Responses about newsreaders -Thanks

[Will]

When I started out assessing Linux I got four flavours - Red Hat, Mandrake, Slackware and SuSe. All had advantages and disadvantages. Not much has changed in that respect.

I now use Slackware Linux on three systems (paid money even :-) -- But you can also download through Bit Torrent - I just got the latest Slackware 10.1 -- it looks pretty good. This will be the last release with the 2.4 kernel (2.4.29). KDE desktop is 3.3.2 . Much slicker now.

includes the 2.6 kernel -- just haven't tried it yet.

Also -- we packed in our NT Server for a Linux Mandrake server running on the AMD64 (ASUS K8VSE-Deluxe board) The software is a lot cheaper and we don't have all the security holes of Windows Server 2000. (2.6 currently KDE 3.2.3) Got a (almost) free version somehow (forget how it came to me) a few months ago, but I will pay full price for the next major upgrade - since it does work reliably.

has worked the best for us - it is the most configurable of the Linux variations I have tried and it is inexpensive. Flexibility is important for our development.

Openoffice satisfies almost all our business needs other than accounting.

Linux User Magazine -- large format -- usually has a a community edition release of one of the Linux flavours every month on the accompanying DVD.

I just noticed that 3 out of 5 machines near me are currently running Linux for development purposes. Funny -- cause I was thinking it was mostly Windows in our little shop.

Windows XP is required here because we use software for images processing and accounting for which we have not found better Linux alternatives. One machine left on Windows 2000 -- but the user better switch soon or I will pull their network cable.

You can buy magaz> Where are you guys getting Linux from? As well, any associated applications

[Will]

Thought of this while cooking breakfast. Note his policy. He only posts links to ISO's if allowed.

it a few times.

Highly recommend the use of Bittorent to download ISO images. Just leave it running for a few hours after you are finished. Give other people a chance to share your bandwidth since you shared someone else's bandwidth.

great under Linux - haven't tried the Windows version. I think it requires the Python language BTW -- at least it does on Linux.

Mike Marlow wrote:

[Doug Winterburn]

I've been using Fedora (RedHat). You can download it at:

It's a four CD distribution and includes a ton of apps such as OpenOffice.

- Doug

[Dave Hinz]

I'd download a Knoppix live CD, gets you a bootable, runnable Linux install, and if you have hardware incompatibilities, take the CD out and you're back to where you were. Good way to try it out, test a system for compatibility, and also a great way to fix a b0rken Windows installation if you're ambitious.

knoppix.org is where I'd expect to get it. openoffice.org for the obvious, and so on. Feel free to email me if you have specific questions, my address does work.

Dave Hinz

[Larry Blanchard]

If it's an old slow machine, most folks recommend Vector Linux, a repackaged "friendlier" Slackware.

I haven't tried it yet, but intend to. I installed the latest Mandrake on my old 233mhz Pentium, and it runs like molasses pours.

I did use Slackware in the past, but I was a professional programmer for

45 years or so. And I still did a fair amount of head scratching (and shaking) before I got it to work.

[Mike Marlow]

Thanks Larry and everyone else that replied. I was a Unix analyst for a lot of years, a long time ago and always loved the environment, but for the same reasons that I loved it, I'm somewhat reluctant to dabble with Linux now. I just don't really care, or have the time to devote to messing with a machine all of the time. I'm hearing that the Linux environment is not much better than any of the Unix environments were 10 years ago - driver issues and all the fun of searching around, finding them, debugging them, etc., much smaller list of available applications, patch issues that rival Microsoft, etc. It may well be a more secure environment, but I'm not sure I'm hearing that Linux has really made it yet as a full featured environment.

[Will]

The last few versions of Slackware don't seem to have that issue. Version 7 was a little frustrating.

The current version - 10.1 seems to slick as a gooses' ...

Older machines can often be easier -- since the drivers are now well understood. Even the AMD64 based server was not that bad though. Linux on the AMD64 was a lot simpler than Windows Server 2003 (64 bit). It runs Linux all the time. Easier install, fewer hassles.

Been in the tech business quite a while. Linux seems to be just fine now. Five years ago Linux was pretty flaky. I am still more used to Mainframe systems and their Multi-user OS than these new fangled PC's.

Each to their own.

[Mike Marlow]

I know I'll regret this decision, but maybe I'll go ahead and take a look at Slackware. I just know what will happen once I sit down and start screwing with something like this...

[Larry Blanchard]

At the time I used Slackware at home, I was working on a SCADA system that used SCO Unix and a traffic control system that used Venix (that O/S I loved, but it died). Slackware wasn't any harder to set up and maintain than SCO Unix, but I had to do more digging to find the documentation I needed. And some of the "howto" docs were a little hard to read.

I think the applications issue is less now. Linux has MSOffice compatiblity and more than one CAD package. At least one of the specialized model railroad (one of my hobbies) design CADs is available for Linux.

And once you get Linux up and running, you won't have to reboot it every time you turn around :-).

[Will]

Mike:

Actually I think you will enjoy it thoroughly. If you plunge in then welcome to the club. :-))

But I know what you mean. I have recompiled and tweaked the kernel for the heck of it more than once... Probably a few hundred times actually...

If you like fooling with databases you can get Interbase, PostGress, MySQL and Firebird (

) (An interbase knockoff)

Mike Marlow wrote:

[Di]

She's psycho. People in other groups have been trying to encourage her to get help.