I have a lot of old hardware, and by a lot, I probably have enough for three or four complete computers. I'm taking the best of what I have and making a system out of it (which I will upgrade when I upgrade my "main" computer [hand-me-downs for the win!]), but rather than install windows or some other proprietary operating system, I thought I'd install Linux. What better place to learn a new OS than a Frankencomp? The trouble is, just figuring out which Linux distribution to install is more than a little confusing. After doing some research, I've found that it all really hinges on what I want. I can't find a distribution which specifies what I want (perhaps because I'm too ambiguous in my desires), but perhaps someone here can steer me in the correct direction? What I want: --A system that would be great for running servers. Ever since I learned how, I've been writing online games (about two years), but now that I've graduated to C++ I want to improve performance by using a machine designed to function as a server and not a gaming computer for all of my game servers. --At the same time, I'm new to Linux and want to see what it has to offer. I don't just want a bare bones distribution of Linux, because if I like what I see I'll also put it on my main computer and possibly even use it as my primary OS. --Essentially, I want the best server distribution that can also run a compiler, word processor, and even a few games via WINE (or any other Windows Emulator - yes, I did my research). The functionality as a server is most important, however. --I want to avoid that distribution whose name escapes me, G-something that requires you to compile the OS yourself and which attunes itself to your hardware - I realize that it's probably the "optimum" OS for speed and hardware efficiency, and later I'd love to have something like that, but I'm not fond of the "chuck-em-into-the-lake" method of learning how to swim. As an aside, I keep hearing about Debian and was about to go get it when I decided to ask the community here instead. I've gotten great answers here in other posts, so I trust the community here. Anyway, thanks for reading this wall of text, and thank you especially for anyone who responds. [Edited by - Zouflain on August 6, 2007 1:30:40 PM]

I can highly recommend Debian as both a server and a desktop from personal experience. Debian gives you three choices of package repositories, in order from best-tested but older to least-tested by newer: stable (Etch), testing, and unstable (Sid). It's not difficult to upgrade from one of the older repositories to a newer one, so starting out with stable might be a good idea.

Get Ubuntu or Kubuntu - it's a matter of taste.

Yeah... can someone please explain what I'm supposed to do to install this? With So many different versions (what the crap is an arch, a system architecture? And which one do I have? AMD processor [still has an old windows ME install, but I plan on wiping it], if that helps).

I can't find a simple Debian ISO file, instead I find like 10 or 20 with very similar names and no mention of which is what (this is from their official site).

If you want Debian get the ISO of the first CD (the other ones contain software). I don't recommend Debian (though I use it myself) because the developers are free software fundamentalists and you'll have trouble installing proprietary stuff. Get Ubuntu instead. If you have a very old computer then Ubuntu and newer software will be VERY slow on it. There's Damn Small Linux (DSL) and Puppy Linux for those. Most distributions try to be good for server usage so no problem here. If you want a really good server you could try BSDs (not Linux) like FreeBSD or even OpenBSD (THE MOST secure OS in the world but really difficult to use). If you'd like something more easy to use then try PC-BSD (based on FreeBSD) which is designed to be friendly to Windows people.

AMD is just a copy of Intel so i386, x86 or x64 (64-bit) is the architecture.

Quote: Original post by viller
If you want Debian get the ISO of the first CD (the other ones contain software). I don't recommend Debian (though I use it myself) because the developers are free software fundamentalists and you'll have trouble installing proprietary stuff. Get Ubuntu instead. If you have a very old computer then Ubuntu and newer software will be VERY slow on it. There's Damn Small Linux (DSL) and Puppy Linux for those. Most distributions try to be good for server usage so no problem here. If you want a really good server you could try BSDs (not Linux) like FreeBSD or even OpenBSD (THE MOST secure OS in the world but really difficult to use). If you'd like something more easy to use then try PC-BSD (based on FreeBSD) which is designed to be friendly to Windows people.

AMD is just a copy of Intel so i386, x86 or x64 (64-bit) is the architecture.

I have an AthlonXP. Is amd64 backwards compatible (doubtable, but I did just download 8 of the ISO's before realizing this), or do I need a different architecture (probably i386)? Here's the site I'm downloading from.

I'd use the netinstall images, because 8 CDs is a whole lot 8[

http://www.us.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

debian testing is very ok. Use stable if you are doing some high availability-stuff (servers and whatnot)
debian i386 testing net install

Personally I prefer (K)Ubuntu.
It's based on Debian, but is much more user friendly.

image of choice: i386 alternate install of 7.04 (feisty)

The arch distributions you can use on an AthlonXP are i386, i686, or AthlonXP. Not all distributions will offer all three.

This is the first activity I've done on my new Linux

Thanks for the help. Installation went (relatively) well, but I can't get it to boot off the hard drive - it defaults to CD (completely ignoring my BIOS settings). Currently my CD-ROM is unplugged. Any more practical suggestions?C++ syntax checker for linux