Joe Takacs wrote: > I have a home network: > > 2 desktops (win xp) > 1 desktop (xandros linux right now - my test box to "play" with linux) > 2 laptops (win xp)
I have a slightly more advanced home network, but I was almost exactly where you are now in 2003, except I was running Windows 2000 instead of XP. My current set-up is: 1 Netopia DSL Modem/Router which includes a BSD-based firewall, NAT, and a bunch of other various goodies, and 5 static IP addresses (a business-grade DSL account). 2 OpenBSD 3.9 web/mail servers, DMZ'd (exposed to the Internet, but with NAT, pf running, and locked down in the typical OBSD-user paranoid fashion). 2 Windows 2000 machines, a graphics workstation and a print/file server, that drives a pair of large format printers, and a few smaller printers, including my ancient Epson LX-80 impact printer, and is connected to an old Compaq SCSI array, where I archive files. 1 Linux Red Hat Enterprise 3 Desktop machine... my primary machine, and home of my Samba shares. 1 OpenBSD 3.9 that I am playing with, setting it up as a Desktop machine... more a learning and practice box than anything else. 1 laptop, dual booting Windows 2000 and PC-BSD (FreeBSD 6.1 with a pretty front-end) I have most of my machines configured with front-loading, removable hard drive cages, so I also have a lot of other various play-things that I can plug in and mess with at a moment's notice, when in the mood, too, ranging from early versions of DOS, to Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, to various Linux distros, Windows XP Pro SP2, Windows Vista Beta, etc. > Am considering switching all to linux. Could use one of the laptops for > a "smoothwall" router - have a linksys router now. Also have wireless > in the system. Obviously, I have decided not to be a 'one operating system' person.<g> I grew up with DOS and Windows, and really do not want to give up some of my ancient applications, and some of my huge assortment Graphics apps, that span from the clunkiest of the early DOS 'paint' programs, to some of the most sophisticated CAD/CAM and ray tracing apps. I also find Windows more compatible with my printing and scanning hardware. Personally, I would avoid using laptops for routers, firewalls, or other 24/7 applications, where other computers must depend on them to stay running. I prefer equipment that was designed for 24/7 applications, for that kind of work, because it is more robust to begin with, and when something does eventually die, it is easier to swap in a replacement part. > Couple of questions: > > I am secretary of a golf league and use a golf league program > (Scorekeeper). Is there anything comparable in Linux? Ten years of > data in there - would take a while to transfer the data. Might this run > under "Wine"? Possibly. I have never messed with Wine, because I chose the 'multiple OS' route. > Also use Microsoft Access (97) database for the golf league and also a > couple of other things (an RV club with about 3500 members). Is there a > comparable db in Linux? Databases are 'exportable' to various formats, like 'comma-delimited text files'. Then the text file can be 'imported' into the new database app. > I am retired (73) and have some time to play with this "project". I had to make the 'Windows to Linux' transition on the fly, while running my small business, which made for a lot of work, and a very slow transition (five years, and not finished yet). Once I learned how to 'Think like a UNIX', things got easier. Linux demands that one actually understand what they are doing, and why, as opposed to simply learning which drop-down menus to click on. I feel that the greatest advantage I had, moving from Windows to Linux, was that I was already using the C programming language in DOS, and understood the basic concepts of programming, scripting, modifying configuration files, etc. I would suggest to anyone serious about learning Linux, that they just pick up a book on writing very basic C, and do some coding. Nothing fancy... just enough to 'get a clue' about the exacting nature of coding, using the vi editor, and the meanings of the terminology they are going to be seeing when they read the man pages. -- -wittig http://www.robertwittig.com/ . http://robertwittig.net/ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
