What is the best way to turn an average desktop PC into server for hosting a website using Ruby on Rails?
I am open to changing operating systems, buying parts if I need to, using whatever Database People recommend and any software.
Here are the approximate details of the computer:
The computer is an HP Desktop with 1.86GHz Duo Core CPU. Intel chipset. 1GB Ram, 200GB Hard Drive Runs on Windows XP
FYI, This is not a commercial project and this is not about saving money. I just want to pick up some new skills and I think it would be fun.
Thanks,
Jeremy
Just a suggestion, you could just use http://www.slicehost.com. You can buy a virtual machine with 256MB for $20/month but you build the machine from scratch after loading a base Linux distribution like Ubuntu. There are excellent instructions there on how set up your OS to do whatever you want to do.
If you really want to run a server on that machine you have though, thus saving $20/month, I would recommend installing some form of Linux. I would suggest Debian or Ubuntu. If you want to learn a bit more about some Linux fundamentals like building a kernel and tweaking .conf files (could be useful at some point) try a distribution like Gentoo. Basically download the ISO and boot it up.
If you just want to play with Ruby on Rails on that box, of course, just go to http://localhost. Furthermore, you don’t even need to set up apache if you are just playing around… just use the web server built in to Rails. To be able to access that machine from anywhere in the world, if you have a static IP, get a domain name and point to that IP. If your IP is dynamic then use dyndns.org to get a dynamic host name. You can usually configure most routers to update sites like dyndns.org with your up-to-date dynamic IP.