Hi Nathan
> Roger G. Romeril replied to an email about test sites for cgi scripts. He
> mentioned that instead, it would be better to get a stripped down pc and
> load Linux, perl, and apache and play with that. Well, I decided to do
just
> that. While the suggestion wasn't specifically aimed at me, I thought
that
> the suggestion was a good one. I located an old P166 open-architecture pc
> with a 4gig hd and 32 mg ram. Just need to get a cdrom. No problem. But
I
> have some questions:
> Can you run a web browser under Linux?
You sure can - I run 2 browsers under linux - Netscape and Opera. I would
recommend Opera as the superior of the 2 - it is much faster and less prone
to errors than netscape. However you need to stick to the standards a bit
more closely with opera to avoid strange layouts.
> Does perl behave better/differently than on a M$ machine?
I haven't found it to behave differently - any scripts I have ported from M$
to linux have worked fine. Although the Activeperl version I have on the
windows machine doesnt have the same range of packages the linux - most
notably its missing DBI.pm
> I don't have any experience w/ Linux. Am I over my head?
Not these days. GUI interfaces for linux are getting more user friendly all
the time. KDE is a very familar environment for windows refugees and gives
you a great introduction to linux.
> Where do I get Linux?
go to http://www.linux.com - you'll find links there to take you to any
distro of linux that takes your fancy
> Do I necessarily need Red Hat?
Nope - and if you are just starting I would heartily recommend Mandrake as
your first port of call - its very easy to install and very user friendly.
Redhat needs a bit more command line work after the install to get it set up
nice on your computer. Mandrake makes it a bit easier on you.
>
> Thanks in advance. My goal is to learn perl and CGI scripting well enough
> to administer my own site. I want to learn how to access a database with
my
> scripts to provide live content on the fly and provide an e-commerce
> solution for my Company, a small mom & pop business that recently has made
a
> very successful break onto the web in September, 2000 (by yours truly).
> What databases work the best for this type of project?
> Are there any other tools/software/utilities I'll need?
>
> Thank you,
> Nathan
> Internet Graphics and Design
> www.tandrtrailer.com <http://www.tandrtrailer.com/>
good luck :)
