On Sun, 2003-05-25 at 22:31, sak ra wrote: > Hello, > > I want to learn Linux/Unix. Is Debian OS right for > that? > > Thanks, > SAk > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. > http://search.yahoo.com I'm going to qualify what others are saying considerably: 1) How much and what sort of experience do you have with computers? If it is restricted to recognising it on someone's desk and getting pretty addicted to Hearts, that is very different from bootstrapping IBM mainframes via entering binary instructions on the physical control panel. The former is not likely to be ready without a few books of reference, the latter may wish to refer to certain reference for the design differences of the two systems, but might otherwise be okay. 2) Are you the installer/system administrator/only person available to set up and fix things? If someone is sitting you down at an installed workstation with KDE or Gnome ready to go, it is considerably different than going to a box that you want to dual boot but you need first to repartition without losing XP, and then do the full install. If you have never installed an o/s before (not even one of the monthly reinstalls that Windows 9X seems to require) then the Debian install is, umm, not entirely intuitive. Debian configuration is greatly aided by understanding the underlying concepts, but once installed and you have your mind closer to following the concepts, it may be better than some of the other major Linux distributions, due to consistency of structure and well documented configuration files placed where you would expect them. Still, you would be administering a system designed for multiple users (concurrently) with powerful industrial quality services - requiring a frame of mind directed to that level of responsibility. 3) What hardware do you have and how do you plan to use it? Linux is a very powerful operating system. Gamers require very powerful systems. Linux, however, as yet is not an excellent platform for games, as the very design considerations that make it powerful as a networking system and a multi-user server make it weaker as a gaming platform. Additionally, other than some vendors that know that much of their market is likely to be using Linux, vendor support for some hardware is either weak or slow. The better the printer, the better it is supported in Linux by my experience (eg. Postscript printers are essentially supported out of the box. The cheaper of the Canon bubblejet printers tend to be unsupported or poorly supported, largely because Canon doesn't offer any support for Linux,) the better the digital camera or scanner the more likely it is supported, although you will always find something great but obscure that isn't supported. That said, you are more likely to find the support in Debian by my experience, due to the sheer volume of software in its release. -- Mark L. Kahnt, FLMI/M, ALHC, HIA, AIAA, ACS, MHP ML Kahnt New Markets Consulting Tel: (613) 531-8684 / (613) 539-0935 Email: kahnt@hosehead.dyndns.org
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