“MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT the merits of Linux, one of the
biggest of which, from the small business perspective, is the value
for money it represents. In particular, the latest Red Hat 7
Professional Server packs a huge amount of functionality into one
box. For example, as well as the basic operating system, you
get a copy of Apache, the most popular Web server on the Internet,
plus email and database servers a copy of the backup program,
ARCserve and enough extra applications to fill some 12 CD-ROMs.
Another bonus is that you don’t need to buy additional client
licences-at least not for the core Linux software-and can run the
package on relatively low-powered hardware.”
“If it all sounds too good to be true, then in reality the
package does suffer from one major drawback-manageability.
Graphical management tools are available, but the main interface
for server installations remains the command line. Text-based help
files are the main source of instruction, backed up by far from
adequate manuals. All of which is fine if you’re a Unix support
person in a large organisation, but it’s far from perfect for the
harassed manager of a small business looking to get a server up and
running with the minimum of fuss.”
“Minimum requirements for Red Hat 7 is a Pentium-class processor
and 64MB of memory, plus a basic 600MB of free disk space for all
the software. Most entry-level servers meet this requirement so
hardware shouldn’t be a problem and there’s support for multiple
processors and RAID storage if a more capable system is used.”