newbie linode questions

> Would I have to go as far as to install Apache myself to serve my pages? Ie. go all the way and configure a server myself?

Yup. You get an empty space of a hard drive, choose your base distrubution to install, then configure/install server software.

Some of the Linux distributions offered for installation on your Linode have software like Apache already installed. However, at the time of writing, Mandrake 9.1 is offered (for example), whereas the current version is 10.

If you want a bang-up-to-date system. a Linode offers you the choice of either:
* installing one of the full distributions offered by Linode and updating it using the package manager appropriate for your chosen distribution (a wizard in the Linode Platform Manager installs the distribution - you have to do the software update);

• installing one of the partial distributions offered by Linode (which, as a minimum might only contain a ssh server and a system logger) and then installing additional software of your choosing (a wizard in the Linode Platform Manager installs the distribution - you have to do the software installation / configuration);

• installing a distribution other than those offered by Linode (you have to do the whole job);

• building the entire system yourself from scratch.
  The only restrictions are that you have to use one of the Linode supplied kernels and you cannot use kernel modules.

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that you can use kernel modules.

I don't remember where, correct me if I'm wrong.

If caker let us insert modules into the UML guest kernel, it's very likely that we could subvert the UML host. Not that nice guys like you or I would. But just in case, kernel modules are not permitted.