New to Linux and Servers, need advice

amoed77

Hey, i'm brand new to Linux and Servers both. I'm pretty good with home based PCs, but recently got a job that requires new learning, and i'm all about that. I've used Ubuntu very briefly in the past, but don't know much about it beyond basic use. I work for a small company that refurbishes used computers. We fix them and load Windows or whatever OS we have the license for. At the moment, we are loading from an old Win 2K P3 Server that has the images stored for certain models that we deal with.

We need to upgrade! Problem is, the people that set up our current configuration are all gone, and no one has a clue. and neither do I.

I was planning on loading a newer, faster server with Ubuntu and use G4L to clone the HDDs in the machines. Is this the best distro for that? Is it easy enough to do? And can i just boot G4L on the machines and use "Load from Network" with no issues?

I know these are basic "duh" questions, but as I said, i'm learning, but need a quick solution.

thanks!

mfillpot

G4L should work on pretty much any distro, but the constant updates from ubuntu may make the system a bit unstable and hard to keep maintained. I would recommend checking out fedora, centos, gentoo or slackware for a server because they all seem to have a better history with regards to stability.

amoed77

Ah, that makes a lot of sense actually. But would it really matter if we're not connected online? Just a local storage server really...

But i'm looking at the other ones as well. Thanks!

mfillpot

For a local storage server it is not as important, but you will ultimately be responsible for maintaining the system and will want to minimize your maintenance to maximize up-time. If it were me, I would go for a slackware server to run GL4 because of the stable nature and minimal security updates, however slackware may be a little too manual for a new user.

ben

Don't forget Debian as well

Goineasy9

Debian Stable, or, Centos (Which is actually a clone of Redhat without the trademarks) are both easy to setup and maintain. Both are good for long term support, and minimal updates.