UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello all! I am searching for a *nix distro for a project I am about to undertake.

I have a laptop (p3 500mhz, 128MB ram, 10GB hard drive) that I would like to use as a server for VPN & possibly hosting a small personal web site. Now, here is where it gets a bit tricky. There is no optical drive. There is a floppy drive and an ethernet port (no wireless). In the bios, there is no "boot from network" option.

Is there a way to install say, FreeBSD over my network with my desktop? Or could I possibly share my DVD drive on my desktop and install it to the laptop that way? Or am I stuck using floppies? I have a 32MB flash drive, but it also doesn't have a "boot from USB" option in the bios.

If I have to do this with floppies, can anyone reccommend a unix (or linux) distro that I could install with a small number of floppies? I can always download & install any optional software later correct (like Gnome or KDE)?

I'll stay out of the distro war... You can also get floppy disks that will load then boot from PXE despite the BIOS not supporting it, though these are often specific to your network device.

Hi,

If I understood you right, you want to use your Laptop as a Webserver....

If that is really all, you have the possibility to install some kind of SuSE Linux 7.x per Floppys to your Laptop and after you configured the network you get the remaining packets per FTP and that simply should do the trick.....


Hope that it helps you,


Jan