Taking the Linux Plunge

[Bob Hubbard]

Ok.... I Surrender.

I'm in the middle of a conversion to Linux. So far, So good.

I'm using a spare Athlon 750, and installing RedHat 9. Mostly smooth, once I realized I had the firewall on too tight to let me do anything. heh.

Anyone else running Linux?

 

[KenpoTess]

I ran it for awhile. .Had a dual Os on my old puter before lightning took it's life ... It was quite the OS for sure.. ~!

We have a friend who's totally die-hard Linux .. said .. almost impossible to crash.. well Seig found that something to do.. Yeah.. he crashed it ~! Hahaa..

It's got some great games on It.. ~!

Enjoy Bob~!!

if ya need any help.. remember. Tim Bogart is his name

 

[don bohrer]

Not yet guys but next year, I think? HQ doles out what they see fit so. We have a server running Novell, and they charge too much for licensing. Anyway it'll be a new experience for me.

 

[pknox]

Kaith:

Good luck...I've heard it is an excellent, almost bullet proof system. be warned though - supposedly RedHat makes an easier product to understand than Debian or Slackware, but they still mail you a black belt if you can get the printer working in less than a month.

 

[arnisador]

I wanted to do it but never found the time...to allow for the possibility of my computer being completely fubared for a few weeks by my trying to install a dual boot Windows/Linux system.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm using my backup PC. Right now, I'm watching "Spirited Away" DVD on it. 1st time I've managed to get sound to work since I've been playing with Linux the last few years. This time, I'm trying to go full speed with it as a primary workstation and test-bed for web work.

I'll tackle the printer tomorow

 

[arnisador]

Sound is out on mine, but I'm not going to try to fix it right now because--once again--I can't afford to be without it if something gets screwed up!

 

[Jay Bell]

MANDRAKE

And don't forget folks...LINUX FOR PDA'S!

Oh...here's a new commercial IBM did for Linux:

The Future is Open

IBM is really moving forward with Linux. They have put $1 billion in R n' D this year alone. One out of every four eServers they built last year had Linux pre-installed.

We are coming.

Run.

Honestly...imo, the only serious thing holding Linux at bay is they don't have a *really* solid mail server like Exchange. If someone would make a really versatile server like that for Linux...the sky's the limit.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I've actually purchased (at retail) Mandrake 3x and SUSE twice. I went with RedHat this time simply becuase our web server is running it, and I'm basically cloning the server inhouse.

I liked Mandrake the best flavor wise.

 

[Elfan]

I'm a duel booting communist on both my computers (Redhat and Mandrake). I've been using the Mandrake one a lot lately to do work when I'm to lazy to go to the Unix (Solaris 9) lab on campus.

 

[michaeledward]

Serveral years ago now, I really wanted to see if Linux was all it is cracked up to be. I got a copy of the Caldera OpenLinux Base (the reference guide is copyrighted in 1996) system. I was trying to get the OS installed on an old Gateway 486 50 MHz.

My hard drive was too small to install everything that came with the package, so I had to select the individual components to install. Of course, not knowing anything about Linux, it was very difficult to figure out which packages to put on the system and which not to put on the system. It was ugly. I did finally get the OS installed and the keyboard drivers and the mouse drivers.

I could never get the modem drivers to work, so I couldn't get to the web, where all the 'HELP' files were stored.

I never managed to get a GUI interface working ... on several attempts, I could SEE the GUI, but once I clicked an ICON ... nothing would happen.

I worked with the system for about 2 months. I managed to play a couple of games of 'TANK' ... you know the one with the Green Triangles representing mountians. I figured that was enough of a success so that I could get rid of Linux.

I'm sure the OS has come a long way in the intervening years, but I don't think I want to take that much self inflicted abuse again. Good Luck to you.

Win2K is cool ---- Mike

 

[Elfan]

In my opinion the more user friendly commercial distros are now just as easy to install as MS Windows.

Caldera OpenLinux doesn't have a particularly good reputaiton, especially now.

 

[satans.barber]

I used to use Mandrake full time until a couple of months ago, but I got a bit sick of re-booting to play Games, so I'm back in XP now.

I do have a Debian GPS though that handles my mail, databases, Apache and things like that, she doesn't give me much trouble

ian@alice:~$ uptime
13:22:27 up 31 days, 12:41, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Ian.

 

[Elfan]

So did you find WINE and such insufficent for what you wanted to do with games?

 

[satans.barber]

Originally posted by Elfan
So did you find WINE and such insufficent for what you wanted to do with games?

Yes, I never managed to get WINE to run even small apps properly, as soon as it tried to anything even remotely complicated it fell over straight away. Don't have a lot of faith in it to be honest.

Ian.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Havent tried the WINE thing yet...

So far:
I cant edit images on it as Photoshop dont work in Linux
Do web pages? No DreamWeaver
3D animation? No Lightwave
Bookkeeping? No QuickBooks.

However, most of my day-to-day stuff I'm doing on there, so tis good.

I'll be trying to get the rest to work later and finding replacements as I can. I know its out there, its a matter of finding and learning.

 

[fist of fury]

Currently Running RedHat 8 on my main pc. I'm no Linux guru but with XP's new anti piracy tactics I find my self prefering to use a system where I don't have to justify why I need to replace my hardware or reload because the crappy OS crashed on me.

As for the photoshop have you tried out The Gimp?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Tried it a while back. Its close, but different enough that it'll take me a while to really figure it out.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out why it doen't like my DVD player...says the systems too slow (750mhz athlon with a GB of ram). Probably a setting on the drive connection somewhere.

 

[fist of fury]

I had that problem with my laptop I usually got that message when I used mplayer but not with Xine. I'm not sure about RH9 but with 8 because of the liscene issue there was no official DVD decoders but since that ban has been lifted I expect DVD support to improve.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm using mplayer....

I'll try Xine. Thanks!