Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
,--- Forwarded message (begin) Subject: Newbies Prayers Answered (LONG) From: mike [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 05:50:09 -0500 http://www.redmondlinux.org I have been following the development of Redmond Linux for a while now, never actually using it. I decided to change around my LAN, and figured now was as good a time as any to give it a try. All I can say is wow. Flawless install in under 20 minutes on a duron600@1050 abit kt7 256megs, generic nic, SBPC 128, tnt2 m64. If you're frustrated by linux, or are thinking about trying it out read on. This is simply the best option for those looking for a windows alternative, or a linux playground/schoolyard. It addresses every issue I have ever heard a new user complain about. If you are an experienced user, I highly suggest you recommend this distro to potential newbies or frustrated newbies you may encounter. I'm not at all affiliated with Redmond Linux, I just see this as a solution to the flame wars that clog up the linux newsgroups. Anyway... on with the review. The installer proceded as follows: 1) Put CD in drive, boot off CD, if you currently use windows you can start from there as well booting from the CD or it will make a boot floppy. 2) It auto probes for mouse, keyboard, and videocard/monitor. These steps consisted of hitting next until they were done. 3) Choose partition to install on. You have the option of the whole disk, existing partitions, free space, or expert, where you do the partitioning. I don't know if you can partition on the fly, but even if you could I would recommend partitioning in another app. 4) The install starts. There is only one possible config. Easy for new users who don't know what exists in the linux realm. 5) Set up users, enter names and passwords. Easy. 6) Set up networking, and printing. DHCP, none, or manual settings. Printing using cups and it looks like gimp-print. Piece of cake as well. 7) Play solitaire until done. Its really a step!!! 8) make boot disk/restart. Like I said. A complete install in under 20 minutes. You can look up what it comes with at http://www.redmondlinux.org After playing around for a few hours I'm still very impressed. The kde menu (your only window manager choice) is set up neatly and logically organized. In every menu the most often used choices are there, and advanced options are under a submenu. For example,the section music and movies, has mp3 player (xmms in disguise) dvd/divx player (xine in disguise) an option to watch tv... as selections, as well as a sub-menu option for more multimedia programs, which contains the mixer, midi mapper, and arts builder. The menus are very simple to understand, and every program works perfectly. Full screen divx, handled much better than win2k did on this box. The desktop is a clone of windows. My linux computer opens to give shortcuts to all your drives, which are all perfectly configured to automount. CD's auto-run, ex... DVDs automatically load with xine, every file type I tried was correctly linked to its application. The feel is much more windows like than linux. There is no home directory mentioned (it does exist, just silently), and drives are presented as if they were not part of a contiguous filesystem, but separate file systems. The Network Browser icon opens up to all the Windows workgroups you can access from your box, browsing is the same as with windows. NO MOUNTING NEEDED Unfortunately, if you want to access a smb/windows share directly through other programs you must mount it, or copy the file to your local drive. RedmondLinux developers have made all the program choices for you. They chose mozilla as the web browser and email client, but of course you could install whichever you wanted. They did provide IMHO a great selection of apps. There is one very strong app for every task you may need. I personally would only want to add kate, kmail, knode, and maybe star-office, these are personal choices; an equally powerful alternative to each is included. Everything is there in one form or another, including all of the common linux browser pluggins. Administration is a breeze. The Developers made front-ends for almost everything you could want, and incorporated them into the KDE Control Center as pluggins. Suddenly the KDE control center is as powerful as linuxconf, no joke, but much easier to use. They did the same advanced options thing from the menu here as well, which lends itself well to its target audience. I personally like the fact that the developers added a link to turn sshd on or off, and called it remote access configuration. The launcher hints at the possibility of remote trouble shooting/repairs. This would be a godsend
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
On Tuesday 18 December 2001 11:39 am,Douglas J. Hunley wrote: snip . Every single app and frontend worked flawlessly. Litterally less than 20 minutes to a 100% stable 100% functional linux system. Not even a single additional program is needed to be totally functional. A great deal of polish went into this distro and it shows. snip Who can argue with this? I'll put it on my wife's machine and see if she notices the difference between win 98 ;-) She and her machine are the ideal crash-test platforms. -- Tony Alfrey [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'd rather be sailing ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
Douglas J. Hunley wrote: ,--- Forwarded message (begin) Subject: Newbies Prayers Answered (LONG) From: mike [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 05:50:09 -0500 http://www.redmondlinux.org I have been following the development of Redmond Linux for a while now, never actually using it. I decided to change around my LAN, and figured now was as good a time as any to give it a try. All I can say is wow. Flawless install in under 20 minutes on a duron600@1050 abit kt7 256megs, generic nic, SBPC 128, tnt2 m64. If you're frustrated by linux, or are thinking about trying it out read on. This is simply the best option for those looking for a windows alternative, or a linux playground/schoolyard. Douglas J Hunley (doug at hunley.homeip.net) - Linux User #174778 Admin: http://linux.nf Admin: http://hunley.homeip.net A day without sunshine is like... night. ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users I tried the beta version about a year ago without the same results. While the thing installed easily I couldn't get it to run. Whenever I opened the menu the thing would lockup solid. Was running on a 586 200mmx with 64 meg of memory. The desktop background was neat thoufgh. ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
Tony Alfrey wrote: % % Who can argue with this? I'll put it on my wife's machine and see if % she notices the difference between win 98 ;-) % She and her machine are the ideal crash-test platforms. So, are you going to tell your wife you just called her a crash test dummy? ;-) Kurt -- Gnagloot, n.: A person who leaves all his ski passes on his jacket just to impress people. -- Rich Hall, Sniglets ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
On Tuesday 18 Dec 2001 19:39, Douglas J. Hunley wrote: ,--- Forwarded message (begin) Subject: Newbies Prayers Answered (LONG) From: mike [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2001 05:50:09 -0500 http://www.redmondlinux.org I have been following the development of Redmond Linux for a while now, never actually using it. I decided to change around my LAN, and figured now was as good a time as any to give it a try. All I can say is wow. Flawless install in under 20 minutes on a duron600@1050 abit kt7 256megs, generic nic, SBPC 128, tnt2 m64. If you're frustrated by linux, or are thinking about trying it out read on. This is simply the best option for those looking for a windows alternative, or a linux playground/schoolyard. I downloaded version 43 of this a couple of days ago. Things to commend are the quick install, ext3 filesystem and kautorun (from kdenonbeta, hacked by redmond to make it work). However, after a few hours playing, I decided I didn't like it much. A lot of KDE 2.2.2 is missing and what is there is hard to find. For instance I didn't expect kiconedit to be on the Development menu. KDE has an excellent menu structure, but all the distros mess with it. Redmond messes with the icons too, but their icon artist is little better than Mandrake's. Just my £0.02. -- Peter Ruskin, Wrexham, Wales. Registered Linux User No. 219434 ( see http://counter.li.org/ ). Mandrake Linux release 8.1 (Vitamin) for i586 Kernel 2.4.8-34.1mdk-win4lin, XFree86 4.1.0, patch level 21mdk. KDE: 2.2.2. Qt: 2.3.2. Uptime 0 hours 30 minutes. -- ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
On Tue, 18 Dec 2001 15:47:48 -0800 Tony Alfrey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Tuesday 18 December 2001 11:39 am,Douglas J. Hunley wrote: snip . Every single app and frontend worked flawlessly. Litterally less than 20 minutes to a 100% stable 100% functional linux system. Not even a single additional program is needed to be totally functional. A great deal of polish went into this distro and it shows. snip Who can argue with this? I'll put it on my wife's machine and see if she notices the difference between win 98 ;-) She and her machine are the ideal crash-test platforms. === Please shut down the webcam when she thrashes you. I hate when that happens ;o) Seriously, let us know how the experiment turns out. Mike -- Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life. -- George Bernard Shaw ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: Fwd: Newbies Prayers Answered!!!! (LONG)
On Tuesday 18 December 2001 05:40 pm,[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Tony Alfrey wrote: % % Who can argue with this? I'll put it on my wife's machine and see if % she notices the difference between win 98 ;-) % She and her machine are the ideal crash-test platforms. So, are you going to tell your wife you just called her a crash test dummy? ;-) Kurt I think she might prefer to think of herself as the crash-test subject. She uses the blue screen of death as her screen saver so that her computer has a consistent look. -- Tony Alfrey [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'd rather be sailing ___ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
