> I know this is very late in the conversation, but being newish to Linux and
> Unix I would have been up sh1t street without RPM and GNORPM.
Many thanks to those of you who replied to my original posting above - both
on and off list, as it highlights the way I feel about the Linux OS.
I am a real Linux newbie, and a few months ago when I had a crack at
building a Web server for the mob I work for I thought I would give this
new thing a go.
I chose Red Hat because it seemed to be everywhere - magazines, the Net,
newspaper articles etc - therefore (to me) a good bet.
It came with Apache, which seemed to be pretty common as well :-).
And finally the box showed all these weird and wonderful screenshots
(Gnome) that egged me on to want to become a "Unix nerd" like people I work
with and hear about.
The first thing I noticed was that it is *nothing* like Windows to install
and configure (read: not easy), but that was at the same time daunting and
exciting.
But to cut a long story short, it works and serves a few hundred pages a
day as an Intranet server; and I now boot to the command line on an old box
running RH 6.1 at home as I feel as though Gnome is cheating :-) I still
can't get it to print but I am working on that.
If it wasn't for RH, RPMs and Linuxconf etc I wouldn't be where I am now
and enjoying the ride. I am thinking about swapping my 98 machine and my
Linux box around so it takes pride of place. One day.
In summary, I have a long way to go and it is a good challenge. Linux
acceptance by others like me will come when it has Shrug 'n' Pray, HOW-TOs
are *MUCH* easier to read and follow, and ALL documentation steps down a
peg of geek speak and explains things like "type /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd
reload at the prompt and press enter", rather than "restart Apache". There
is too much assumed knowledge with some of this stuff.
So for any other Linux newbies out there, the APC Pocketbooks for Linux are
a godsend, and to the Unix/Linux gurus out there - go easy on us, we are
fscking trying!!
Cheers,
Peter "I nearly typed this in vi" Nelson
--
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