I am a noob and I am wondering if the regular (not server) edition of Intrepid Ibex can be set up to become a server.
The server would only serve as an authentication barrier to the internet. It would ask users for username and password to allow internet access and block all other internet requests.
Yeah, you could. But what type of server functions do you want your system to perform? The reason there are “server” and “desktop” version of some Linux distros is so that the server versions can be installed with a lot fewer of the client applications that a typical desktop install will have.
Here’s an example of how the lines are crossed. Suppose I’m a web developer, and I need to develop pages in PHP and perhaps JSP as well. Well, I could install Apache with PHP and MySQL, and also Apache Tomcat and the Java Development tools on my workstation. Then, I could develop my scripts and applications and test them right on my own box. There are actually “lite” versions of some of these packages designed just for this purpose.
Now, if you decided to serve that content to the public, and perhaps host a database for user input or some kind of business purpose, you wouldn’t want to install that on a workstation. You’d want it on a dedicated server that could handle the heaver network load and multiple requests.
One great thing about Linux is that there are lost of free remote access tools you can use to manage your server right from your server desktop.
I would think yes because the server software would all be available through Synaptic Package Manager.