-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Excellent job on answering this question Niels!
I would add my two cents that if you are planning on using Linux in a desktop environment that you should consider purchasing a hard drive caddy. They are fairly inexpensive ($20 from Memory Express is the starting price I believe) and easy to set up. Hard drives are pretty cheap too. This saves you the bother of buying a dedicated system to try out Linux. Here are my pros and cons: Pros are: 1) each OS is completely segregated 2) no need to repartition 3) your existing system is not at any risk 4) you now have the ability to try as many distros as you have hard drives for, it's very liberating 5) if you have a high zoot system, you get to take advantage of that 6) if you have a secondary hard drive you can use it under Linux as well as Linux supports many different filesystems, making it possible to share files between one OS and another. Cons are: 1) have to reboot for whichever OS you want 2) have to have dedicated hard drives 3) your (caddy'd) hard drive may run hotter because of the more confined enclosure The point I am really trying to make is that most of us have a decent computer and with very little cost you can have the best of both worlds. If you are delving into Linux on the desktop for the first time, I would not recommend repartitioning as it is too scary if something goes wrong. People do not back their stuff up and then look for someone to blame when something does go wrong. Due diligence is the key. The other side of the coin is using that old Pentium 90 that is currently serving as a doorstop. You would be tempted to try this system out and while you are likely to get a workable system (and I would reiterate Niels questions as to what you are after in the end), if you want a decent DESKTOP system you should allot the same resources as you are currently working in to make a fair comparison. Besides seeing Linux run under a blazing fast system only shows more of its potential and just how flawed other OS's are. People cannot help comparing one OS to another in this situation and my opinion is if you use the SAME system (with a different hard drive) you get the most even playing field to make that comparison. Sorry, my bit was long-winded too. Couldn't be helped though there are definite 'right' ways of doing this. One shouldn't just jump unto the game without doing research first... which is how this thread started in the first place. Jarrod P.S. Please don't forget that CLUG maintains a distribution library where members may borrow/copy just about any distribution their heart desires. We are in the middle of posting a current list on the new website, sorry for the delay. P.P.S. Support our sponsor Nexus and purchase a boxed set from them. Manuals can be very helpful to the new user and both SuSE and Mandrake have excellent documentation in their packages. On Monday 05 January 2004 1:15 pm, Niels Voll wrote: > Hi Doug, > > Many of the other answers you have gotten to your question touch upon > pertinent points. Here are my 2 cents: > > There are several high level forks in the road, all centered around > various flavors of the question, what you would like to do. And that is > a bit of a multi-dimensional question. Some of those dimensions include: > > A: Server Side > vs. Desktop Side > > B: do you like utmost control over your environment and are capably of > some pretty hardcore technical work > vs. do you just want to plug it in and have it working > vs. somewhere in between > > C do you have a "spare" (or semi-spare) computer where you can > experiment over the longer haul > vs. you have one computer, it has to do it' s"production" job, > and you need to keep your experiments very low risk > (i.e. don't impact your primary environment) > > There are more considerations, but the above 3 (at least for me) are > some of the more important one's. Let me start with the easiest one > (point C): > If you need to keep your Linux experiments at zero risk (i.e. you can't > afford to screw up the one and only computer you have), use a bootable > CD based distribution to get your feet wet. My current favorite: knoppix > - http://www.knoppix.org/ > > If you are a pretty hardcore techie (point B), who would like to have > ultimate control, and you are game to face a reasonably steep learning > curve (steeper for Windows or Mac users and administrators(yes!) - not > too steep for experienced Unix system administrators), then look at > Debian or possibly even better, look at Gentoo (source based > distribution - quite cool indeed!). In this case it doesn't matter all > that much, if you are more interested in a server or a desktop environment. > > If both of the above paragraphs don't apply to you, it comes down to the > questions in point A: > > If you are more interested in running a server environment, like a web > server (Apache), maybe email (sendmail, qmail, postfix, etc.), maybe a > database (MySql, Postgres, etc), and some server side programming > environments (PHP, Python, Perl, etc...), then my current favorites (in > order) are: RedHat9/Fedora1, Mandrake, SuSE; Since so many people run > RedHat based servers, it is just easier to find instructions, howto's > and general help for RedHat based systems. > > If you are more interested in a desktop environment, my current > favorites are SuSE, followed by a tie between Mandrake and Fedora. I've > found the SuSE (my last experience is with SuSE 8) desktop based > administration and utilities a bit richer than the others I had tried. > The online updates worked well for me, too, and I didn't even have to go > through a signup procedure. That being said, Fedora's online updates are > very slick, too (and no signup required). Of course, SuSE is a bit > tougher to get for free. > > One point of experience: I've found, that if using rather new/fancy > hardware, then RedHat and SuSE are currently still the best supported. > For example, I have recently set up a machine with a SATA / RAID capable > motherboard, and I found drivers for some versions of RedHat and SuSE - > everything else became quite difficult or even impossible. On older > hardware, RedHat/Fedora, SuSE and Mandrake have all been very good to > me over the last couple of years. > > Disclaimer: These are my current opinions, since I had to decide this > very question for myself about 3 months ago. Just in case you are > curious: I am NOT totally hardcore techie (prefer working with > precompiled packages), I had spare/new computer(s), and I wanted to > learn/build a server environment. As a result, I ended up on RedHat 9 > (because of available SATA/RAID hardware drivers), gently migrating > toward Fedora. > > Sorry about the lengthy post, > > ...Niels > > Doug Boyd wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I'm new to the linux arena. I'm curious if a survey has been done to > > determine the most popular flavour of linux among the Calgary Linux > > Users Group. I'm currently using Fedora, but am thinking of giving > > SUSE a try. > > Which flavour do Cluggers recommend for learning linux with? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Doug (linux newbie) > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca - -- Jarrod Major GPG Fingerprint: FA4A 1EA3 A0EE A842 07BB 804C 0090 14F6 BE6E DE3D Registered Linux User: #224211 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iQCVAwUBP/nSTgCQFPa+bt49AQKKTQP+O5Zw0NaA+YNvr7p0RZm7SJX3AgH8cKkL xUJ7LgbWuF+bmgI8QBKk4fbxR8WQuhQ4Izat36Aj+uVrXvdJgalpfCoBr4YHc8Fx Coee4VAyjA/05dOkDK1MV7VguUC/hjVNN9KZh4e6y+FScwtBeWxT7t5fuZi77Oa0 1ACIdX8EoOc= =uKbK -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
