Marking [RESOLVED] for posterity per your request.

Thanks everyone, couple good ideas given, Start with the gui then drop back levels. I have lots of ram but I will try this for fun. Have already foun one of the linked sites and will check out the other. I have been able to get Samba setup from a minimal install but with problems. I think turning the iptables off as reccomend elsewhere has disconnected the machine from my lan. Going to fool with it some. Learning a lot and loving it; almost makes me want to retire so to fool with this stuff all day.
I must have missed the Vic as the lst home computer I remember after the Comodore 64 was the Atari64; I was imersed in CN's main frame monster and female charms, by the time that was over the home PC had arrived, Microsoft had emerged, Apple was in a garage and I was married. I do recall a Vic 20, I think it was a Comodore product. An article about it was in the newspaper on my kitchen table with my motorcycle engine on it while I rebuilt the engine. My wife sure was patient with me in the early years.
We sure are the lucky generation to have experienced such a vibrant period of history.
Thanks
This thread can be marked solve.
Ouldefauder

Hmm
So you think that because of the following topography you are safe?

Good thing toracat is on the left coast and burakkucat is across the pond.

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Not to mention the grumpy burakkucat plodding along, at toracat's rear . . .

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Nope - 6502 - thus the reference. The Commodore 64 used the next-generation 6510 for its advanced features. Both were pre-CMOS MOS technology.

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I haven't bought a computer book in decades, so none.

This should get you started: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+command+line+cheat+sheets

Google is probably a better choice for learning command line stuff, books are out dated by the time they're published.

That said, I actually bought http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-Shell-Scripting-Second/dp/1118004426/

to help get me up to speed on shell scripts (one of the IT geeks at the Uni lab recommended it).

Unless your box is really lean on RAM, I doubt you'll see much of a speed difference.

Of course you can always install the GUI Desktop, but set the general runlevel to 3, then only launch the GUI if and when needed.

Thanks Phil.

I will try your suggestion even though man pages are not as descriptive/detailed as I'd like.

I was 17 when I was first introduced to the computer by Canadian National Railways and it was only communicative via the paper punch system, the Sinclair with dip switches for programming came years later, you had to soldier it together yourself and shortly later the Atari 400 with the 6502 was followed almost immediately by the Commodore 64 which most people consider to be the first personal computer for home use. I always think of the Sinclair as the first home computer. It was featured in, if my memory serves me right, Popular Mechanics, and you could order it from them. The Atari was neat as you could both read from and write to its ports, add an optisolator and you could interface to an external TTL circuit. Cmos had not been invented at that time as far as I recall.
I think the Vic used the Z80, is that right?

What books do you recommend?

Regards
Ouldefauder

Well the 6502 is only 36 or so, but I well remember the VIC-20 and loading from cassette tapes or cartridges, and homebrew 32 KB memory expansion boxes the size of a small breadbox, not to mention paper tape on the Data General, all despite my 6+ decades (duck here come toracat's claws ); however, if you want to forgo the GUI then man, info, and google are your friends. There are also recommended books in the recommend reading and in old Social threads (where this is headed).

Beyond that, if you have specific questions please ask, accompanied by appropriate details. There is no perfect guide to the command line, and please stay away from those [im]Perfect guides.

I have Goggled, searched the forum, etc but cannot find a guide on command line commands usefull if you do not want a gui. Help from the command line is not readily understandable and probably not complete. Example.. shutdown only list options not how to implement them. After serveral tries I found that shutdown -P 1, powers off the server 1 min later.
My goal is to setup a smb file server without gui and compare the access speed to my current gui equiped smb server. Afterwards I want to try a webserver and at some point I would like to learn about ftp servers and an asterisk machine, but it all starts with command line experience which over the past 60+ years I have had minimal contact with except for the 6502 proccesor which I had a machine language compiler for. In those days you needed one or just use your computer to play pong which came on a plug in cartridge, but at least you no longer had to punch holes in paper.
Thanks for your advice.

Regards
Ouldefauder