As a person who is putting donated/used Unix boxes in schools
as a part of our outreach program, I would say:
Get a Unix that has a reasonably large following near you
so you can ask questions of people who you know.
We use SunOS for our Computer Science Outreach Services systems.
It makes many software installs easy, because most things are
being written for SunOs still. This will slow down over time
as more and more people start using solaris.
But for our Public schools, we are giving HP 300's with NetBSD.
This is because:
1) we can give them source
2) We can fix it if we have to
3) We can switch the hardware from a Hp 300 to a 386 to a sparc
without changing the OS.
4) it is free
5) it is a BSD.
I suggest you find a local support group and see who else is around
who can help you when you get stuck.
DBERLIN@peddie.k12.nj.us writes:
> I have a question. My school wants to purchase a unix
> system to use for ftp/www/etc servers and other things. I
> am ionterseted to know what the general consensus about
> which flavor of UNIX (UnixWare,SunOS,etc) would be best to
> run in terms of Stability/support/ease of use and secondly
> raw processing speed and power. Keep in mind those things
> because this is a high school, and even if I do happen to
> nknow a lot about computers,I'm only 15, and don't have time
> in my day to call tech support every 45 minutes and ask them
> questions. There is no set price range (problably an upper
> limit of about 7000).
> Thanks For Your Time
> Daniel Berlin
> Student at the peddie school and soon to be administrator of
> the aforementioned unix system.
> dberlin@peddie.k12.nj.us
>
-----
John Sechrest . Internet: sechrest@cs.orst.edu
Technical Director .
Computer Science Dept .
Oregon State University .
Corvallis,Oregon 97331 .
(503) 737-3273 .