Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:28:07 -0500 From: Michael Powell <nightrecon@verizon.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: (no subject) Message-ID: <gf18pi$cjt$1@ger.gmane.org> References: <49138F93.3040300@embarqmail.com>
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SAM HAYNES wrote: > Greetings, O Learned Ones > from: Sam Haynes, Pathfinders 2008 > > I haven't the foggiest as to how you came to be in my favorites list, > other than that I probably tagged you in an ongoing search for both or > either something to replace Win XP and or build my own personal server. > > I have been usining XP for several years now. Recently, I tried to > install XP from my OEM cd and was notified by Gates and Company that XP > would no longer be supported. Bummer! So what else is new? Time to part > company with Bill? Vista was tha final straw. > > I need something that will replace XP in all the essentials but without > a useless bag full of coverups for poor performance.. > > Debian was the first encouraging encounter. It was recommended as a > cheap entry into the personal server concept, using a two to three year > old PC chassis. Sounded good but I could never figure out just how to > download it. > > So, FreeBSD appears in my fave list and server appears in the same > paragraph as operating system. Here is my plan. > > I am 76, a retired Master Electrician, PC builder since '87, have a wife > of 40 plus years, debilitating medical problems and a strong belief that > I can milk a living out of internet affiliate marketing despite the > current economic crisis. > > My current model is to generate a basic website, use my existing isp to > promote two consistent converting products, bootstrap the proceeds from > that into building my own dedicated server to market 'how-to' products > over a hundred or more websites. > > All using ready to serve apps and a WYSIWYG HTML generator. > > I appreciate your time reading this over long monologue... I'd > appreciate it even more if you could take some time to throw some > suggestions back at me.. > [snip] Just some ideas from the $.02 department: As far as replacing XP with something else to be used as a desktop machine, ala the GUI route, my own personal preference is the KDE desktop. I've been using it so many years now it is second nature, but there are just "useability" patterns which I've become so accustomed to that make it so I don't want to use XP any longer. I just like KDE as a GUI instead of the XP interface. It is also, imho an easier transition from Windows for someone with little or no Unix experience. I used KDE on FreeBSD as my main desktop for many years, but I finally gave in to openSUSE 10.3 on my workstation as I really found a need for Virtualbox and being able to run virtual machines. I have three Linux browsers, a VM with Windows XP SP2 and IE6, and a Windows XP SP3 VM with IE7, Opera, Firefox, and Safari. I confirm that all xhtml-transitional web pages I write look the same in all of these. And I can do this with no rebooting the machine. If you are totally new to Linux/Unix and have zero experience and just want an easy, out of the box "something other" than XP you might try the latest incarnation of Kubuntu. I know in a FreeBSD list these comments are sacrilege, but the broader picture is what your needs truly are. Now on the server side things are much different. In spite of the steep learning curve associated with being a newbie to Unices, I still feel FreeBSD makes a better server platform. You just need to recondition your expectations to administrating it largely via command line, as most sysadmins who operate FreeBSD servers do not install any GUI software on them. I know I don't. You will find maintaining a FreeBSD server much less aggravating than Linux. It is coherent, clean, well documented, a well thought out and very complete operating system. Performance is pretty good too. Especially when you factor in what you payed for it! :-) As far as setting up server(s) at your home, this is a good way for learning. It is also a test platform for any web sites you may be running. Keep a mirror at home to make and evaluate changes thoroughly _before_ uploading them to your active site(s). Never make changes that you haven't tested out first. Now running a real live "Web" presence out of your house is probably not really a good idea if it has anything to do with business. A personal blog can go down for indefinite periods and no harm done, but a business site is a different story. First, the reason for having your servers located in a data center is they are sitting directly on the "fat pipes" of the Internet. Second, these data centers are "multi homed" in their peerage to other backbones. If one connection path develops a problem your site is still going to be accessible via one of the other paths. You simply will never have the kind of connectivity found in a real data center at home. I do not approve of HTML WYSIWYG editing abominations such as Dreamweaver and their ilk. They make it seem like anyone can write a Web page but in reality what they output isn't standards compliant. Over the years I've looked at a few, and found they all output crap. The only way to write technically proficient Web sites is to know the material. It does initially take quite a bit of time, but is easily helped along by all the example content you have to look at in the process. And all the standards and info you need starts right here: http://www.w3.org/ This sounds like a lot, and it truly is. So carve it up into bite sized chunks. Set up a beginner's network at home. One box for FreeBSD as your server, and a second box as your workstation. Begin by learning how to sysadmin your server. The Handbook is priceless: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html Now this is long enough already so I'll quit at this point. There is much more to what you're going after, but if done a piece at a time in an orderly fashion you can get there. Best wishes for good luck - Mike
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