Anthony Huereca wrote:
>
> >
> > P.S. IMHO any newbie who downloads their first install of
> > Linux instead of buying a documented package is truly nuts,
> > and is asking for big problems, but this has nothing to do
> > with the particular disto or version as it applies to them
> > all.
>
> Heh, then I guess I'm certifiably nuts : ) I debated between gettting the
> packaged version or just a plain CD, and I went with the plain CD. I just got
> through by reading a whole whole lot (most of the manual is online, and I
> bought a small Linux book along with the CD), and reinstalling a whole lot after
> I'd screw up. But I did eventually get it right, and I've been running this same
> "version" for about 5 months now. It was definitly a learning experiance, and
> if I had to do it all over again, I'd probally still pick the CD since I've
> probally learned a lot more than I would have if I stuck with the packaged
> version.
>
> --
> Anthony Huereca
> http://m3000.1wh.com
> Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
I have to say that I'm in the same boat with Anthony.
I was introduced to Linux in February of this year (2000) in a
networking class I took at the local Community College. The instructor
gave a demo of a Red Hat install; some how I convinced him to let me
make copies (at home of course -:)). I proceeded to install Red Hat 6.1
that night on my computer at home. BOY was I frustrated, couldn't even
get my modem to work, so I rebooted into Win98, searched the web for
anything and everything to do with Linux; I came across Linux Care or
one of those sites that had links to all the distributions, and I just
went through each and everyone until I came to Mandrake's page.
I was so impressed with the demos of the installer that I started
downloading the iso of 7.0 immediately. At the time I had a 56K modem
and it took me about 44 hours to download the complete image. Then
things really started getting interesting!
I must have installed that thing about 15 times before I got
everything working-- one night I installed, reformatted, reinstalled
about 5 times (basically , I couldn't get my IDE cd-burner to work when
everything else worked or vice versa). I know, I know all I had to do
was recompile the kernel after about the second install and then
everything would have been fine, but just those words 'compile the
kernel' scared the beejeezus out of me. Needless to say that in the end,
I recompiled the kernel got everything working and not only am I
extremely satisfied with Mandrake , I've basically installed the beta
versions of the upcoming release, not only on my desktop but also on an
older laptop that I came across. I confess that if it wasn't for my
stubbornness (make that tenacity) I would still be using Windows.
Eunice Thompson
