>>my 3/4-baked theory is that many people new to linux use what their >>friends suggest
I'll raise that to 4/5ths. I am soon going to convert one of friends M$ boxs to Linux. I am considering both Fedora and or Ubuntu. Fedora because I have been using RH since their 5.1. I dont want to get into any religious wars please. Ubuntu since my friend is new to Linux and it is the current 'hot new thing'. Where I work we use RHEL for various reasons, so I use CentOS for testing and Q/A. Anyway .. welcome to the family .. at least you have a choice ! -pete On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 10:03 AM, S. Michael Convey <[email protected]> wrote: > I am a newbie. I started using linux this past summer. I am an IT audit > manager at a company located at the Montgomery Park building. Our company > runs RHEL on servers that run our ERP and a few other servers. Having > struggled to audit our Linux servers, I decided to take a class from Red Hat > (their entry-level Linux Essentials class). I really enjoyed the class and > was surprised by all that Linux offered in the way of features (e.g. > kernel-level firewall, KVM, etc.) and security (e.g. SE Linux). That class > fueled an even greater interest in Linux. One of our Linux admins gave me an > Ubuntu cd, but I didn't want to learn a distro that was different that what > our company uses. I discovered CentOS. I obtained an old desktop computer > from our IT department to use as a sandbox and loaded CentOS on it. I > purchased Negus's "CentOS Bible" and Membrey's "The Definitive Guide to > CentOS". Later, I purchased Sobell's"A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, > Editors, and Shell Programming". After some study, I decided to convert my > home laptops to Linux. For my home PCs, I tried CentOS, but later changed to > Fedora (in an effort to not overwhelm myself by staying with one > distribution family). I have successfully converted my home PCs and my > family didn't realize they were not using Windows until I told them. By the > way, getting my somewhat older home laptops to run Fedora successfully has > been no easy task. I've spent countless hours troubleshooting wireless, > video, sound, etc - posting on CentOS and Fedora forums, filing bug reports, > and googling like crazy. I've found this frustrating at times, but I've > taken satisfaction in all that I've learned. Early on, I made the goal to > obtain a RHCE certification. This is still a goal, but as I learn more I > realize I still have long way to go. I've created over a hundred flash cards > to help me memorize commands, the file system, key configuration files, etc. > In short, I chose CentOS/Fedora because that is what my company uses and I > want job relevance. From this pursuit, I realize that Linux as a desktop is > more buggy, supports less hardware, and is less user friendly than Windows > (although I like it better - go figure on that one). I understand that Linux > has come a long way in this area and I think they'll get there in a few > years. Sorry for the Ramble, Mike > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > my 3/4-baked theory is that many people new to linux use what their > friends suggest, or what they first or most compellingly hear about. > that is, they don't do comparative research between available/relevant > distributions and choose logically. > > certainly that was the case for me in the early days and even now i'm > more a "try it and see" type than a heavy researcher when i experiment with > distros i haven't used before. hmm, then again, i know more of what i > want and need from a distro now, and can judge some things instantly > that i would have not understood when i was getting started, so maybe > the past 16 years has been of some use after all =) > > anyway, what is your take on how people choose distributions, and/or > how did you choose your first? i think newbies are an especially > interesting discussion because we are attracting so many to our ranks > these days and i'm curious as to what trends will shape the future of > the landscape; i believe that the distros that see the most users > fare the best in terms of vitality and usually pace/success of > development, commercial or non (though that is a belief open to > debate in itself). > > personally, i started with slackware because i was unaware anything > else existed and my mentor used slackware, though i understood that > slackware was not linux. the second time (in as many weeks) that i > installed it i downloaded it myself from somewhere that had other > distros mirrored too and i noticed their presence but was not > inquisitive for many months (and many reinstalls). it maybe that > nothing else was as mature and generally awesome and in english at the > time (mid-1994), but i certainly can't vouch for that with any > certainty. > > thoughts? > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
