[SLUG] linux help for educator
Hi, I am a Maths/Physics teacher at Sule College and I want to install Linux on my laptop. I got about 80 GB free disk space. My purpose is to run mathematical & scientific software free. Of course office programs as well, but teaching software is my preference. I used redhat at uni about 5 years ago. But I do not know how to install. Currently XP is loaded and I want to keep it. At school we have cable modem, and at home I use iprimus dial up. I have a few questions: Which distribution will be the best for me If I select any of the distributions can I install any linux application from the net? Or is there any restriction that an application will only work on redhat and not slackware etc. Can I install multiple versions at the same time to test and evaluate which version is best for me? If possible can I meet with anyone to do the installation process together? I have fast internet and a burner. Can download anything. Regards, Alper Ciftci -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] linux help for educator
On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 16:52:19 +1100 "Alper Ciftci" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My purpose is to run mathematical & scientific software free. Of course > office programs as well, but teaching software is my preference. Noted. > I have a few questions: > > 1.Which distribution will be the best for me I would not usually recommend Debian for a Linux newcomer, but since you want mathematical and scientific software Debian may well be the best bet. I say that because Debian is the only distribution which has software like Maxima (symbolic maths), Octave (numerical stuff) and a whole bunch of other math/sci software available as pre-compiled packages. On other distributions, you may have to compile from source code which is not always easy. > 2.If I select any of the distributions can I install any linux > application from the net? If you install from source code then yes. Binaries are sometimes installable across multiple distributions but there can be problems. > Or is there any restriction that an application > will only work on redhat and not slackware etc. > 3.Can I install multiple versions at the same time to test and > evaluate which version is best for me? That depends on the application. Some applications allow more than one version to be installed others don't. Debian goes to a lot of trouble to allow multiple versions of packages. > 4.If possible can I meet with anyone to do the installation process > together? I have fast internet and a burner. Can download anything. What is your location. Someone Debian literate may be nearby. Erik -- +---+ Erik de Castro Lopo [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Yes it's valid) +---+ "In civilian equipment, such as computers, the number of components alone makes miniaturization essential if the computer is to be housed in a reasonable-sized building." Electronics Oct. 1, 1957, p. 178 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] linux help for educator
Alper Ciftci wrote: I am a Maths/Physics teacher at Sule College and I want to install Linux on my laptop. .. My purpose is to run mathematical & scientific software free. Of course office programs as well, but teaching software is my preference. You will find lots of scientific stuff to drowl over. See http://sal.kachinatech.com/ "SAL (Scientific Applications on Linux) is a collection of information and links to software that will be of interest to scientists and engineers. The broad coverage of Linux applications will also benefit the whole Linux/Unix community. There are currently 3,070 entries in SAL." Also Software: Linux4Chemistry http://zeus.polsl.gliwice.pl/~nikodem/linux4chemistry.html I have a few questions: 1. Which distribution will be the best for me either Debian or RedHat or Mandrake will be fine. You will gets lots of help with any of those. I have found that Debian is really easy to keep uptodate at uni with a fast connection and its easy to install things like extra libraries and compiler stuff as often scientific sofware might have to be compiled. It's usually not too difficult once you do a few. Any probs just post to SLUG :-) 2. If I select any of the distributions can I install any linux application from the net? Or is there any restriction that an application will only work on redhat and not slackware etc. Most sci apps will come as source tarball which you will need to compile. Some will come as RPMs (ie RedHat format) and some as debs (Debina format). RPMs can be turned into debs. (prob other way around too) 3. Can I install multiple versions at the same time to test and evaluate which version is best for me? Usually yes. 4. If possible can I meet with anyone to do the installation process together? I have fast internet and a burner. Can download anything. Tell the list what suburb you are in. Also there are install fests and things that are help every now and then too. If you want to keep your existing OS and have a dual boot system having someone help you is useful. If its just going to be a single OS system i.e. Linux only then fire away and try an install yourself first as it doesnt matter if you make a mistake - nothing is lost. Mike -- Mike Lake Caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] linux help for educator
On Fri, 2003-10-31 at 21:52, Alper Ciftci wrote: > Hi, > > I am a Maths/Physics teacher at Sule College and I want to install > Linux on my laptop. > My purpose is to run mathematical & scientific software free. Of > course office programs as well, but teaching software is my > preference. SAL (mentioned by another poster) is great. > I used redhat at uni about 5 years ago. Regardless of the distro you choose, you'll need to do some hand work, even if only because you want to build the data structures and processes for analysis - scripts, directory structures, source control for the scripts, etc. To that end, the distro matters as you'll be learning how to customize that distro - you're specializing. Partly because of this, I worked my way to using Debian, because it's more of a community based standard. I used SuSE, and Redhat, and they both work well, but each makes proprietary choices that aren't portable to other distros. This may not be an issue for your usage model, and it's not the only reason I chose Debian (hard to beat that update/upgrade scheme, and I've had trouble resolving dependencies with RPM based distros. To be fair, I've had occasional problems with Debian dependencies too, but not so much so far). > But I do not know how to install. Currently XP is loaded and I want to > keep it. This isn't itself an issue. What might be is how your hard disk is partitioned currently. If it's one big partition, you'll have to shrink the space dedicated to XP to make room for partitions for Linux. If it's several partitions, decide if you can delete everything off one or more to use the space for a Linux install. If you can't get any/enough room that way, you're back to shrinking space currently given to XP. > I have a few questions: > > 1. Which distribution will be the best for me I reccommend you burn/get a Knoppix CD. It boots a Debian based distro without writing anything to the hard disk, and has excellent hardware detection. You can however, install it to the hard disk and have a working system. Then it's just a customized Debian system - you'll need to learn how to work with Debian, but you need to do the equivalent with any other distro too. Another well regarded option is Libranet. Also Debian based, with what appears to be very good GUI configuration support included. Either of these leave you with a Debian system to work with. I "suffered" through getting Debian Woody itself to install to my taste on my Thinkpad, and now I'm comfortable with it generally. Redhat, Mandrake, and SuSE seem to be the most widely used commercial systems. All will have "good" support (I quote that because it may or may not be good for your purposes - certainly for general concerns they're all good). Since you're using non-mainstream software packages, I'll suggest a Debian based distro is best in the long run. I've had painful experiences attempting to resolve dependencies with RPM based distros, due to trying to patch in software that wasn't compiled by the Manufacturer, like scientific packages. The automatic update feature of each distro may not play nicely with all possible non-standard changes either. And Redhat makes proprietary patches to the kernel to make it work with their other choices - I've had hardware patches fail on Redhat for this reason... > 1. If I select any of the distributions can I install any linux > application from the net? Or is there any restriction that an > application will only work on redhat and not slackware etc. Library versions can sink this boat. Redhat's non-standard kernel patches have given me problems. I've had problems trying to get Mandrake packages to work on SuSE, and I suspect that's a general problem - library versions, and differences in the file structure that each distro uses to accomodate their particular philosophy of "how it should be done". Without being deeply knowledgeable about all Linux distros it seemed to me that Debian was the most "standard" of the distros with a good package maintainence system. "It's free, so it's cheap, so it uses standards" is my explanation/fantasy... > 1. Can I install multiple versions at the same time to test and > evaluate which version is best for me? Packages/programs? Yes. Distros? Yes. You need to dedicate disk space to each distro. > 1. If possible can I meet with anyone to do the installation > process together? I have fast internet and a burner. Can > download anything. I'd be happy to, but won't be in Oz until after November 12th. If you're still interested then, I'd be willing. I'll be looking, but likely unemployed for a bit... Cheers, Bret -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] linux help for educator
> Hi, > > I am a Maths/Physics teacher at Sule College and I want to install Linux on > my laptop. > > I got about 80 GB free disk space. > > > > My purpose is to run mathematical & scientific software free. Of course > office programs as well, but teaching software is my preference. > > > > I used redhat at uni about 5 years ago. > > > > But I do not know how to install. Currently XP is loaded and I want to keep > it. > > > > At school we have cable modem, and at home I use iprimus dial up. > > > > I have a few questions: > > 1.Which distribution will be the best for me > 2.If I select any of the distributions can I install any linux > application from the net? Or is there any restriction that an application > will only work on redhat and not slackware etc. > 3.Can I install multiple versions at the same time to test and > evaluate which version is best for me? > 4.If possible can I meet with anyone to do the installation process > together? I have fast internet and a burner. Can download anything. Hi Alper, Is computer support at Sule College provided by the same person that looks after the IT infrastructure at the Sule College primary school at Auburn? The computers supplied to that school by Computerbank are running Debian and the IT support person was familiarising himself with this distribution. This may be of interest in your choice. cheers, Ken -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
