[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 05/04/13 18:24, bad apple wrote:
Not having used the old box for a while I can't remember exactly, but it is 64 bit and it does have 4 Gb RAM.On 05/04/13 18:12, Neil Winchurst wrote:On 05/04/13 17:58, Simon Avery wrote:Suggestions? Yes - do it!Thanks for the encouragement!! Now I have to start learning how it all works. Sigh, more Googling I suppose. Do you recommend Ubuntu server?Not particularly: however, it has a low barrier of entry and pretty decent documentation online so you could do worse. What are the specs of your old box - most importantly, does it have hardware virtualization support? I mean, if it's a quad-core Intel Core2 or later with 4-8Gb RAM then it will make a nice little server, but if it's a power sucking crappy old single-core P4 with 1Gb of RAM it's essentially trash. It is at least 64 bit I hope!
A good setup for just playing around with is to get a very, very boring and stable distro installed on it and then set up virtualization for all further playing about. CentOS, Debian stable or Slackware are all good candidates for the bare metal install. Once you've got KVM, VirtualBox, VMWare or whatever else you want to virtualize with (or all of them, why not?) setup on top you can then play to your heart's content knowing that if you screw something up you can just toss the VM and start again or roll back to a snapshot with no risks.
I would choose VBox since I have used it a lot in the past. But I am not clear about why I would need to install a 'normal' distro on it and then VBox. Since this is an old computer which I no longer use surely I can just use it as a way of learning about all this. If it all goes pear shaped for whatever reason it won't really matter, I can just start again.
Meanwhile I have my current box which will not be affected, to start with anyway.
Thanks Neil -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq