[Lazamataz]

I'm going for a bit but I will be back in an hour. Please bump this thread and tell me what you know!

[PokeyJoe]

Have you tried the Free Republic Distribution? It's cool. Based on Red Hat - for rpm packaging, with Apache 2.0, Gnome 2.0, Xfree86 4.2, and other stuff....

[cmsgop]

I like the Atari 2600......,
Never Lets You Down.

[Vidalia]

Surely Shirley, you are joking?

[dheretic]

RedHat 7.3 is way easy to get used to. If you're feeling adventurous try Darwin for x86. It isn't Linux, but it's ubercool anyway.

[warped]

What is best depends a great deal on personal preference and your ultimate purpose - is this just something to mess around/learn with, or will it be a production environment? Are you doing development, or what? If you are new, I'd suggest the following:

- RedHat, becaused it's the most prevalent distribution. Any of the big ones would work (Debian, Suse). Install v 7.2 or 7.3 with ext3 filesystem - fast recovery from unexpected power outages.

- Apache 1.3.26, not Apache 2 because not everything works with v. 2 yet.

- mod_perl installed with apache.

- perl will install with a standard distribution by default. You can then update using the CPAN modules. You use a couple of perl command modifiers to enter a CPAN shell to update and add perl modules (ie. database connectors, etc), and can even update perl versions that way (for when perl 6 comes out).

- I recommend slapping php and a mysql database instance on the machine.

- If you are into learning, the latest jdk from java.sun.com is a good idea (1.4.0).

- Sun has a free download of Forte (their Java IDE), or you can get Netbeans, also from sun, also free.

- Gnome or KDE, as your preference dictates. I prefer Ximian-Gnome, because it's got some cool extras like evolution, a Microsoft Outlook clone for linux, except that it works and doesn't get every virus that comes by.

If you have questions, you can send me a direct message - I've been doing linux support for almost 5 years now (yes, I get paid fairly well for playing with neat toys). I'm currently working on a project migrating 200+ applications from MS Internet Information Server and ASP (VBScript and JScript) to linux on IA64 (64-bit) Itanium 2 processors and ultimately into a Java Application Server.

[xrp]

Linux is for script kiddies. FreeBSD is the MAN'S choice ;) It has a Linux compatibility module so you can run Linux applications.

[xrp]

[sigSEGV]

If you're new to Linux, get Redhat. 7.3 is the latest but 8.0 should be out any day now. I've tried Mandrake, but have found it to be buggy and cluttered. If you're really hardcore, make your own distribution - Linux from scratch. You'll learn a lot.

Apache and perl will come with any distro. Also, in order to avoid humiliating taunts when asking questions about Linux, make sure you understand that Linux is just the kernel (stable version at 2.4.19). :) If you're doing web development with Apache and perl, you'll probably want mod_perl, which is an Apache module specifically made to run perl CGI scripts from. You'll also want to download the latest Mozilla browser. The distros tend to be a little behind on it. In terms of a development environment, I myself prefer just a bunch of XTerms with nedit for coding.

[The Duke]

I just built my own Linux "superserver" at the office based on the latest Mandrake Linux distro - and must say we've been more than pleased with it. I would echo the recommendation to avoid Apache 2 - this version is multi-threaded and many of the cool add-ons are not (besides, you really don't gain much from a multi-threaded web server in the Linux environment because the threads show up as regular Linux processes in the process list, and they aren't *that* much more responsive than the standard "preallocatd servers" approach).

We've also lately installed Tomcat, and the associated Apache web interface, so that we can seamlessly offer java server pages.

This is so much more fun than the old WIN2K server we had. Congrats on the nice move!

[Reweld]

So far I've bought and tried to use two different commercial Linux packages, and so far I still don't have a working Linux machine. What I ran into was serious compatibility problems with the several video cards I tried to use, as well as a motherboard with built-in video chips. Neither Linux package was capable of doing any kind of graphics with the four video systems I had to choose from. Each package came with video drivers for a fairly long list of video cards and chipsets, but none of mine were on the list. So, no X-Windows, just a command line interface. This really, really irked me. I've easily installed many different versions of Windows and OS/2 over the years without ever running into these kinds of problems. With Linux, I'm supposed to know exact which video chipset I have, exactly which video clock chip, exact what clock frequency it runs at, and exactly how long the dipstick is. The hackers that write all the Linux modules are extremely anal about bit twiddling on all those chip ports. If Windows, OS/2, and the Macintosh systems were this freaky and twitchy they would have died a well deserved death years ago. Somebody really needs to bitchslap the Linux propeller heads.

[Norman Conquest]

SuSE, SuSE, SuSE! If you knew SuSE like I know SuSE -- ooh, ooh, ooh what a distribution!

[Norman Conquest]

SuSE, SuSE, SuSE! If you knew SuSE like I know SuSE -- ooh, ooh, ooh what a distribution!

[hole_n_one]

Apache and perl will come with any distro. Also, in order to avoid humiliating taunts when asking questions about Linux, make sure you understand that Linux is just the kernel (stable version at 2.4.19). :) If you're doing web development with Apache and perl, you'll probably want mod_perl, which is an Apache module specifically made to run perl CGI scripts from. You'll also want to download the latest Mozilla browser. The distros tend to be a little behind on it. In terms of a development environment, I myself prefer just a bunch of XTerms with nedit for coding.

When will the version of this thread that has the text in English be available?

[sackofcatfood]

If you're new, you definitely want either Mandrake or Redhat. Mandrake has just awesome out-of-the-box hardware support, but there's a reason why ReadHat is the defacto industry standard. :D

If I were you, I'd ged RedHat and wait on for RedHat 8.0 for your webserver if you can. As far I know, there's no utility to upgrade your Apache 1.3 httpd.conf file to the Apache 2.0 version. 2.0 was really a major realease. What I'm saying is just that if you're eyeing 2.0, you'll want to put together your website on 2.0, not 1.3 and upgrade.

RedHat 8.0 is going to have Gnome 2.0 and all those other goodies first, but the Mandrake isn't trailing so far behind. Of course, both will be using gcc 3 which will give you trouble compiling a lot of old software.

Personally, I use Mandrake but I prefer RedHat. Of course, I'm the kind of guy that just installs every package to avoid any dependancy problems. (And even then it only takes as much space as Windows, lol). If you putting it on that old 386, might want something like SlackWare or some distro of BSD. [SIDENOTE: Why are you BSD folk all reductionists ? ;p]

[Bosco]

I've tried a few flavors of Linux - SuSe, RedHat, Mandrake. Also worked with other UNIXen systems - Sun, IBM, HP. I also use Win2k server and WinXP on a daily basis. Point being: I'm not a newbie.

I purchased SuSE 7.3 pro a few months back. Prior to that I was a RedHat guy - from 5.2 forward. I initially liked SuSE because it seemed more "together" of a system. But the difficulties updating the system (flaky update servers in the USA) and its Euro-centric customer base brought me back to Red Hat.

I download it, burn the CDs and am happy. Currently have a Pentium 200 (no pro, no mmx) running my web and mail server right here in the house. I only reboot once a month and usually it's because the DSL network has an outage and I use the downtime to let the system cool off for a bit and reboot my router.

Redhat - It will be around for a while, it's a solid distribution, installation is a breeze, good tech support, excellent updates for free.

Your initial question about the best version of perl and linux is moot. Perl will run on any distro of linux you select. So, pick your distro and update the perl binaries when you need to, in case the distro doesn't have the latest perl package when you want/need it.

Does that help?

[John Robinson]

The best Perl development environment is Linux, bash, and vim.

[ShadowAce]

Penguin Ping

[usconservative]

Go with Red Hat Laz.

I just finished up a server roadmap research project and the Linux industry is consolidating around Red Hat. They have a better distribution, more driver support, and more support for the product.

Can't go wrong with Red Hat. (Mandrake is a very close 2nd btw.)

[Cacique]

Bump forlater perusal of posts

[Redcloak]

Stick with what works: A Sinclair ZX81 and a 300 baud modem.