Few Questions

I am new to Linux, but know some about Windows.

I was thinking of installing Linux on an older PC I have. Its not that old. Pentium III and i think a 60 gig HD. I was wondering if there is anything hardware wise that i would have to do to run Linux.

Fedora is what i was looking at. is it ok??

I was also wanting to experiment on setting it up as a personal server to test CGI and PHP in a small peer to peer. what database software is available to use with Linux? is it free?

if any of these questions are completely off the wall feel free to laugh. I have no experience in Linux. any input is appreciated
thnx

I can't think of anything hardware related you'd have to do... Fedora should be fine - it's a great distribution for people with no Linux experience.

As for databases, there are quite a few. MySQL is the best known, and that's free.

really!! thnx man
umm can Fedora be set up as a server easily though??

Ah, I have no idea about that. I'd assume it's fairly easy, but I've never used it, so I can't really comment...

oh ok man.
thnx

Fedora is relatively to set up as a server.

ight guys thnx

Fedora is fine, but I think Mandrake would be easier for beginner (at least it works for me). If you have experience in installing Windows, you should not get any trouble installing mandrake since it supports GUI (Graphical User Interface) installation. The installation is very fast! It tooks only 20 minutes from start to end. (Well, ofcourse that's depend on the packages you select.)

You can setup Mandrake as server, too. Main database that supported by Mandrake (as well as any UNIX system) is MySQL and PosgreSQL. You can test your PHP and CGI scripts easily. I myself feel comfortable working on Mandrake 10.

Hope this could help you