[Cialug] Command Line Linux

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Mathew R. Phillips
<mathew.phillips at wartburg.edu> wrote:
>
> I just had a general question. I use ubuntu and I'm interested in installing
> the server edition on an older computer to learn the ins and outs of linux
> servers but I don't want to install it with a gui... and I can't seem to
> find out if it does that by default or if there is something I need to
> specify during install. Any hints/resources that could help me? I'm also up
> for installing another CLI linux distro if that would be more practical than
> ubuntu.
>

The server edition has a very nice command line interface. Last I
checked a clean install used about 500MB. If you want less you can use
Ubuntu JeOS (Just enough operating system) which is targeted at
virtual environments and uses about 150MB. A basic Debian install is
quite compact as well.

You should tell what you want to experiment with. Just command line
usage in general or do you want to configure a real server? Some
distros are better for some types of server tasks than others. For
example if an LDAP server I think the Fedora Directory Server gets you
going quicker. For a web server I'm truly in love with the
Ubuntu/Debian way of doing things (a2ensite etc). For mail, Debian
uses exim (light and simple), while Fedora and Ubuntu use Postfix.
(Could be wrong on the email servers).

And if you want couchdb... sudo apt-get install couchdb on the latest
ubuntu server will give you a slick system.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter