Hi Dave,
I saw your email and here are a few possible solutions/answers to
your questions...
A public pondering by someone contemplating the switch to Linux:
I use Itunes, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Open Office, Firefox. Itunes is
probably the only application on that list that isn't going to make
the switch. What could I use that would organize my 25+G of music
files, and keep them organized, the way Itunes does?
You might consider something like Rhythmbox (http://freshmeat.net/
projects/rhythmbox/). There is also xmms (http://www.xmms.org/) and
madman (http://madman.sourceforge.net/) are pretty popular. If you
have purchased music from the iTMS (iTunes Music Store) then you are
going to have a hard time playing that music with anything except for
an iPod or in iTunes since the FairPlay DRM doesn't work in anything
else.
What kind of downtime am I looking at? Where can i find a checklist
to make sure my wireless card is going to work? I'm using a Dell
Poweredge server as a desktop, so I'm certain everything in it will
work happily with a 'nix, though some of my add-on toys might not.
I'd say that it would take a good weekend of work to get a system
your up and running with all of the software you need. After the
initial setup you will be a little slow as you get used to things,
but that will get better over time. You can find supported hardware
lists everywhere on the web, but it is really going to come down to
the dirsto you choose. While it is possible to compile support into
the kernel for just about any device, it isn't one of the first tasks
you want to tackle. So, pick a distro (Red Hat, Debian, Suse - now
with Novell) that has the best hardware support for your machine out
of the box.
What issues am I going to have? My primary concern is not having to
email my boss from a friend's place to say sorry, I've been down
for a day because I couldn't figure out _____ ( <--insert newbie
sob story here).
I'd say that there are going to be few if any issues that are going
to cause you to go down for a day. You might have a hard time
opening a certain type of file or installing a certain app. As long
as your hardware is supported the you should be fine. Since this is
your first time using Linux, I'd suggest that you go with a boxed
distro such as Suse, Debian, or Red Hat. Fedora (http://
fedora.redhat.com/) is a nice, free choice BUT it doesn't come with
any formal phone support.
I need to be able to share files with an OS X laptop. I know, I
know, Samba, says everyone happily. But how do I set up Samba? Any
tutorials? If you can point me towards even a crappy tutorial, I'll
write and post a better one. This applies to everything else, too.
Samba isn't difficult to setup at all. Most distros come with it pre-
installed so you won't have to do much at all.
For the benefit of other users (though these don't concern me
personally on a critical level yet), I'd also like to hear
responses on how easy it is to use a 'nix to share an internet
connection, to act as a bridge / DHCP router / NAT / SPI firewall,
to access WEP and WAP protected hotspots, to share files with XP,
etc. I think it's more critical to address how difficult something
is than to express that these things are possible with X distro or
Y application...we can do all of these with Windows as well. The
emphasis needs to be on the doability (or difficulty, as the case
may be) of getting these things done.
All of the above is pretty easy to do on any sort of *nix box. As
long as you aren't afraid to edit a config file or work with the
command line that everything will be fine. *nix boxes make excellent
routers, servers, and firewalls. You will find that once everything
is setup correctly, you will even forget it is even there. No more
reboots all of the time!
There are quite a few excellent how-tos on each of these topics.
Taking the plunge is the hard part, once you've done that then it
should be smooth sailing. Before you install, make a list of
software and settings that you will need. You will be happier if you
do.
Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
Shawn
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