I have been in computers for 30 years and know everything about MS, but nothing about anything else. Been developping websites (inter alia) running on MS servers using ASP's and vbScripts which apparently does not work under Unix.

My own website is being hosted on a Unix server and I need to extract data out of a database and all kinds of other little things.

I would like to set up a Unix server on my network to practice on. I have a good pentium based computer for the purpose. Plenty of Internet bandwith, so downloading is no problem

1) What version of Unix should I use and where can I find it?

2) What scripting languages should I look at to attain the same results?

3) What tools are available and where can I get them?

4) What tutoring aids are available, and where can I find them.

Ps.
In my country dollars are very expensive (many people work for less than thirty US$ per week) and buying something that will only be used a few months is not really an option.

There are couple of books you could buy (if only you could afford them). Some have training and educational copy CDs which could be used to achieve your goals.

The flavor of unix you want largely depends on you. But I may suggest Solaris. It appears to me very common and thereby has many support available.

Anyone you get would definately have user's manual which could assist you.

Just make a bold step and get one then you'll go from there.

Sola

dear paul@saccom,

1. since you have a pentium machine, the best for you is LINUX. You may try Redhat or SuSe. They are available for free download. the download sites for LINUX is numerous.

2. XML, PERL, TCL, etc

3. same

4. google.com. look for tutorial+<subject>

imho...

all the best and welcome to UNIX world!

1) I would suggest you to get a Linux distribution like RedHat or SuSE. If you don't want to spend money on them you can even download them for free. Have a look at www.redhat.com or www.suse.com. However if you decide to buy one, they both contain some good manuals which will help you with the installation and the basics.

Furthermore they both come with loads of software, basically everything you'll need for a start.

2) Perl, PHP mostly for webstuff.

3) As I said before, you'll find all the tools you need to get started on the CD's of the distribution.

4) You'll find loads of basic information on www.linuxdoc.com.
Then there is of course google.com which will find the answer to many questions you mayhave. Also there is a lot of information about Perl, PHP etc. available on the web.

Thanks,
The response is good, but I'm not really winning. Given up but will retry now. I have tried to download from University Stellenbosch (closest to me) twice but cannot get wise. Don't think I get all the stuff. Maybe I should try another site.