Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 09:37:00 +0100 From: Graham Bentley <gbentley@uk2.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: New user questions :) Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20040617093700.007b1a70@mail.uk2.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hello to all you FreeBSD guys (and girls:) I am new here and have some questions to ask and comments to invite. For the last year or so I have been using SME server (an optimised Linux based server / LAN server that provides in one distro Mail/Webmail/FTP/ HTTP/Samba - all configurable from a Web browser on the LAN) This has proved very quick to install / deploy but since it has been 'handed over' to the community by the commercial company that sponsored the project updates have been very slow. Of course you can pay $ if you want the commercial version :) If I needed just an FTP server or a Webserver I have used Trustix Linux which seems very elegant / secure / minimal distro which is well maintained and easy to update. Everything is off (almost) unless you explicitly configure it. This seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to other Linux distros which installed all but the kitchen sink (or you spent alot of time picking over packages) I recently found out that the company selling the commercial version of Trustix is going to cease support of the community version and to get updates / security fixes you have to pay $. This seems fair enough and its a good distro. Some of my clients may want to pay for the reassurance of the backing of a commercial company. I however do not and only want some web services for my small co. So, I start to look for a distro that has a community roadmap that doesnt end in me paying for just the few things that I need. I am aware of Debian and have been told that it is secure / easy to update and people talk about it as the most 'pure version' of Linux. As yet I have not had chance to DL it or review it. In the meantime I decided to try FreeBSD and am dual booting into 5.2.1 as an alternative desktop. I have to say that some things seem alot easier than in the Linux world whilst others issues have seemed difficult to resolve (MIDI Sound for example:) but these are minor desktop issues that I dont really care too much about. What I am interested in is replicating LAN / Web services that I have learnt to configre under Linux on FreeBSD. Heres my immediate shortlist :- Setting up DHCP for LAN Clients Synchronising time for LAN Clients Setting up Samba to Share Files on a Wingroup Setting up a print server for Winclients Using Samba as a Virtual CD-ROM Server Web Services (Apache / FTP) Admin access over ssh LAN Mail Hub (Postifx / Fetchmail?) Checking for security / software updates and updatig the system I am sure some of these tasks are fairly easy and very similar to that in the Linux world although I would welcome any advice / comments. I also wondered if there is a project based on FreeBSD that achieves similar goals to SME Server (ie all in one LAN server with Web config) or similar to Trustix (ie minimal config with series of scripts to configure server services. I would also welcome comments on FreeBSD security / frequency of updates and how to keep the installation updated ? Also, what is the roadmap / lifespan of FreeBSD ? Sorry about the length of this post :)
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3.0.6.32.20040617093700.007b1a70>