On Thu, 2003-05-29 at 17:36, Rhonda R. Wilson wrote: > My son and I have decided to learn the Linux OS so that we can get off > Microsoft OS and have a mutual project between us. We have a Sun Ultra5 w/ > Sparc processor and at the moment it has Solaris 8 installed, but I plan on > putting Debian Linux as the only OS. Our knowledge of Unix is minimal, > Linux is non existant, and this is our first experience with any Sun > equipment.
Sadly to say, I would choose another distribution than Debian to get started with. The Debian installer program and documentation presume a lot of prior Unix knowledge, and some knowledge of the specific hardware (such as disk partitioning esoterica). Another writer's recommendation about Aurora could be a good one. I learned Linux using RedHat (from which Aurora is derived) on x86 platforms, and the RedHat installer is a _lot_ easier to start with than Debian Woody's. After a few months with Aurora (or perhaps SUSE) getting familiar with the Linux/Unix world, then an upgrade to Debian could be worthwhile. It opens up a choice of thousands of packages, aggressive security updating, a large user community, and a choice of "stable", "testing" or "unstable" when choosing what versions of packages to install. Keeping debian up to date with security patches and other improvements is remarkably straightforward. Because Debian supports lots of platforms very consistently, stuff that you learn on your Ultra5 could help someone with a PowerMac, or vice versa. Ultra 5 is not a bad platform for Linux. Memory is about twice as expensive as on PC and PowerMac platforms, but the onboard ethernet and video work very well (I have a U10) and IDE drives are cheap and fast. -- enjoy the challenge of eliminating M$, SP
