Re: [SLUG] Distributions

[Terry Collins <terryc@nospam.woa.com.au>]

Jon Biddell wrote:
> 
> Not wanting to start another Religious War (which this probably will), but
> who is using which distro for what ?  What is "the best", if this can be
> quantified ?

If you don't want to start a religious war, then don't ask what is the
best {:-). I might be thinking if Linuxone can do it, then WOA can
bring out a distro and of course it will be the best {:-).
> 
> For example, I'm using SuSE for both server and desktop at the moment, but
> am thinking of converting one to Redhat 6.2 - just to see what it has to
> offer aver and above SuSE....

You have to try them to see if you like them I guess, but unless you
have a reason, it seems a reasonable pointless exercise.

I use RH because it was the distro that just rolled on first time when
I was starting out (Yadd & Slack died), so I've kept on using it. I
don't like the way RH is big and acting MS like, so I'm interested in
trying various other distros.

I'm firstly looking at a distro that is easy for newbies to install as
I don't want to recommend Linux to friends and spend all my time
telling them how to do it. so this has tended to colour my views.

TurboLinux might have something to offer the specialist in its
clustering or server, but I've not been impressed with the workstation
distros.

Caldera had some funnies under 1.3 and still seems to have some
funnies under 2.2, so I've never warmed to it. I keep one Caldera
server running and will do so until I need to do some upgrading, then
it will disappear.

Suse seems interesting and I've done one install (6.0 - No X) and
found YAST hard to understand. The box kept on dying with core dump
every two weeks, but it was minimal hardware and could have been the
app that was running on it. A few people seem to like it from 6.2 and
onwards.

Fro a "work" situation, as far as I'm concerned, they all work great
at the prompt. The main diff is where files are hidden and what
flavour of file placement you like.

From a work situation, the real question is how easy are they to
config and set up.

> 
> How the heck do you keep up with the distributions ?

You choose one, you install it and just use it until you come across a
problem, which you then fix by upgrading. 

If it is work, then subscribe to the relevant lists for that distro.

If it is home and it aint broke, then don't fix it - get on with using
it.

--
   Terry Collins {:-)}}} Ph(02) 4627 2186 Fax(02) 4628 7861  
   email: terryc@nospam.woa.com.au  www: http://www.woa.com.au  
       or terryc@nospam.zip.net.au 
   WOA Computer Services <lan/wan, linux/unix, novell>
   snail:  PO Box 1047, Campbelltown, NSW 2560.

 "People without trees are like fish without clean water"
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