Never let it be said that I’m not open minded. I’m giving Linux yet another chance. I picked up a Gigabyte dual-CPU motherboard last weekend from Directron, and before I set it up as my new web/sql server, I figured I’d throw Mandrake 9 on there and see how she works. The hardware is pretty straightforward (dual-P3, Geforce2 Pro video card, Intel dual-port network card, US Robotics modem) and already worked with the default install CD’s for Win2k Server and .Net Web Server Edition, so I’ll see how Linux handles it.

A bit of history – over the years, I’ve tried Linux at least ten times, and I’ve never had a distro work with the devices in my systems. I don’t use esoteric gear, but it’s always been a struggle. My last effort was about six months ago, when I tried to get Red Hat 7 on my Thinkpad T21. No matter what, I couldn’t get my wireless network card or the integrated 10/100 card to work. People suggested I recompile the kernel to get those to work. Riiiight.

I got tempted this time because I was surfing through SourceForge looking at groupware tools for a work project, and realized that there was some stuff on there that could easily replace Exchange for my home use. One thought led to another, and I decided that I could make the jump and convert my web pages and mail system over to Linux fairly easily. I’d have to rewrite a few things like this database-driven blog, but since Dreamweaver MX has PHP support built in, it just might not be that bad.

I still wouldn’t switch to Linux on the desktop yet – I’ll still use VMware for that. I’d actually rather switch to Mac OS X on the desktop before I switched to Linux.