OK, It’s time to try Linux

More Storage Needed

My main PC (Windows) is filling up! Now what am I going to do? I still need space to store data files for all the work I would like to be doing I have old computers lying around but they are more than unstable under Windows. Maybe it’s time to try and set up a Linux file server…

I’ve got to be honest. Last week’s Micro Mart gave me the idea. It contains a tutorial for setting up a file server using Ubuntu Linux. Linux should be a lot more stable, virus-free and perform a hell of a lot better on an old PC. Alright, I’m convinced, now is the time to try it. I have played with Linux before but it has always been a nightmare, perhaps now things have moved on and a total Newbie has a fighting chance to set up a working system. Well, the article gave me hope anyway…

So, I find the Ubuntu site and figure out that the Server download will be just the one I need! Seems straightforward enough. You have to figure out whether you want the latest version (7.04) or the ’stable’ version. So, it seems like an obvious choice there. I am not looking for anything clever, just stable, so let’s select 6.06 with support up to 2011. Wow! That sounds promising.

Ah. now I have to make another choice. Do I want the normal version, the 64 bit version or the sun sparc (no chance) version? Well, I don’t have a Sun Sparc workstation, just a PC, so I guess it must be one of the other two. The PC has a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4 inside – now is that a 32 or 64 bit processor? Damned if I can remember, but it’s not one of the latest super-duper Multi-core jobbies or an AMD 64 so I’m going to go for the standard download. Still, the first decision that wasn’t an easy one to make.

I then have to choose a download location, the nearest one to me, and then hit the Start Download button. It’s only when it starts to download that I notice that it is an iso file that is downloading. Good job I know what to do with those! An iso is a disc image, normally a CD, that you either cut onto a physical CD or DVD or mount in a virtual drive manager such as PowerISO or Daemon Tools.

Now all I’ve got to do is wait for it to download! More later…