Ok, Im a Win2k developer, and im just about to get a dedicated box, however, as I've been pricing Win2k + SQL Server + Mail server + DNS server ...... Im into mega $$$$ soo.... hello Linux...

Ho much hassle is it gonna be for me to jump from Win2K (hich I know well) to Linux ... I've looked at PHP + MySQL on my dev box and MySQL is nice - got a nice web based UI for it phpMyAdmin which is great. Im no stranger to cmd prompts so shell cant be much of a big deal

All I wanna know is any *real world* experiences ppl have jumping from Win2K -> Linux

Win2K is gonna work out too expensive to run my operations so I think M$ are going to lose out

Thx

I myself work as a MCSE and do my hosting on a Linux box.. i would first suggest pulling out that old pentium-60 and installing a fresh copy of redhat WITHOUT THE GUI on it and start tinkering around.. It is alot different.. I grew up on DOS so I think I got used to the shell a little quicker. But I'll tell you once you get the nix niche you don't want to go back.. Its great just give yourself atleast a couple of months to tinker around before you go with it and just don't jump right in as the control panels do help you alot with day to day stuff but when its time to get your hands dirty and it's something the CP can't do then it is a very unhappy feeling having no clue what do to.. First stop I would suggest would be Barnes and Noble to get a good beginners linux admin book.. then follow it up with a nice apache book.. I also hear the Linux Bible is good.. Well good luck..

Greetings:

Check out http://php.weblogs.com/php_vs_asp as it has links to conversion issues.

mySQL beats Access night and day. It does lack some SQL features. PHPAdmin is nice, but not as good as Enterprise Manager for SQL server.

All in all, though, you will benefit. Linux runs faster, is more stable, and has a ton of stuff free. Worse case is you pay labor for some one to handle installs or configuration issues.

Take care and good luck.

I recommend this book to you, I think it's great,

Linux Unleashed - Sams Publishing

also Sams "Teach yourself Linux in 24hrs"

They are both fine books that I would not be without now.

March 2001 I got my first Linux server, after having used only Windows boxes for desktops and servers. I'm an IT techie as a career, so it wasn't difficult for me at all.

The biggest thing I had to get used to was not rebooting all the time as I had done under Windows. Everything else fell into place conceptually.

Some good advice there... I know DOS well enough so its just gonna be a case of stick it on a box and play for a while before doing any serious projects.

I think my first stop will be amazon.com and get me some Linux books to read on the toilet.


Its just i hear of things like "cron" jobs .. and its probably not as scary as it sounds .. probably just a fancy batch file ;-)

Thx guys.