Re: Irregulars question: Linux distributions
On Sep 5, 2005, at 9:11 PM, Maru Dubshinki wrote: On 9/5/05, Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It'll be a while 'til you can get a copy of OS X that will run on non-Apple Intel hardware, but in the meanwhile, FreeBSD itself is very well-regarded from a security standpoint and has all the requisite bits and pieces. And when you *can* get a copy of OS X that will run on arbitrary Intel hardware, you will be in for the treat of your Unixy life. I assume you meant to prefix legally in front of every ocurrence of a copy, correct? A1. Of course. I used to work for Apple, for goodness' sake! A2. Hell, no. I sold my Apple stock years ago. A3. That's YOUR problem. I'm only theorizing about what might be possible. I won't have to answer to Apple's lawyers should you choose to cross any legal lines. (Don't forget, I used to work for Apple, so I could have a few handy phone numbers in my address book.) (And don't forget, I sold my Apple stock years ago. What do I care what you do?) Dave And Every Copy I Have is 100% Legal Land ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Irregulars question: Linux distributions
On many occasions, including at 04:48 AM Wednesday 8/31/2005, William T Goodall has signed off with: It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will run out of things they can do with UNIX. - Ken Olsen, President of DEC, 1984. It always reminds me that my experience with Unix dates back to (roughly) that era, and was indeed on a DEC system. For some time now I have been planning to put some version of Linux on whatever machine I had to make it a dual-boot machine¹, but for various reasons have not had the opportunity to do so until now. I've heard several people here comment on their experiences with and preferences for various Linux distributions, so before installing any of the several different ones on CD or DVD which I have accumulated over the past few years, I thought I'd ask for recommendations (or warnings as to which ones, if any, I should run screaming from ;) ). FWIW, I do not plan at any time in the near future to change over to Linux as the primary OS I use for everything (though I suppose that could eventually change), and I need Windows for compatibility with others in the rest of the world. My primary need right now is to run various (primarily scientific) software packages for which there are no Windows versions, so I am not looking for anything which will take a lot of setting up before I can do anything. OTOH, it would be nice to have as full a set of capabilities as possible so when I have the time and inclination I can expand the uses. So, any recommendations? _ ¹As I mentioned a few days ago when I was trying to get these new hard drives installed, I have the latest version (8.0) of Partition Magic and the Boot Magic program which comes with it in order to accomplish this (though I haven't set them up that way yet), and I left 100GB on the primary hard drive for a Linux partition, just in case those facts are of significance . . . -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Linux distributions
On 9/5/05, Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So, any recommendations? _ ¹As I mentioned a few days ago when I was trying to get these new hard drives installed, I have the latest version (8.0) of Partition Magic and the Boot Magic program which comes with it in order to accomplish this (though I haven't set them up that way yet), and I left 100GB on the primary hard drive for a Linux partition, just in case those facts are of significance . . . -- Ronn! :) Well, Ubuntu plays nice with Windows, as do Fedora and Mandrake. Linspire is (I think) temporarily free as in beer, and SuSe is fairly popular. Of course, there is Debian as well, if you are the moral Free Software type, but Ubuntu is generally more useable. It's good you left a primary partition open. That'll make things easier. If you don't mind building the distro yourself mostly, Gentoo has unparalleled comprehensive package management, which is also the most up-to-date. My personal experience is that it's somewhat unstable (one particular program, ncurses, particularly fubars things up), though as always YMMV. ~Maru is a universe of possibilities. We haven't even *begun* to discuss the other Unixes out there! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Linux distributions
At 07:57 PM Monday 9/5/2005, Maru Dubshinki wrote: On 9/5/05, Ronn!Blankenship [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: So, any recommendations? _ ¹As I mentioned a few days ago when I was trying to get these new hard drives installed, I have the latest version (8.0) of Partition Magic and the Boot Magic program which comes with it in order to accomplish this (though I haven't set them up that way yet), and I left 100GB on the primary hard drive for a Linux partition, just in case those facts are of significance . . . -- Ronn! :) Well, Ubuntu plays nice with Windows, I was just reading about it in today's OSTG update (the first I had heard of it), and was thinking about it . . . as do Fedora and Mandrake. Those are two of the ones I have on CD, although they may not be the most recent releases. Linspire is (I think) temporarily free as in beer, and SuSe is fairly popular. I think I have a version of that somewhere, too. Of course, there is Debian as well, if you are the moral Free Software type, but Ubuntu is generally more useable. It's good you left a primary partition open. That'll make things easier. Just because I sometimes ask simple questions doesn't mean that I am totally stupid. ;) If you don't mind building the distro yourself mostly, Gentoo has unparalleled comprehensive package management, which is also the most up-to-date. For right now I think I want something which will be ready out of the box, and maybe later look at upgrading to something else. My personal experience is that it's somewhat unstable (one particular program, ncurses, particularly fubars things up), though as always YMMV. Speaking of such, I just tried to uninstall a small program I've been using successfully for months and reinstalled it on the new disk. I then spent the next hour or so downloading drivers from M$.com because the computer would not boot up properly. ~Maru is a universe of possibilities. We haven't even *begun* to discuss the other Unixes out there! Any suggestions appreciated. -- Ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars question: Linux distributions
On 9/5/05, Dave Land [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sep 5, 2005, at 6:18 PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote: is a universe of possibilities. We haven't even *begun* to discuss the other Unixes out there! Any suggestions appreciated. Then I hope you won't mind a mention of FreeBSD, about which I knew nothing until I started using a FreeBSD-based flavor of Unix recently, one from a certain fruit-themed company in Cupertino. It'll be a while 'til you can get a copy of OS X that will run on non-Apple Intel hardware, but in the meanwhile, FreeBSD itself is very well-regarded from a security standpoint and has all the requisite bits and pieces. And when you *can* get a copy of OS X that will run on arbitrary Intel hardware, you will be in for the treat of your Unixy life. Dave I assume you meant to prefix legally in front of every ocurrence of a copy, correct? ~Maru Now me, my opinion of Mac OS X is that adherents of it are merely attempting to raise a prettier monopoly in place of Microsoft. MS learned from the best. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l