Guides, info, instructions, anything.

[jakec]

Good to See that you are getting into Linux

Look at this thread:

http://www.tech-forums.net/showthrea...hreadid=105853

it tells you how to setup a server In Linux with vaious Distributions. As for Distribution advise server wise Maybe Mandrake or Ubuntu would suit your needs, but take a look at see which one you like

My advise is jst to start with a distro, not a server and Play with it untill you get the hang of it

Some personal reccomendations:

Kubuntu
http://www.kubuntu.org/


Mandriva

http://frontal2.mandriva.com/en/downloads/mirrors

Knoppix

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=5

PCLinuxOS

http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/html/download.html

BeatrIX

http://www.watsky.net/download.html

Jake

[Tyler1989]

Fedora or SUSE for people entering the world of tux for my recommendation.

[popey]

PCBSD is a good place to start if you're looking for an easy to use bsd as it's designed for people with no unix experience. It features double click install software and a nice gui install and setup.

[hereyago]

servers should cost more than 500