Originally Posted by
PTravel
I'm virtually a Linux virgin. I've done some Tivo hacking, which is done in Linux, but it was mostly a cookbook operation. I really didn't understand a lot of what I was doing. Eventually, I want to set up a Linux server for ftp and file serving on my network, but that's well off in the future.
I think Ubuntu is a lot like OS X...it can be quite powerful or very simple depending on the user and their demands... My one knock is the lack of a great GUI admin tool... There is Webmin which is a web-based admin tool that is quite capable. The only downside is that its not available via apt-get so you have to manually install it...but once you do it makes setting up things like FTP and SMB shares a snap, really painless... I've started using ubuntu 6.10 server and its just lightening fast and with webmin I can get a box configured and running in no time! I just moved a box to my parents house a few hours away. They have a t-1 and i have a router-to-router site-to-site vpn b/t the two of us, so I'm backing up my machines to that remote box and then allowing them to back up their machines to one of my servers...totally secure and redundant.