Hi,

On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 08:03:49AM -0700, Anthony Watters wrote:
> newbie questions

[...]

> With that in mind, could someone recommend a specific linux distribution
> that works on a SS5-170? 

As already mentioned by a former poster, af course we recommend
NetBSD. Athough you can run lots of GNU software on NetBSD (and maybe
even try to imitate a GNU/Linux system), NetBSD is no flavor of Linux,
but a unix like OS of its own.

Especially if you plan to use the box as a firewall, I'd recommend
running NetBSD rather than any GNU/Linux distro. From a security view,
you may also want to have a look at OpenBSD.

*duck* ;)

> Maybe something with a friendly user interface
> perhaps?

There is quite a bunch of userfriendly, friendly user (pun!)
interfaces that can be run on NetBSD. They are highly configurable
with lots of options and switches, and they provide many
look-and-feels. We call these interfaces "shells". ;)

For honest, you don't want to run X and e.g. KDE or Gnome on a
firewall system. Believe me.

> I was thinking of possibly debian or openBSD or something else along
> those lines. Any installation advice would also be appreciated.

The installation of NetBSD is nearly foolproof, you can go through it
blindfolded. For more sophisticated things have a look at the website
of the NetBSD project, there are tons of documentation
available. Certainly, if you have a special question, feel free to
drop a mail here.

Cheerio,
Chris