Installing Linux

[StrangerInBeijing]

I would like to add the big 4 to my skills, when starting this (PHP, MySQL, Apache and Linux)
Never used any of these.
Know where to get the installations for the first 3 (thanks guys), but how do I go about with Linux?
I got a computer I can use for this at home.
Seems there are many flavours of Linux OS's...which is most common and where is best to download it?
Linux is command line interface right? Can you still open some text editor on it to edit your PHP code?

Thanks again for all your help

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[Pc_Madness]

Nope! Linux can be as pretty as you want it to be.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

The last distro I used was Ubuntu on my Mac, and it just worked, which I was quite impressed with, so I can only presume the x86 version is just as good. Otherwise try something like Mandrake (whats it called now?) or SUSE... or if your really looking for a lazy way to use it, find a LiveCD version so that you can test it without having to install it to a harddrive (boots from cd)... Knoppix is pretty good at that I think.

Some companies sell Linux, but if your selling Linux then you also have to offer free versions available for download, so sometimes they can be a little harder to find the download section on there website (Mandrake/Mandriva comes to mind as being abit odd)

Make sure you install either Gnome or KDE for a graphical desktop environment. (Ubuntu/Mandriva/SUSE do it for you )

[john tindell]

Hey I had Fedora from Redhat.com the install was easy plus im pritty sure Fedora Core 4 comes with PHP 5 and mysql 5. After hours of messing about with other version i found Core 4 the easiest to setup, after selecting the packages you want to install its pritty straight forward. Though if you want to learn more about linux i suggest getting a book as some good resources can be hard to find as most i found resumed that you had some linux experience.

http://fedora.redhat.com/download/

[CornedBee]

Some companies sell Linux, but if your selling Linux then you also have to offer free versions available for download,

Nope, you don't. SuSE doesn't offer free downloads of their more recent versions. The GPL requires you to supply the source along with binaries; it doesn't require you to give anything away for free. On the other hand, you cannot forbid those who buy from you to give it away for free, either.

[PlaGuE]

Go with Redhat.Fedora Core 4.

Its acually quite easy to install.

My only problem was... my stupidity.

[StrangerInBeijing]

OK, Thanks guys

Downloading the 4 iso's right now, hope it will be finished this afternoon when I get back home.

See the documentation is on the site, and will see if I can read it during work today at work.

Can one dual boot between winxp and linux? would like to install this on a xtra partition on my HDD. Otherwise, get a new HDD, and swap drives depending what i want to work on.

Cheers, and thaks again for all your advice.

[Pc_Madness]

Nope, you don't. SuSE doesn't offer free downloads of their more recent versions. The GPL requires you to supply the source along with binaries; it doesn't require you to give anything away for free. On the other hand, you cannot forbid those who buy from you to give it away for free, either.

Jeepers thats what I meant, your so picky.



I'm not sure about Red Hat's installer.. but it should hopefully give you the option to duel boot.

[StrangerInBeijing]

while downloading the cd's at home, I'm having a look at the documentation online at work.

If I want to develop on my machine, but also host (Apache) on the same machine. Which of the following options should I select during installation then? (Workstation or Server)

Personal Desktop
This is the default installation type. It provides a graphical working environment with an office suite, Internet applications and multimedia software.

Workstation
This installation type includes the software installed on a Personal Desktop, and adds software for development and systems administration. Choose this installation type if you plan to compile software from source code.

Server
This installation type provides network servers such as the Apache Web server and the Samba suite of services, and administration tools. This installation type provides no graphical environment by default.

Custom
This installation type does not provide any disk partitioning layout for you. It also does not include any additional software beyond a Personal Desktop. If you perform a Custom installation, the installation program will present dialogs for these selections during the installation process.

[PlaGuE]

what i did was do Workstation and Server.

Just cuz i wanted to..

Alot of people told me to just do Server.

[StrangerInBeijing]

oh..so you can select more than one option there? Looked like a single selection option in the documentation. see here

Hey. Is there an msn messenger for Fedora? Cuz all i do on my puter is work (study and play in this case) and chat...lol

[Pc_Madness]

Hey. Is there an msn messenger for Fedora? Cuz all i do on my puter is work (study and play in this case) and chat...lol

AMSN or Gaim I think are pretty good ones... or Kopete (KDE only judging by the K )

Wow, is Fedora's installer a rip from Mandrake? (Or someone elses?) Feel like I've seen that before somewhere.

Anyway.. usually they let you install extra packages afterwards anyway, or at worst download them yourself from the net.

[PlaGuE]

oh..so you can select more than one option there? Looked like a single selection option in the documentation. see here

Hey. Is there an msn messenger for Fedora? Cuz all i do on my puter is work (study and play in this case) and chat...lol

I think i selected "custom" im not sure.

[StrangerInBeijing]

Yo...kinda weird to try imagine where I was when I started this thread.
Anyhow, since till now I learned Php/Mysql and was happily using WAMP all the way.

But it's time for Linux and even though I'm struggling here and breaking things, I dont want to give up again like before.

Having a problem with seeing our Windows Workgroup in the office.

I installed samba, edited the configuration file and restarted samba as follows:

gksu gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
chang workgroup = WORKGROUP
save the file
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

However, now others (using xp) on the network can see my laptop (ubuntu 8.10), but even though I can see the workgroup name (as changed above) in Network > Windows Workgroup, I cannot see any network shares or other computers.

Any advice?

[agmorgan]

I know its a lame answer, but I reckon you are more likely to get more useful responses at http://ubuntuforums.org/
A quick search turned up the following in the first 10 results
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1010652
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1000908

As a side note, Linux Mint (a derivative of Ubuntu) is worth looking at www.linuxmint.com

[StrangerInBeijing]

cool...there's some things in there i did not try yet, and will do so when back in office tomorrow.
no advice is lame dude...thanks