I've decided to go with Damn Small Linux

[poinpioa]

here's what i will soon end up doing

 

i set up DSLinux on my old Athlon 1800XP box. Wow it runs like a charm.

 

I will be using it to :-

- Do all spreadsheets and word docs and PDF (its inbuilt) and email

- Firefox runs on it

- NEVERWINTER NIGHTS RUNS ON IT

- Im working on gettig GTA to run on it and im sure it will

- I WILL SERVE GAME SERVERS FROM IT. And because it is Linux, I can stick it on my DMZ zone of the network and banish all port forwarding problems! I want to serve GTAMP... I tried sticking my Windows box on the DMZ and i got virus warnings within 10 MINUTES...

 

Basically it does everything that windows does.

I will have it dual partitioned so when I want to run windows I will boot out of DSL.

 

Most interestingly, DSL has a special package to run under windows as VMWare, which means I can run linux in a box in windoze...

 

i hate windows, but what else is new..

[cold fusion 33]

I'm pretty much with you there . I installed Ubuntu 2 days ago and I love it . It is just so much easier than windows.

Only bad thing is the diffulties with drivers... Ah well, you can't have everything .

[Saggy]

So, wait, are you just doing to DMZ it without putting a firewall on it or anything? I'd make sure that you don't have any miscellaneous services you don't want running like SMTP or POP3 if you're going to do that with linux; I don't think DSL comes with those things on already though.

 

If you get really deep into it, you could always turn the linux box into a router. That's what I did with mine once I got sick of working with my D-Link router and the linux box as a DMZ.

 

But, yeah, not to officially beat the linux-drum or anything, but I haven't used Windows for nearly a year, and don't see myself going back at this point.

 

As for gtasa, I've got it to run on wine, but had to turn off pixel and vertex shading, otherwise there were a lot of texture issues. Is there a linux version of the samp server, because I hadn't heard of anyone getting it working under wine.

[Mike]

 

Is there a linux version of the samp server, because I hadn't heard of anyone getting it working under wine.

Yes!

[poinpioa]

So, wait, are you just doing to DMZ it without putting a firewall on it or anything? I'd make sure that you don't have any miscellaneous services you don't want running like SMTP or POP3 if you're going to do that with linux; I don't think DSL comes with those things on already though.

 

If you get really deep into it, you could always turn the linux box into a router. That's what I did with mine once I got sick of working with my D-Link router and the linux box as a DMZ.

 

But, yeah, not to officially beat the linux-drum or anything, but I haven't used Windows for nearly a year, and don't see myself going back at this point.

 

As for gtasa, I've got it to run on wine, but had to turn off pixel and vertex shading, otherwise there were a lot of texture issues. Is there a linux version of the samp server, because I hadn't heard of anyone getting it working under wine.

thanks for the warning -- maybe i will try out some firewall.

although i say thats what im going to do with dsl im still learning.

 

btw, i actually managed to already run a linux firewall -- its a Smoothwall Linux package and it runs on a Celeron 466 with 256 meg RAM and a 6 gig drive. It's very good. The very best firewall i have but see note below.

 

It is the best because: The firewall tracks every packet. That means it actually reports at the firewall every single packet that misbehaves or coming from or going to a suspicious source.

 

BUT it has its issues :-

 

1) Many modem routers have an inbuilt firewall and port forwarding ruleset. If you run a linux router behind this router you will have to work and be pretty smart in networking to get all your games to navigate 2 firewalls. You could turn the modem into a bridge or turn off its firewall but there would still be the issue that the linux router firewall is one sophisticated beast. It isn't friendly to applications like a modem router is. Programs on your PC which can open the modem firewall ports on their own will get rejected byt he Linux firewall.

 

2) MOST MAJOR ISSUE WITH A LINUX STANDALONE FIREWALL

You cannot tell what your PC is doing. Seriously. If there is a virus on your PC which has compromised your Linux firewall, there is NO WAY you can tell. The only way you can detect this is by running a software firewall on your PC (line ZoneAlarm). Then EVERY UNAUTHORISED program which tries to bust out of the PC gets alerted to you, even if they bust through the Linux Firewall.

 

Finally, if there IS virus on your PC trying to bust out of the Linux Firewall, you won't be able to tell unless you are a genius at reading packet inspection reports. Linux just reports packets, it doesnt report which program on your PC sent that packet. So it is possible that your PC has a virus and the Linux firewall is stopping, but without Zonealarm you cannot tell which program is doing it.

 

This is why Ive disabled my Linux firewall for the moent.

[Picolini]

I've got Ubuntu installed on Vmware, to see what it's all about. Easier than Windows? No way, at least not for doing simple things... like installing and running programs

All those damn packagers and sh*t... way too much work. I'd rather buy a little more RAM for my PC and make my job a lot easier. It is fun to have to screw around with though.

[Saggy]

I've got Ubuntu installed on Vmware, to see what it's all about. Easier than Windows? No way, at least not for doing simple things... like installing and running programs

All those damn packagers and sh*t... way too much work. I'd rather buy a little more RAM for my PC and make my job a lot easier. It is fun to have to screw around with though.

Man, I've found those packagers like apt to be far more convenient than installing software on Windows. No more days of having to go find the program on the internet, download it, and then install it. I can just hit, "apt-get install package" for nearly everything.

 

 

Also, I'm far from an expert, and I can generally tell when a computer is sending too much traffic on one port than the other with my Linux router's log, which is enough to then go netstat on that computer and see what program is sending all of those packets. It's not as an effective way of capturing virus software as a software-firewall, but then again it's not really supposed to perform that task.

 

As for the problem with having Linux behind a normal consumer router/modem, the Linux router itself could be completely stripped of routing and other network tools, and only perform with firewall rules. So, in a sense, you could essentially just be adding a real hardware firewall for your network instead of relying on the one in the cable-modem router. I did this for a while after my consumer router wouldn't let me insert any more firewall rules than I already had.