I'm really new to this and I want to learn UNIX/LINUX and saw the post about setting up a server to use everyday to practice. I have an old 386 PC and a 486 PC sitting around. Can they be reformatted and used to run UNIX/LINUX on as a network.

Short answer: Yes
Long answer: Yes, but it'll take some time to install and you'll have no eye-candy.

AFAIK, the only distributions still supporting 486 CPUs are Slackware and Debian. Maybe even Ubuntu, but don't expect the GUI to be responsive. If you've got a whole lot of time, you could try Linux from Scratch. On a P90 it took me 2 weeks from zero to a half-way decent system (including some BLFS software)

Also, I don't think the BIOS' on those systems can cope with dates > 1999-12-31, so expect some oddities there.

I'm going to be taking two computer maintenance class in the fall so I can learn to build and maintain my future systems. what is the minimum hardware requirements I can use to run some version of Linux (easiest version for a ground floor newbie). So if I run across some smoking deals on used systems, I'll know what I need to buy

thanks for the help

PS I'm so new, I start CIS 105 class and a "Microsoft Command Line" Class this coming Tuesday. That's so I can take the 2 computer maintenance classes and a Linux class in the fall

Minimum requirements for Debian are: 486, 48 MB RAM, ~250 MB HDD (not including swap space). But that means: no GUI, no eye candy, and a good knowledge of what you're doing.

For beginners it's probably better to start with OpenSuSE/Fedora/Ubuntu/Mint, and work you way down. But for those to feel good you'll need (guesstimating here) a P3 ~1GHz, 512 MB RAM, and about 1 GB HDD space.

If you've got a reasonable system already you could give VirtualBox or VMware a try.

thanks for the information. I just got my Book in the Mail for my "MS command Line" class. I have to go buy a USB 3.5 floppy drive. boy haven't had to use a 3.5 floppy disk for a couple of years.

thanks again the info is really appreciated