Posted by J.O. Aho on 06/06/06 17:53

Frankly wrote:
> "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> wrote:

> I must admit that MS does offer the kind of setting I feel comfortable with.
> however i have always wished I could get into linux. I just never had
> anyone I can talk to.
> I am willing to look into tutorials but even the best student needs feed
> back.

If using graphical interface on linux (or any other flavor of unix), you can
always choose to make things more microsoft like, one of the major dekstops,
called KDE, has a setting to mimic microsoft as much as possible, using same
menu names for the linux tools as they would have had in microsoft and you can
use themes that makes the desktop to look almost the same and even install
microsoft like icons. I think you could fool your wife to think she was using
microsoft :)


> i dont think my 1998 lap top can handle being a server.

For testing linux you could most likely use it, there is a website dedicated
to installing linux on laptops, as laptops are a bit special compared with
desktops, it can be a bit difficult to install linux and get everything to
work, but you can take a look at http://www.linux-laptop.net/ and see if
someone has installed a linux distro on a similar laptop as yours.


>> Almost every distro that you can find at www.distrowatch.com will include
>> MySQL, PHP and Apache as part of the packages that is included on the
>> CDs/DVD, one exception I think is Linspear and is far from a distro I
>> would recommend.
>
> i noticed that the mostly come with version 3 & 4 mysql. i am wondering if
> it would be easier to update mysql then to install it.

If a distro uses MySQL3, then it's either an older version or discontinued
distro. MySQL4 is the stable one at the moment, I do recommend 4.1. Myself I
do use 5.0 on my server.

Did use Apache 1.3 quite late, did switch to a PowerPC based server late last
year and switched over to Apache 2.

I do use PHP 5 too on the server, while on the workstations I have only PHP 4.


As long as using quite standard PHP code and not too advanced sql queries, it
don't matter if you switch back and forth between PHP5/MySQL5 and PHP¤/MySQL4.


>> I don't know what IBM does offer in their server packages, can be better
>> to call them and ask.
>
> i hate the fact that you must talk to a sales person to get a price. I
> wouldnt even know what to ask.
> the only thing I know is that it must have high and quality ram and of
> course storage space.

Yeah, you are right and if you don't know what you need you may be ending with
a lot more than you should have, specially if the salesperson get commission
on what they sell.


> if i change my isp to get a static IP perhaps I will then get linux.
> I am looking into earthlink butttttt $69 a month. i do know there is
> something out there that will let me work with a dynamic IP but never looked
> into it in detail. right now between my host and my dsl i am spending 30 a
> month.

Thats quite expensive for a static IP, over here subscriptions with static IP
tend to been cheaper than those with a dynamic one (dynamic: ~US$60, static:
~US$40).
Using a dynamic connection ain't all impossible to run a server on, there are
services who runs DNS services for people with dynamic ip, so that the ip-name
will point to your current ip-number, there is of course a delay before all
DNS servers are updated, so for a while a user may not be able to access to
your site, but within a few hours most DNS servers has your new ip-number.
You can check http://www.dyndns.com/ and there are a load more of such
services, just google for dyndns.


>> Another option if you just want to try out Linux, is to use a LiveCD, as
>> it won't need any installation, here is a list of different LiveCD distros
>> (and a bunch of rescue CDs too) you can pick from:
>> http://www.livecdlist.com/index.php
>>
>> Which one is the best I don't know, but knoppix is one of the popular
>> ones.
>
> right now I am once again feeling this is way over my head. but if one day
> my wife hires helpers they will need computers and i think we will need a
> server anyway.

A LiveCD is a CD on which you have a full installation of linux, you put it
into your CD/DVD player and boot from the CD, it loads the linux, you can test
quite a lot of things, there are versions which can save data to your
microsoft installation, so next time you start the CD on the same machine you
will have the settings you saved last time you used it (think this is stored
in the C:\Temp). You just remove the CD from your computer and reboot and you
get back your microsoft.


> I am looking to do things you and others have
> studied so hard and so long to do and here I am wanting to have toys like
> the big boys and do things like the big boys with money to buy little toys.

Studied and studied, I have learned while using and I still learn a load of
new stuff, which can be quite fun. At the moment I'm looking into qmail,
thinking to run it on my server (qmail is a SMTP server).


> but what happens if later on i want to change hosts how hard will
> it be to import the database of another version.

As long as you switch to a newer version, you are on the safe side, as they
are backward compatible. If you switch to another sql server, say from mysql
to oracle, then you may have to rewrite some of your queries, to make
everything to work.


> A. MySQL Hosting supports the latest production release of MySQL; 4.0.20.
>
> i feel if i have version 5.0 that my site will have less trouble and be
> easier to me to maintain.

Both MySQL 4 and MySQL 5 are as easy to maintain, the major difference is that
MySQL 4.1 and later does have sub-select (a select in a select), which makes
it easier to make some selections, but you can always use php to middle
storage things and do the same thing with two/three queries. Of course MySQL
has more features than 4.0 and 4.1, but at this stage I don't think you need
those, it's first when you get more skilled with sql that you may need them.


> another thing is - i think i am afraid to fail at this. or that it will just
> take way to long. lol it already has.

I think it's better to take time than make everything wrong, things has worked
well this far as you have had it, even if it's a lot of work, so it will work
until you get finished and we all will be here to help you as well as we can.


> i fianally decided to go with mysql hosting because of the admin tool they
> use. they are unable to inport my site :(. time to see what I need to do.

Okey, I hope this will work well for you in the end.
I don't know how their admin tool works, but there should be options for
importing databases, at least I know how to do that when using the mysql
client that you can access on a shell (over ssh or telnet).


//Aho

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