How easy is Linux nowadays?
Discussion
Background:
Home network consisting of multiple clients for media (Audio - RPi running MusicBox, Video: PS3, Chromecast, mobile devices, early gen smart TV) currently all being served from an old Dell Optiplex 755 running XP and Serviio. More then capable of transcoding (via Serviio) what I need.
With XP being end of life life, and Me wanting to run a lightweight internal web server (just a few HTML pages) DHCP and DNS functions from the Dell, I was looking at either replacing with W10 to perform those functions, or (the super cheap option) moving over to Linux (Ubuntu). And running Plex instead of Serviio for the Chromecast functionality and various other bits.
Clients are non negotiable.
So, as a long served Win/MSDOS user, who's pretty competent with Win (but only up to W7), am I going to find the Linux route a complete ballache to install and setup for Plex, DHCP, Web host, and DNS serving?
Time is a bit of a premium for me, so I'm tempted to buy a W8.1 licence for 20 quid and just go what would seem the relatively easy, relatively known path.
TL:DR - How easy is it to set up an Ubuntu server to host media?
Home network consisting of multiple clients for media (Audio - RPi running MusicBox, Video: PS3, Chromecast, mobile devices, early gen smart TV) currently all being served from an old Dell Optiplex 755 running XP and Serviio. More then capable of transcoding (via Serviio) what I need.
With XP being end of life life, and Me wanting to run a lightweight internal web server (just a few HTML pages) DHCP and DNS functions from the Dell, I was looking at either replacing with W10 to perform those functions, or (the super cheap option) moving over to Linux (Ubuntu). And running Plex instead of Serviio for the Chromecast functionality and various other bits.
Clients are non negotiable.
So, as a long served Win/MSDOS user, who's pretty competent with Win (but only up to W7), am I going to find the Linux route a complete ballache to install and setup for Plex, DHCP, Web host, and DNS serving?
Time is a bit of a premium for me, so I'm tempted to buy a W8.1 licence for 20 quid and just go what would seem the relatively easy, relatively known path.
TL:DR - How easy is it to set up an Ubuntu server to host media?
Any of the big distros are a doddle to set up these days if you're at all technically minded. Personally I would say that it would be substantially easier to do all of that lot on Linux than Windows, and even if you have to learn it all from scratch everything is very well documented online. Google is your friend!
I'm also intrigued as to where you get a genuine W8.1 license for £20? Standard price is nearer £80 and practically speaking there ain't no discounts on that.
I'm also intrigued as to where you get a genuine W8.1 license for £20? Standard price is nearer £80 and practically speaking there ain't no discounts on that.
Like you I've run Windows since the early(ish) days, but I've also got a decade of experience in Linux, BSD and OS X. As said above Linux is pretty much point and click these days, or at worst copy + paste (online guides are over abundant and easy to follow step by step). You'll get the best out of things by spending an hour or so reading the how to guides and wiki entires though; actually learning how it works rather than just hitting ctrl + X then ctrl + v over and again. That way if things ever go wrong or you want to extend/change/enable functionality you'll have the know-how rather than having to be limited by the guide you followed.
Something like Linux Mint 17.2 would probably be ideal for you, as it's based on Ubuntu directly (same software, same sources, better user interface). You could also try vanilla Debian and even experiment with going headless, but that's the beauty - choice. You don't get that with Windows. It's all free, and the community is generally helpful.
As for Windows 8.1 licenses cheap. The legitimate online game key seller G2A have various sellers providing Windows keys. They offer 'G2A Shield' which is a few pence (paid in the price of the key) which guarantees you don't get a duff one. I paid £22 the other day for Win 8.1 Pro x64 and now have Windows 10 Pro x64 clean installed on my new FX8350/16GB machine.
Something like Linux Mint 17.2 would probably be ideal for you, as it's based on Ubuntu directly (same software, same sources, better user interface). You could also try vanilla Debian and even experiment with going headless, but that's the beauty - choice. You don't get that with Windows. It's all free, and the community is generally helpful.
As for Windows 8.1 licenses cheap. The legitimate online game key seller G2A have various sellers providing Windows keys. They offer 'G2A Shield' which is a few pence (paid in the price of the key) which guarantees you don't get a duff one. I paid £22 the other day for Win 8.1 Pro x64 and now have Windows 10 Pro x64 clean installed on my new FX8350/16GB machine.
M6L11 said:
As for Windows 8.1 licenses cheap. The legitimate online game key seller G2A have various sellers providing Windows keys. They offer 'G2A Shield' which is a few pence (paid in the price of the key) which guarantees you don't get a duff one. I paid £22 the other day for Win 8.1 Pro x64 and now have Windows 10 Pro x64 clean installed on my new FX8350/16GB machine.
Hmmm. I see nothing there to suggest that these are any different from the knock-off MSDN licenses that you get on eBay and similar. You may be lucky for a while but it's pretty likely that MS will get around to deactivating the license key once they notice that it's being punted around these sites.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff