How to use Linux the Easy Way

From ReduxWiki

Secure Shell can be pretty intimidating if you don't know what you're doing. Especially if you come from a Windows background. I've been scouring the internet for hours and hours trying to find answers to my questions. One thing I found is possibly one of the best tools for those of us who don't know how to use Linux. It requires a little amount of pain but then you're in the clear. "IBM Developer Works":http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-roadmap.html has an excellent series on switching over from Windows to Linux.

The easiest way to install and administrate a Linux based server is through a program known as "Webmin":http://www.webmin.com/. This program is a highly intuitive web based graphical user interface to your server. It's distributed for Red Hat Linux which means it will work with both Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprize Linux. Plus, as a bonus, it comes as an RPM(almost like a msi file on Windows).

Ok so how to install it. This is pretty easy. You need to get the download URL for webmin _version number_ .noarch.rpm To do this, you'll need to follow the link to Source Forge and get a download server. Start to download then pause the download allowing you to access the Download Info dialogue (using a download manager like Download Them All for Firefox helps). In the Secure Shell window, type in *wget* a space then the url to that file. Hit enter and the server will download the RPM directly to your hard drive on your VPS or dedicated server. You'll see a dialogue that will show you the current progress and how fast it's downloading as well as an ETA and some other things.

Eventually, the download will stop and something like * _timestamp_ ( _average bandwidth_ ) - 'webmin- _version number_ .noarch.rmp saved [ _bytes downloaded / bytes total_ ]*

Now you should be able to input text again. Assuming you can, input *rpm -ivh webmin _version number_ .noarch.rpm* and hit enter. The webmin _version number_ .noarch.rpm should be replaced with EXACTLY what the file you save using wget is called without the rest of the URL.

The first command is self explanatory. The second is a dash, indicating run parameters, i indicating install, v indicating verbose which displays extra information, and h which is hash bar which indicates current progress.

It should prepare then install. Once it's done, you'll see *Webmin install complete. You can now login to http://_your virtual domain_:10000 as root with your root password*

There you go. Webmin is now installed and you can easily install Apache, DNS, and other things. Webmin uses an internal web server and non-standard CGI Perl modules(the server is written in Perl as well). This assumably is for security reasons.

Also, it might be a good idea to keep your versions up to date. If anyone guesses your root password(or extracts it), they'll have free domain over your server.