UnrealIRCd Forums

Greetings ---

I have set-up my UnRealIRCd on Windows, with Anope services, and SolarStats, and attempted to install AW Stats as well for my web server, and MySQL. Many of these tool compiled for Win32 doesn't included support for MySql, which seriously sucks. Also, I cannot tell you how many times these programs have &$*@#!! each other up.

It's a Windows thing.

So I'm going to bite the bullet and learn *nix seriously now. I would like any opinions on what would be the best flavor of *nix for a newbie. But also please note that I'm not a total lamer, I have worked in IT for 10 years. I have limited Unix experience (Digital/Compaq/HP Tru64 UNIX), and have taken numerous courses in C/C++ programming, although that was years ago. A dumbed down flavor of *nix is unneccesary. I am looking for the best.

I was thinking about Solaris. Any opinions?!!

Mandrake (Mdk 10.1 ...)
It's easy, and the install is like windows (GUI) ..

It's free on 3 cd ..
And whit mandrake you have (apache,mysql,postgres,php,postix,proftpd..)

After you only need to install unrealircd, et anope .. if you want ..
And i'ts easy...

I like to have 2 (or more) boxes.. windows for my desktop, *NIX for all my coding, server stuff, etc etc.

Personally I use Linux: Debian, but I'm quite positive on Fedora Core (3) as well, even though I used to find redhat 'lame' etc :P.
Debian was always what I liked most because of the package management (example: 'apt-get install apache php4 libapache-mod-php4 mysql php4-mysql', to install apache+php4+mysql), but now you have similar stuff on rpm based distro's, such as on fedora core it's now also simply 'yum install apache' etc :). Seeing that debian is usually quite a bit behind (unless you use 'testing', but that has a few disadvantages such as not having [timely] security updates), I'm beginning to like fedora core more :).
Of course there are tons of other Linux distro's as well, mandrake, suse, gentoo, etc.. personally I try to stick with just 2 :P.

There's also FreeBSD, while personally I would always prefer Linux over FreeBSD[1] if I would install a new box, it is not less secure/stable/good than Linux, so it's also an option :).

Using something other than Linux/FreeBSD is not really what I would recommend, except for 'playing around'.

[1] Just because all kind of tiny things work differently and you need to install all kinds of (GNU) stuff to make things more convenient. But that's a very personal opinion, if I would have started with FreeBSD I wouldn't be using all kind of (very) small convenient thingies you have on Linux and thus would never be bothered with it :P.

I personally like Fedora Core 3. Installed on a brand new system, it recognized ALL the hardware, and everything I connected to it. Also, unlike Redhat 9, all the services seem to work properly.

i used redhat 9 for about 4 months just to get familiar with it, didnt seem to have any major problems except i was a total noob at the time lol,

I learned on Debian, so it's what i prefer to use, as syzop said, the apt-get function is very nice

to even the numbers out a little more... Plus give you a little more full information. It all depends on what you are looking to do. if you are trying to do more of a workstation type of setup on something other than windows, linux is surely a good bet... many people are happy with RedHat/Fendora (I'm not one of them) got a few people who like the simpleness of Mandrake, the stableness of slackware... But if you are looking for more of a server end type of setup, i suggest using Unix. IE FreeBSD. Whatever you decide you aren't will have the ability to run most standard programs, much like, apache, php, mysql, and various others... (the hell if i feel like listing more)

Yeah, so what I am primarily interested in is a replacement for this Windows box that does UnRealIRCd, Anope, SolarStats. I will also learn PHP on Apache(?), and of course MySql, also interested in AW Stats, BIND, of course. Just a nice little ol' server box. And a nice EggDrop, too.

Nobody that makes these great GNU programs wants to support them compiled for Windows, and I understand why. I get it, I tell you. They are flakey as hell under Windows. Crikey, the +i in UnrealIRCd doesn't even work with Windows. There are other problems, too. I don't expect the same problems with *nix.

I am not looking for a desktop replacement, since my desktop is a Windows laptop issued to me from work, just a server box.

I personally prefer Gentoo... sure it takes a long time to install [1], but a) you can install the latest version of stuff off the internet (no burning X000GB CDs that take ~half the time it takes to install things like redhat, plus you get the most recent available version, whereas CD distros the packages tend to get old quickly) and b) unlike Debian it has recently up to date packages (eg standard release has gcc 3.3). Of course, you have to be somewhat familiar with dealing with a command-line environment since you don't have a fancy little autoinstaller, nor do you even get a GUI so you're in text-mode the whole time[2]... but when everything is compiled to suit the capabilities and needs of your system, it's well worth it .

[1]My P3 600MHz did a stage1 install in less than 24 hours, so if you have a reasonably fast machine, the compilation should be done in probably less than that. Especially if you have a multiprocessor system or nice hyperthreading CPUs or something like that.
[2]Applies only to the gentoo livecd. There's an alternative installation method that uses Knoppix which can give you a nice KDE environment to play with while waiting on your bootstrap / emerge system / kernel compile / etc. Of course, you're not required to install a GUI in Linux which is probably one the nice things about it...