What version of linux - Page 2

a_Guest03 · #16 11-19-2003, 02:54 AM

You think it's funny! I know it for a fact to be true.

Trumpcard · #17 11-19-2003, 03:20 AM

I saw a really good write up on how to get linux help where the guy pointed that exact fact out...lol...

He had a problem no one would help him with, so he went onto an IRC linux channel and said 'Linux sucks because it cant handle XXX like windows can' and he immediately had people coming out of the woodwork to help him out....

the fact is that most geeks are skilled elitiest, but at the same time shallow and gullible..lol...

Mortamer · #18 11-19-2003, 05:16 PM

Wow, Gentoo sounds excellent... I havent had much Linux experience so do you think Gentoo will be to overwhealming to start with? Do you think I should start with an easier distro like Mandrake or jump right into Gentoo?

Chrysm · #19 11-19-2003, 06:54 PM

Jump right in with gentoo. They give you the install guide and in it they explain some basic linux stuff. Also, your best way to learn is to stay away from windowmanagers for a while and stick with the console. No matter how bad you want to use Mozilla-Firebird, DON'T!!

This will force you to find the answers yourself and help you to figure out troubleshotting processes.

For example... you don't know what program blah does and when you run it you don't get any output, it just exits... what do you do.

Firstly, try blah --help or blah -h to see if it gives you a list of commands on how to run it and it may also tell you what the program does.

Secondly, you gan do man blah to see if it has a manual.

Thirdly, you can head on over to the ever faithful /usr/doc or /usr/share/doc where every program installed has documentation and start reading.

NOTE: I have noticed in gentoo that some of the docs are .gz'd (gzipped). To view these type man /usr/share/doc/blah-x.x/README.gz

Another helper that everyone new to linux should know is the locate command. You use it by locate blah and it spits out a list of files and directories that have blah in thier names.

A REALLY IMPORTANT one is the less command. When you try to locate something, it will scroll by really fast. You can pause it by piping it to less like so... locate blah | less
You can scroll up and down and when you're done hit q for quit. same thing with man. Scroll up and down and hit q when you're done.

You can even send the output to a file like this locate blah > nameoffile

All executables should be placed in a folder with bin in it's name example /bin /usr/bin These are folders for binARY EXECUTABLES.
You also have sbin which is the folder for commands to be used by administrators which are more powerful for the average user to use at first.

To display the contents of the currend directory you type ls for list
'ls -l' long list 'ls -a' list all or use them together 'ls -al'

Your current working directory should be on the prompt somewhere liek [root @ host root] # nameofuser @ hostname directory #

Well I think I have rambled on enough but, I think everyone who wants to try linux should know those commands. And if you don't know what to do, you can always find it in some sort of dobumentation because, you're not the first one to ride that rodeo ;P

a_Guest03 · #20 11-20-2003, 02:37 AM

My suggestion, Mortamer, is to install it. You never know relatively how hard it is until you try. There will be some questions to which you don't know the answer. Then just ask someone for help if you absolutely cannot continue.

flyrken · #21 11-20-2003, 05:46 PM

SuSE is my favorite, reminds me of bsd.
Why? DVD-ROM install =hell with CD's.
GUI installation tools if you want both for X desktop and console.
Supports latest XFree, so its normally Notebook friendly (XFree dev works for SuSE also.)

German based group also closer to the amazing European Linux Devs, so they tend to be better at stability, however less with English strings. (Some of the messages, make me laugh sometimes with localization.)

Never had a bad issue with support, free lifetime updates, no subscription crap. SuSE is not free, I pay for Professional each time it comes out, and expect better than email support if needed.

Fyi

Eglin · #22 11-20-2003, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyrken

Never had a bad issue with support, free lifetime updates, no subscription crap. SuSE is not free, I pay for Professional each time it comes out, and expect better than email support if needed.

I usually try to refrain from posting just to tell someone that they're wrong, but you're wrong :) If they promised to provide lifetime updates for their distributions, why would you need to purchase the "pro" version "every time it comes out?" That sure sounds like a subscription to me.

I feel sorry for people who get sucked into buying what they're told to by "the machine." Part of the reason that I am interested in this project (EQEmu) is because I despise SOE for establishing a new precedent of money-grubbing. It is bad enough that they would create a pay-for-play service, but to then charge for expansions and related content is just off the wall. If I'm paying monthly charges to use a software system, it had better include upgrades for free! I look at their website and see statements like "EQ1 fans need not worry that they're being abandoned with the coming of eq2... we have heard your concerns and are making plans for further expansions!" Duh! Of course they are. Considering that a person who has played the game since its initial release would never "catch a deal" on bundled expansions (like trilogy or whatever), you're talking about an investment of like $280 (7 software boxes at ~$40 US) for the software alone. Add to that the $15/mo charge for playing online, and you're talking about a considerable amount of money. Factor in a couple of strategy guides and you could realistically be talking about $700 or so over a two-year period. And that isn

mehltd · #23 11-24-2003, 02:14 AM

I run gentoo linux on both my server and my workstation. The installation is hellish, but the end result is <3.

http://gentoo.org

mehltd · #24 11-24-2003, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mortamer

Wow, Gentoo sounds excellent... I havent had much Linux experience so do you think Gentoo will be to overwhealming to start with? Do you think I should start with an easier distro like Mandrake or jump right into Gentoo?

The installation took me 8 hours on a p3 1.1ghz, and 17 hours on a p2 233mhz. If you want the system to be optimized, you'll be waiting that long too.

Gentoo's install is all instruction based, and you have to read each and every instruction and make sure you got them all right before continuing.. If you dont get each right, you basically have to start over. Take a look at the installation documents on gentoo.org, and see if you think you would be able to follow that closely. The manual basically describes every command and everything you would need to install, but there are a lot of 'IF YOU HAVE THIS OR THAT' that you have to follow.

My rating of gentoo is:

Install: hellish

Speeds: very nice when optimized. optimization is acieved by downloading source code to everything and compiling it specifically for your processor, which the install does automatically.

support: gentoo has a nifty program called 'portage,' which allows you to get packages for gentoo. Say you wanted kde. you would type 'emerge kde' on a root shell. The kde download is about 10 minutes on DSL, but the compilation was like 13 hours (1.1ghz).

more on portage is on their website, http://gentoo.org

I dont recommend gentoo linux for a newbie of linux because it takes a lot of reading to install -- and there is no 'automatic install' like on red hat. you boot the cd, and you get a root shell.

If you want more info on gentoo, go to their website (gentoo.org), or send me a message and ill rant more :lol:

Muuss · #25 11-24-2003, 08:42 PM

At job (University) i m running slackware 9.1 on lots of computers, http, smb servers and we're pretty satisfied of it. Its main quality is that they have for goal to look like a professional OS, not a windows-like linux. Stability is excellent, install process is ok. The full distribution can be stored on a single 700Mo CDROM, you may need 2 if u want to have sources and all the bootdisks and such.
You can select at install everything you need or don't need, and batch it to make it re-installable later on another computer. Several windows manager are available, from gnome to enlightenment, via fvmw95 (very usefull to save memory). Daemons are up to date, like most of the main tools (gcc, libs, emacs...) and make of the slacks a good developpment platform.
Compilation of drivers, kernels and such never caused any troubles and now, there's even a website that provides slack binaries of lotsa applications (http://www.linuxpackages.net/) if you're to lazy to compile them yourself

In the past, i was running redhat 3.0, then 5.0, but had to stop due to to many vulnerabilities and lack of stability. I went to Slackware and now, we have something like 250 computers using it, for students or teachers and the big great majority are pleased of it. I would never come back to redhat (or mandrake). I have also tried Suse and Debian, both were pretty good, far better than RH, but my heart still balances for Slack !

I had no trouble compiling eqemu 0.4.4 on Slackware, haven't tried 0.5 yet tho.

Muuss-Decimal

Eglin · #26 12-01-2003, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mortamer

I have redhat on one of my computers now to test and I thought it was pretty good, but I dont want to use something thats not going to be updated so I figured I'd switch.

At the risk of kindling a flame war, I thought I'd share that I just (6 hours ago) sat in front of a Fedora OS (RH 10, essentially) and would have no qualms whatsoever recommending it wholeheartedly.

Muuss · #27 12-01-2003, 10:24 PM

No need to flame someone who runs a RH, he does it by himself

JK of course Eglin, we're all free to like or don't whatever we want

mehltd · #28 12-05-2003, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muuss

[insert his big <3 for slackware here]

the only reason i dont run slack is because gentoo has portage (emerge). Im not too sure if slack has a program similar to it (debian has apt-get, i think), and im not going to format just to find out :P

I have heard a lot of praise about slack, but my heart goes to gentoo. :mrgreen:

a_Guest03 · #29 12-05-2003, 07:29 AM

Slackware has a portage system you can install. I don't bother. Call me a caveman.

Muuss · #30 12-08-2003, 03:39 AM

So many people saying that Gentoo is nice, i m gonna try it...
i m yet hearing people here flaming me hehe

and mehltd, let my big <3 in peace plz !