Questions from somebody who has never used Linux 7479

Steve

I ended up stuffing Debian on a secondhand PC, and I got where I wanted to be finally, but it was a huge sweat.

Not specifically because it was Debian,but simply because the Linux distros are rapidly moving targets, and what worked (and was documented) yesterday may not even exist on todays distro, and installing it may make things worse...;-)

What you install depends entirely on where you want to get. If you want a 'all in one plug and play, look its almost Windows' my friend has SUSE and says its ideal...

I didn't. I wanted a headless server to set up various things, and expected to dive under the hood from the word go..and boy, I wasn't wrong.

The bad news about Linux is that to get specific stuff to work, may require you to buttemble various bits of software from various places, and install them and find your way around the distros management systems.

The good news is there is no problem you cannot solve or fix, even if it means hacking the software and recompiling.

Bringing up a Linux system is not going down the showroom and buying the only car in stock. Its like buying a chbuttis, and an enormous box of bits, some of which fit, and many of which fit, but you don't need, and a selection of which CAN be buttembled into practically any kind of car you want..if you are prepared to put in the effort.

The process is very educational.