..I have been purely a windoze guy.. However, after much thought I have decided to also get a Linux Server with Rackshack (the intel 1ghz white box) as they seem to offer the best bang for your buck.

Any last words of wisdom? Anyone? :-)

I see that you now have joined the rest of the free world over
here on the linux side.

I just want to let you know to watch out for the sales tax.
Beacuse RS is located in texas you have to pay them 8.25% tax
and I think you have to pay texas sales tax on your income from
the server. However, I am far from an expert on tax issues. You
may want to contact RS.

Thanks for joining the linux side.....

Welcome to the real world.. :D

I would suggest going and getting some books on Linux administration. It will help you understand what the GUI is actually doing and how to fix something if you need to.
I've heard Linux For Dummies is good, along with the Linux Bible..
I'm sure if you do a search on here you'll see other books that are good..
Also check out http://www.unixguide.net

laterz,
raqworld

I am not saying that hosting on Windoze is really a bad thing, just that both linux and windoze have their own niches. Some customer demand for windoze while other insists on Linux.

Of course, the fact that Linux is practically free helps a lot :-)

As for RackShack, although I'm not living in the States do I have still have to pay the taxes..ummpphh..have to check that out??

Ok, need to hit the books now. I've just dual-booted Redhat and need to take some time to re-familiarize my self with it. Its been awhile since I touched linux.

cheers!

As for what I understand about the taxes on Rackshack servers, yes, you would have to pay it even though you're out of the states. Servers originate in Texas, thus you need to pay Texas taxes.. Search their online boards for more tax info.. its been a topic of discussion many times..

laterz,
raqworld

Make sure that you understand the limitations of the Plesk license at RackShack and the fact that the tarball install of Plesk will put major internet applications in extremely unorthodox places on the drive. You will NOT be able to use the RedHat Network to admin your machine; at least not any applications that you use to serve web content. Plesk also counts subdomains as domains, so beware.

I have the server that you intend to buy. RackShack, so far, will not install a plain copy of RedHat 7.2 on my machine and I deplore the Plesk install currently offered. Ensim will be offered soon, it is reported, and that is RPM based, so your machine will have a clean Linux install rather than something Plesk cobbled together to attempt to win an episode of junkyardwars.

Hopefully RackShack management will comprehend the value of offering a plain RedHat install at some juncture, at which point I'd not be up here making noise about the dire situation, but would rather applaud their use of common sense. Let's see if this transpires.

Plesk also comes as a RPM version...

Plesk also comes as a RPM version...

That would be a cleaner install than their ^&*!@# tarball.

Would you happen to know if the Plesk RPM also installs Apache, Qmail, bind, my_sql, ftp, etc.? The tarball installs all of these under psa.

.. I've been emailing the sales at rackshack with a few general inquiries but their response seem to take days. Is this normal of what I should expect of their service?

rgds

Originally posted by Z28SS
That would be a cleaner install than their ^&*!@# tarball.
Would you happen to know if the Plesk RPM also installs Apache, Qmail, bind, my_sql, ftp, etc.? The tarball installs all of these under psa.

I believe you can get the RPM "Standard" or "Full" versions. I know the full version includes Apache, QMail, etc.. I don't know about the standard version. You can download individual packages.. Check it out:
http://www.plesk.com/html/downloads/psa/rpm.htm
Don't know if you need to log in for this link..

Laterz,
raqworld

Originally posted by mattan
.. I've been emailing the sales at rackshack with a few general inquiries but their response seem to take days. Is this normal of what I should expect of their service?
rgds

You might want to post on their forums.. they are usually monitored by the sales team pretty well..

just a thought,
raqworld

I always wondered if Plesk was violating the Qmail license by distributing binaries. If they did, they will have to face the full wraith of djb.

The Qmail license only allows binary distribution if the source is unaltered (which makes qmail almost useless since a lot of fixes are distributed as patches) AND qmail retains its directory structure under /var/qmail.

Originally posted by okiemonkey
I always wondered if Plesk was violating the Qmail license by distributing binaries. If they did, they will have to face the full wraith of djb.

The Qmail license only allows binary distribution if the source is unaltered (which makes qmail almost useless since a lot of fixes are distributed as patches) AND qmail retains its directory structure under /var/qmail.

Dan's attitude greatly annoys me. :) We use qmail, but only with many patches, including some I wrote myself. It's better than sendmail, but some of Mr. Bernstein's reasons for doing things the way he does are stupid and wrong. IMHO.

Anyway, in the past he has said that you CAN distribute it in binary format, but only if you support it. Now it seems that you need to just get his approval. Usually this just requires sending him a copy of the source.

But I wonder if plesk did that. Because from what I've heard, plesk didn't even have a commercial RSAREF license to be selling RSA with the Ben SSL that they were selling before RSA's patent ended.

But all of this has be discussed in plesk's forums.