RE: Takin' the plunge...
on 10th Oct Royce Bell wrote
> Sheesh, you guys are scaring the pants off me! Or, maybe I'm
> just getting
> to old to go about things like I did 30 years ago...hmmm?
> Actually, I'm not
> so scared as I am overwhelmed at how much I have forgotten
> over the years of
> DOS/Windows immersion (I'd transliterate that as "baptism," but the
> scriptural import of that term implies newness, regeneration,
> and Heaven:
> All terms that seem quite inappropriate in the context of BSOD).
>
> A number of you have posted me directly with a recommendation
> of Libranet as
> a good starting point, while still maintaining the Debian
> relationship. A
> couple of you guys (any gurls here?) warned that I would not
> be happy with
> Libranet. Am I correct in understanding Libranet IS Debian
> with simplified
> installation/management? And, are there limitations to
> Libranet that I need
> to know going in? Are there benefits to the Debian distro
> directly, and
> what are they? At this point, I'm not so sure I'm interested
> in a plethora
> of configuration options, so much as a clean and stable
> install that will
> let me get the system up, running StarOffice or some other suite
> (suggestions?), connected to my Earthlink/DSL account, and printing.
IMHO Mandrake 8.0 would be a good starter for ease of configuration and
getting the system up. However you will not learn as much as you will from
using Debian. There is a steep learning curve and a fair bit of reading and
configuration to be done with Debian but ultimately you will have a system
the way you want it AND know what is happening "under the hood".
Debian has an excellent package management system which handles dependencies
for you, so you choose to install gizmo x, Debian tells you what library
files are needed and selects them for you. Compared to the RPM system, this
is a real boon (IMHO)
I noticed you are on DSL, is that cable or ADSL? both are possible through
Linux but require work. Cable is easier because connecting via a standard
network card. ADSL is trickier, maybe others reading could give their
opinion on this. I am not sure if the standard kernel supplied supports
PPPoe (PPP over ethernet) and wether you will need to recompile the kernel.
Certain distro's (I think Mandrake 8.0 and Suse 7.2 does as standard)
>
> Also, I'm not sure I am understanding some terms you guys are
> using that
> seem to me to be synonymous, eg. windowsmanager and shell, etc.
>
> One other thought: I am leaning toward doing the GNU/Linux
> install on two
> machines, concurrently. One as the productivity machine, and
> the other to
> make parallel installs AND configuration changes or new
> installs before they
> go on the productivity machine, just to be sure I don't burn
> the bridge (do
> I have to buy TWO licenses for that, Bill? Just joking).
> Boy, parallel
> install brings back memories of "how we used to do it."
> Matter of fact,
> that's how I first "broke" my Microsoft license agreement, not taking
> chances on the woeful frustrations of "fix one problem,
> create ten more" of
> Microsoft releases with my system that was required to get
> the work out.
>
> Thoughts?
For the ultimate in safety doing the above is a good idea, personally I have
found Debian to be rock solid, "the business" as it were. Occasionally I may
get a minor problem with a package but nothing serious (yet!)
Regards
Wayne.
Reply to: