About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to?

Yes to every item in your list - except leafnode I know nothing about.

deKay wrote:
 > First post, pointers to FAQ (if there is one) appreciated, pointers to another
 > group if this isn't the right one :)
 >
 > I currently have a linux box, which does assorted server tasks, and is used
 > "at the desktop" for email, web and basic office tasks. But it's noisy. Like
 > a Harrier jump jet. I was looking at buying super-quiet parts for it, but
 > then, I thought - a Mac Mini will probably do the same job.
 >
 > Current spec is a SuSE 9.1 box, 20Gb/256Mb/Duron 1.2.
 >
 > So here, in handy list form, is what I want the Mac Mini to do. If it'll do
 > all this, then I can replace the Linux box with it. I'd appreciate some
 > confirmations.
 >
 > Apache2
 > PHP
 > Perl
 > Some kind of FTP server
 > leafnode
 > MySQL
 > Firefox
 > A sshd, so I can tunnel apps through it
 > Open Office (or other free office suite)
 > Access SMB shares and printer on my Windows PC
 > Provide SMB shares
 >
 > I'm looking at a 1.42GHz model at the moment, with a Superdrive (I might want
 > to create DVDs on it). Other types of Mac (iBooks, eMacs, iMacs, etc) are not
 > options as I don't have the money and/or space for them.
 >
 > Thanks.
 >
 > deKay<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Just had a quick look at leafnode, if you recompile from the sources
could be ok. I have not checkd on binaries dependencies.

Daniel Bleriot wrote:
 > Yes to every item in your list - except leafnode I know nothing about.
 >
 > deKay wrote:
 >
  >> So here, in handy list form, is what I want the Mac Mini to do. If
  >> it'll do
  >> all this, then I can replace the Linux box with it. I'd appreciate some
  >> confirmations.
  >>
  >> Apache2
  >> PHP
  >> Perl
  >> Some kind of FTP server
  >> leafnode
  >> MySQL
  >> Firefox
  >> A sshd, so I can tunnel apps through it
  >> Open Office (or other free office suite)
  >> Access SMB shares and printer on my Windows PC
  >> Provide SMB shares
  >><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Tue, 01 Feb
2005 11:15:31 +0100, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do comp.sys.mac.misc,
yawatina tan reek esk Daniel Bleriot <daniel.DeleteThis@bleriot.net> fornis do marikano
es bono tan el:

 >Just had a quick look at leafnode, if you recompile from the sources
 >could be ok. I have not checkd on binaries dependencies.

Sounds good. I'm not adverse to compiling from source. I'm assuming OS X is
similar enough to Linux for me to transfer my "skills" over?
configure/make/make install, basically.

My last Mac ran System 7, so I'm a bit behind on recent developments :)

deKay
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 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Tue, 01 Feb
2005 04:21:42 -0600, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do comp.sys.mac.misc,
yawatina tan reek esk "John A. Weeks III" <john DeleteThis @johnweeks.com> fornis do
marikano es bono tan el:

 >FTP server - yes, but you should use SSH instead since
 > FTP puts passwords over the net in clear text.

I FTP over SSH anyway, so that isn't a problem.

 >MySQL - prebuilt OSX version available for download
 >Firefox - prebuilt OSX version available for download
 >SSH - openssh 3.6.1
 >Open Office - Both X and native versions available for download
 >SMB - folders native to OSX, folders and printing via Samba

Thanks! I have to order a Mac Mini for work anyway, so I'll set that up as
I'd like first, then wipe it before I order mine. I assume you can just
boot-from-CD and "factory reset" everything?

Also, is there much of a difference between the 1.25 and 1.42GHz machines in
terms of speed? The 40Gb drive doesn't really matter too much.

deKay
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 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

deKay <andyk.DeleteThis@lofi-gaming.org.uk> wrote:

 > So here, in handy list form, is what I want the Mac Mini to do. If it'll do
 > all this, then I can replace the Linux box with it. I'd appreciate some
 > confirmations.
 >
 > Apache2
[...]

Apache 1.3.33 is installed in OS X 10.3.7

Easy installers for Apache 2 are available here:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.serverlogistics.com/apache2.php" target="_blank">http://www.serverlogistics.com/apache2.php</a>

But you can roll your own as well, Darwin/OS X is supported bij Apache.

 > leafnode
[...]

Leafnode is available through Fink. (fink.sf.net).


--
marco<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

deKay wrote:
 > Also, is there much of a difference between the 1.25 and 1.42GHz machines in
 > terms of speed? The 40Gb drive doesn't really matter too much.

All else being equal - have you seen a PC so far that was "fast enough"
for most tasks (read: not totally underpowered), where a processor
that's 13.6% faster was something where you'd actually feel the
difference? I hardly ever felt the difference between a PIII 500 and an
Athlon 800 - and that's *much* more of a difference.

David<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

On 2005-02-01, John A. Weeks III <john.DeleteThis@johnweeks.com> wrote:
 > Open Office - Both X and native versions available for download

Huh? I thought OOo dropped native version support, since nobody had worked
on it for over a year.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

In article <o7muv09ss0bqa410f6dbot1tf5706f2cpo DeleteThis @4ax.com>,
deKay <andyk DeleteThis @lofi-gaming.org.uk> wrote:


 > I'm assuming OS X is
 > similar enough to Linux for me to transfer my "skills" over?

Yep. That's a big part of why I have some Macs. I can do all my "usual"
unixy things, and I have a nicely integrated system and gui as well.

There are small differences between OS-X and Linux, but I'd say that
they are no bigger than the differences between other Unix derivatives.
For example, my transition from Linux to OS-X felt an awful lot like my
previous transition from Sun Solaris to Linux. (Well, incomplete
transitions; I still do some things on all 3, but its a Mac sitting in
front of me in prime position on my desk). So perhaps if Linux is the
only Unix variant you have ever seen, OS X might seem a little
different, but if your perspective has already been broadened by
exposure to more than one Unix variant, this should look like more of
the same in terms of Unix features.

Libraries tend to be in different places - that's trivial. Probably the
difference that I notice most often is in how shared libraries work. But
you probably don't even much run into those issues when using 3rd party
software that has already been ported; its configure/make stuff will
already handle it. If you need to port your own software, you'll need to
learn a bit more, but that's no great surprise.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: my first.last at org.domain | experience comes from bad judgment.
org: nasa, domain: gov | -- Mark Twain<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Jay Maynard wrote:
 > Huh? I thought OOo dropped native version support, since nobody had worked
 > on it for over a year.
 >
NeoOffice/J<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

deKay <andyk.DeleteThis@lofi-gaming.org.uk> writes:

 > So here, in handy list form, is what I want the Mac Mini to do.

 > Apache2

Get the point-and-click installation package from Aaron Faby's
ServerLogistics.com

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.serverlogistics.com/apache2.php" target="_blank">http://www.serverlogistics.com/apache2.php</a>

 > PHP

Also from Aaron:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.serverlogistics.com/php4.php" target="_blank">http://www.serverlogistics.com/php4.php</a>

 > Perl
 > Some kind of FTP server

Comes with both already installed. I don't advise using
ftp, however and, of course, it's not enabled by default.
If you can, stick with sftp instead.

 > leafnode

Can't help you. Try sourceforge.

 > MySQL

Yet again, Aaron:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.serverlogistics.com/mysql.php" target="_blank">http://www.serverlogistics.com/mysql.php</a>

 > Firefox

Mozilla.org

 > A sshd, so I can tunnel apps through it

Comes with it.

 > Open Office (or other free office suite)

Try NeoOffice/J, which uses native Mac interface elements
to implement OpenOffice. Very spiffy.

 > Access SMB shares and printer on my Windows PC
 > Provide SMB shares

Built-in.

 > I'm looking at a 1.42GHz model at the moment, with a Superdrive (I
 > might want to create DVDs on it). Other types of Mac (iBooks,
 > eMacs, iMacs, etc) are not options as I don't have the money and/or
 > space for them.

Sounds great. Put in as much RAM as you can stand to spend
money on. Should be easy - all your software (above) is free.

--
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 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des 01 Feb 2005
09:08:16 -0500, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do comp.sys.mac.misc,
yawatina tan reek esk BreadWithSpam DeleteThis @fractious.net fornis do marikano es bono
tan el:

 >Sounds great. Put in as much RAM as you can stand to spend
 >money on. Should be easy - all your software (above) is free.

Thanks for all that.

deKay
--
+ Lofi Gaming - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.lofi-gaming.org.uk" target="_blank">www.lofi-gaming.org.uk</a>
|- ugvm Magazine - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.ugvm.org.uk" target="_blank">www.ugvm.org.uk</a>
|- My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that
|- "CLART - YOU KNOWS IT"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Tue, 01 Feb
2005 08:16:54 -0800, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do comp.sys.mac.misc,
yawatina tan reek esk Richard E Maine <nospam.RemoveThis@see.signature> fornis do
marikano es bono tan el:

 >Libraries tend to be in different places - that's trivial. Probably the
 >difference that I notice most often is in how shared libraries work. But
 >you probably don't even much run into those issues when using 3rd party
 >software that has already been ported; its configure/make stuff will
 >already handle it. If you need to port your own software, you'll need to
 >learn a bit more, but that's no great surprise.

So long as it isn't the shock to the system Linux was when I went from Windows
98 and AmigaOS to SuSE 7 :)

deKay
--
+ Lofi Gaming - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.lofi-gaming.org.uk" target="_blank">www.lofi-gaming.org.uk</a> [Gamertag: deKay 01]
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|- Hurry up and go touch it.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to? 

On Tue, 1 Feb 2005, deKay wrote:

  > >Just had a quick look at leafnode, if you recompile from the sources
  > >could be ok. I have not checkd on binaries dependencies.

Leafnode works fine, everything on your list is either built-in or readily
available. I'm actually replying to this message from a ssh session into
my G5, running pine, and reading the news feed from the local leafnode
service.

 > Sounds good. I'm not adverse to compiling from source. I'm assuming OS
 > X is similar enough to Linux for me to transfer my "skills" over?
 > configure/make/make install, basically.

For the most part. The biggest difference is that the package management
systems for OS X, fink and darwinports, really aren't as mature as the
larger Linux or BSD systems.

KeS<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: About to buy a Mac Mini - will it do what I want it to?