Error Condition Re: Web Server recommendation?

[John Rutherford CCSU Library 203-832-2082]

My personal preference is toward running a unix system, which might
be a PC (486 with 16-32MB ram is fine for Linux) Pentium is fine also.
You might stay with 'classic' SCSI cards rather than the newest, some
versions of linux do not easily support some of the new Adaptec 
controllers without adding additional drivers. The NCR scsi card is
widely supported as are the 1542 adaptec, and buslogic cards.

There are also a number of SPARC clones that are inexpensive these
days and can rival a pentium in price, but there will be much more work
configuring it. The Slackware distribution of Linux will come with Perl,
possibly a web server (ncsa), gcc compilers, tcpwrapper software (for
added security), anonymous ftp server, and many other useful programs.

I like the wn httpd server (current version is 1.09 I think) as it provides
better security than most of the non-commercial servers, it is well-documented,
and well-supported by the author, John Franks, and includes a number of
enhancements for indexing documents, image mapping etc.

The down side for unix or linux will be learning the OS. The mac platform
with the webstar server will be much easier to configure and setup, but
will be slower, and probably harder to setup cgi applications though there
are some interesting cgi systems available for accessing SQL, and Filemaker
databases, and will probably be many other products on the market in the
future. I think a lot depends on what you want to do with the server.
I would say it would be cheaper to go with Linux on a 486 or pentium, than
a mac that has enough ram and diskspace to do the job.

The Caldera linux distribution might be the easiest to setup and configure.
It also includes good Netware services if you have a netware lan. It will
come with an httpd server, browser and a X windows desktop that is pretty
easy to use (and actually does an ok job of configuring X windows during
installation). The version I tried needed some work, and some newer versions
of the GCC compilers, but the current distribution is probably better. This
is not freeware like other linux distributions but is not too expensive at
this point.

John Rutherford
Conn State Univ