Re: Beckoned by the dark side!

[Calum Morrell <calum@xxxxxxx>]

MARK NOOOOO - I'm very disappointed, I though we could rely on you to
provide constant resistance to the user hell known as 'Linux'!

You've forced me to break my list based silence for the first time since
the os wars topic ended.

And yep, Linux does stress the machine far more than Windows - I use
this a lot when I think a machine may have a processor or memory problem
[i.e. install Linux if not already on machine, do some extensive tests
and print out reports, contact support company where necessary and when
fixed, re-install original OS].

I agree with Ant though, Red Hat started going downhill after 6.0 Let me
know if you find these problems yourself. I had to update modutils
before rhl6.1 would detect my parallel port and the ppp connection was
shafted, never bothered fixing it as I didn't need it on that machine
[dialled up, authenticated and bombed out].

SUSE 7.0 is a good option [I wouldn't recommend 6.4 or previous to a
non-techie]. I am currently running Mandrake 7.1 and waiting for 7.2 so
far very impressed.

If you don't have a 'need' for the machine and you're willing to play I
go along with Ant that you should try a few different distros to see
which you prefer. Ignore Ant's suggestions [sorry Ant] of using SUSE
with KDE2 and go with what you like [assuming it stays on your machine
longer than the next 48 hours ;-)]. It's all personal preference and
most current distros allow you to install both Gnome and KDE [and
usually several others]. My preference is to use KDE for administration
and Gnome for general desktop use.

If at any point you do decide to keep Linux on a machine and want to use
it as a gateway for you're network, get a GOOD firewall setup,
unfortunately any Windows product is an easy target when connected to
the web so anyone running a web server from their home connection should
extra precautions [lock down all unused ports, use nmap regularly to
ensure nothing is open that shouldn't be and get a package like Ethereal
on the firewall to look for attempted attacks].

Still reading? No? Well I go on anyway.

If you require help on any aspect of Linux, there seem to be a few
experienced users on this list along with many websites and newsgroups
you can use. Howto's are great but there's nothing like a sympathetic
person answering specific questions on a topic, saving potentially a
long time.

Anyway, I have multiple GPL-level distros available, if you want to try
some of them let me know and I'll cut you a copy. I would be delighted
to help you discover whether you can use Linux as part of you're system,
or whether you you dislike it even more than previously.

I apologize, it's approaching 5am and as you'll have noticed I tend to
ramble when I'm awake, and even more so when I should be asleep.


in the immortal words of GNU/Linux

shutdown -h now


Calum


Mark McCall wrote:
>
> OK everyone you may want to sit down for this one (Nigel - pour
yourself a
> big glass of Bushmills and have it standing by!).   OK..here goes…
>
> On Friday night I INSTALLED LINUX!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> :0)
>
> I have installed Red Hat V6.1 on an old P200MMX.
>
> Anyway, first impressions - The old machine that I installed it on
contained
> a motherboard and chip that I had bought second hand about two years
ago.  I
> had never been able to get Windows to run on it with crashing to blue
screen
> of death all the time.  I suspected a bad simm or dodgy hard drive. 
For the
> Linux install I used a 64meg dimm out of one of the other machines and
a new
> hard-drive.  After several attempts to install the system was bombing
out
> with a "Signal 11" fault.  Turns out this is a hardware
problem!!!  After
> reading a few articles on the Net I disabled the on-chip cache of the
CPU
> from the BIOS and away we went!  I would imagine this severely dents
the
> machines speed but I proceeded anyway.  Lesson one - it appears Linux
> stresses your hardware much more that Windows.
>
> I installed from a bootable CD-ROM and there was a nice GUI, which was
very
> easy to follow.  There is also an excellent installation guide (which
I had
> running on another machine in front of me) on Red Hats website.  I had
a
> basic hardware setup - hard drive, CD-ROM, Matrox millennium video
card and
> it picked these up without problem.
>
> The system needed to install 395 "packages" (562 meg) and
took around 20
> minutes to do this.
>
> I made a mistake when picking the comm. Port for my mouse (it worked
during
> the install but now not in GNOME).  Kwong from Laser Business Systems
- for
> Kwong read Linux support desk :-)  gave me the commands to change the
comm
> port of the mouse.  It was anything but friendly, however being old
enough
> to remember "edlin" in DOS it wasn't difficult.  No doubt
this is part of
> the attraction to the "boffins".  You seem to be able to get
right up to
> your knees in Linux if you want to.
>
> Apart from actually installing it and seeing GNOME and typing a few
command
> line things at the console I haven't actually "done"
anything with it.
>
> So - what AM I going to do with it?  That is the question!  I don't
really
> know.  I will have a "play" with it over the next day or
two.  With my
> exclusive Wintel setup I presume a firewall or mail server are my best
> options?  I need to use Win2000 as my web server because I'm running
Comfort
> Web Interface.
>
> Suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> M.
>
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