[mdlug] linux hardware

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Fri, 2009-12-04 at 17:36 -0500, epic wamz wrote:
> I've been asked by a friend who is running a small business to help
> him purchase and setup a linux server. I'm kind of known as a linux
> evangelist, so it makes sense why he asked me, but I don't know much
> about purchasing server hardware, and frankly I haven't built a
> computer from the ground up in a good 6-7 years.

Low-end evangelism ends up hurting Open Source's reputation far more
than it helps.

> So, I thought I would drop a quick message to see if someone could
> give me any advice. I'm not asking for you to do the research for me,
> but a gentle nudge in a good direction would be appreciated.
> My friend wasn't specific about the server capabilities he needs. He
> has a growing technology business and wants to be as agile as
> possible. Sounds like it could be used as a web server, subversion
> repo, and used for virtualization among other things. I'm not really

You cannot spec a server with such vague specs;  and if you are going to
do virtualization then you have very specific requirements in regards to
CPU extensions supported and chipset.

>  looking to build from scratch, so any advice on where to go, or tips
> when buying a system would be most welcome.
> The budget is $500 +/- $100.

You cannot buy a server for that price; either go to
<http://www.siliconmechanics.com/> and spec an appropriate box and
convince him to pay whatever that price is or [seriously] convince him
to install Windows so that Open Source doesn't have to take the fall for
yet another el-cheapo poorly engineered install.