Newbie Questions

[Mister Clever]

Hey Everyone,

I've never played with Linux before and I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I've 
pretty much decided to build a box and put Linux on it.  As I start planning 
this I have a few questions:

1) Hardware compatibility list.  I'm assuming this isn't going to be like 
windows, i.e. buy a twenty-dollar no-name ethernet card and it's going to 
include a driver.  Where do I find a list of hardware that's supported under 
Linux?  Is there a URL?  I want to make sure that as I purchase pieces 
they're actually going to work with little difficulty.

2) Hardware specs.  To be honest, I was a little stunned by the hardware 
requirements to run Fedora (memory / processor / hard drive space).  
Obviously I can't pick up an old P166 at a swap meet and expect it to work.  
What are the reasonable specs for a PC to run Linux?  Or is there a URL with 
this info?

3) One of the things I'd like to do with my Linux box is put it in my Dlink 
Router's DMZ and run an FTP server on it so I can upload and download to my 
LAN at home via my DSL connection.  Will "Fedora" include everything I need 
to do this (from a software perspective), i.e. FTP server and firewall (?) 
or will I need something else.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave

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