Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
You are exactly right. There are good linux distros out there. I have used several of them. Some are great desktop OS's. Some are good for the small footprint. Some are great for making bootable CD's to run antivirus/data recovery apps, and some are great for making roll-your-own routers and firewalls. Some are good for playing games, and some are good for emulating Windows apps. Some are easy to install, and some are not. Some are easy to install with a GUI, and some are not. Some are well documented, and some are not. Some will run on a 386 with 1M RAM, and some won't run on anything less than a PIII with 256M. There are as many distros out there as there are opinions as to who has the best distro. You can order a new server from any Tier1 PC manufacturer with Linux installed. It has become mainstream. For a stable, conservative, "always-up" server, I like to run the latest stable release of Freebsd. I like their version nomenclature, and the documentation. There are many ports for many server apps ready to run on FreeBSD. The syntax for the command lines are familiar to me. Its the same reason that I run Windows on my daily desktop. Its what I am used to. Pete Davis NoDial.net. Ryan Langseth wrote: Come on you gotta give better reasons than this ;) Good non-"flavor of the month" distros. Don't lump the whole base into the same box. Yea there are as many linux distros as there are linux geeks ;) Take my favorite distro, debian: On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 19:17 -0600, Pete Davis wrote: I think I can answer why I like freebsd. Stability. Uptime for months at a time. Most of the problems that I have had with my Freebsd servers have been when I was doing something stupid that I now know better. Ditto Also, it may be used completely free of charge, even if it is used commercially. The licensing of linux flavor of the month is not quite so clear. ditto It is used by MANY large commercial web farms, universities, and other entities. ditto It has widespread use enough that if you find a problem with it, the solution is probably online somewhere. ditto In other words, its a more "mature" operating system than most Linux flavors. thats just flame bait ;) Just my $0.02. Not trying to create a flame war. ditto Honestly though there are some great reason to use *BSD: 1 Awesome TCP/IP stack, although linux's has gotten better. 2 Ports, up to date software, with very simple commands 3 great firewall(s) ipfw, ipf, and pf (iptables syntax is, bloated at best compared to ipf and pf, I can't speak for ipfw) 4 Simple kernel in BSD, I _do not_ like the fact that 2.6 is still a developing kernel ... thats what 2.7 is supposed to be for. 5 Solid, Stable design. No major changes within the core system. Linux's popularity is also it detriment, not only due to crackers but due to its own internal developers, code splits, weak code, poor audits due to the shear number of people working on it. At its core though it is still secure. The reason I use debian linux, is because of it package management and focus on being stable, secure, and free. I understand how to use it and can work it very well. I will be looking at using OpenBSD or FreeBSD as my firewall system for my new server room. PF + Carp, rocks! Ryan -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Come on you gotta give better reasons than this ;) Good non-"flavor of the month" distros. Don't lump the whole base into the same box. Yea there are as many linux distros as there are linux geeks ;) Take my favorite distro, debian: On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 19:17 -0600, Pete Davis wrote: > I think I can answer why I like freebsd. > Stability. > Uptime for months at a time. Most of the problems that I have had with > my Freebsd servers have been when I was doing something stupid that I > now know better. Ditto > Also, it may be used completely free of charge, even if it is used > commercially. The licensing of linux flavor of the month is not quite so > clear. ditto > > It is used by MANY large commercial web farms, universities, and other > entities. ditto > > It has widespread use enough that if you find a problem with it, the > solution is probably online somewhere. ditto > In other words, its a more > "mature" operating system than most Linux flavors. thats just flame bait ;) > Just my $0.02. Not trying to create a flame war. ditto Honestly though there are some great reason to use *BSD: 1 Awesome TCP/IP stack, although linux's has gotten better. 2 Ports, up to date software, with very simple commands 3 great firewall(s) ipfw, ipf, and pf (iptables syntax is, bloated at best compared to ipf and pf, I can't speak for ipfw) 4 Simple kernel in BSD, I _do not_ like the fact that 2.6 is still a developing kernel ... thats what 2.7 is supposed to be for. 5 Solid, Stable design. No major changes within the core system. Linux's popularity is also it detriment, not only due to crackers but due to its own internal developers, code splits, weak code, poor audits due to the shear number of people working on it. At its core though it is still secure. The reason I use debian linux, is because of it package management and focus on being stable, secure, and free. I understand how to use it and can work it very well. I will be looking at using OpenBSD or FreeBSD as my firewall system for my new server room. PF + Carp, rocks! Ryan -- Ryan Langseth [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
On Fri, 12 Jan 2007, Tom DeReggi wrote: Why do people that prefer FreeBSD prefer FreeBSD? I prefer FreeBSD (rather BSD in general) MOSTLY because that's what I know best. FreeBSD, also, is (generally) not built to be a desktop OS, but a server platform. I know there are Linux distros that are built specifically to be servers, but I'm not as familiar with them. Perhaps the most important reason for me, though, is that Linux is getting more and more popular, and as that grows, the hackers will begin to target those systems similar to the way MS is now targeted. This trend is already starting, so I will take any advantage (real or perceived) that I can get. There are some other more technical answers, but I don't want to get into those details. -- Butch Evans Network Engineering and Security Consulting 573-276-2879 http://www.butchevans.com/ My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf Mikrotik Certified Consultant http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
I think I can answer why I like freebsd. Stability. Uptime for months at a time. Most of the problems that I have had with my Freebsd servers have been when I was doing something stupid that I now know better. Also, it may be used completely free of charge, even if it is used commercially. The licensing of linux flavor of the month is not quite so clear. It is used by MANY large commercial web farms, universities, and other entities. It has widespread use enough that if you find a problem with it, the solution is probably online somewhere. In other words, its a more "mature" operating system than most Linux flavors. Just my $0.02. Not trying to create a flame war. Pete Davis NoDial.net Tom DeReggi wrote: Butch, Not to start a debate on whats best, but for informative reasons... Why do people that prefer FreeBSD prefer FreeBSD? Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: "Butch Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Wispa List" Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:44 PM Subject: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. -- Butch Evans Network Engineering and Security Consulting 573-276-2879 http://www.butchevans.com/ My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf Mikrotik Certified Consultant http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Butch, Not to start a debate on whats best, but for informative reasons... Why do people that prefer FreeBSD prefer FreeBSD? Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband - Original Message - From: "Butch Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Wispa List" Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 10:44 PM Subject: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. -- Butch Evans Network Engineering and Security Consulting 573-276-2879 http://www.butchevans.com/ My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf Mikrotik Certified Consultant http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
One more that I like. Cost some $$ for the box about $49.00 I believe. Xandros! That is Debian based. Bo [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 1/12/07, N White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Butch Evans wrote: > I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of > evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would > just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD > makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop > OS is not the best. > Ubuntu is good, but I couldn't get it to work with my Broadcom (ugh) laptop minipci card straight after install. I tried a few, and the only one that worked was Linspire. It's pretty desktop friendly. Debian-based. I recommend either Ubuntu or Linspire. -- --- | Nick White | | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | --- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Butch Evans wrote: I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. Ubuntu is good, but I couldn't get it to work with my Broadcom (ugh) laptop minipci card straight after install. I tried a few, and the only one that worked was Linspire. It's pretty desktop friendly. Debian-based. I recommend either Ubuntu or Linspire. -- --- | Nick White | | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | --- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
PCBSD.org has a Freebsd-based desktop environment that is pretty nice. Two ISO files, and its complete with "office" apps, etc. I loaded it on a "kiosk" type PC for the lobby of a hotel that we support, and made an auto-login account with almost no rights, and 1 desktop icon, Firefox, labeled "the internet". I haven't received any calls about it being trashed with spyware, viruses, cutesy mouse pointers and screen savers, or just generally fouled up. I mainly put it there so customers with goofed up laptops who would call to say "the internet is down" could go there to check their hotmail instead of bugging me. The PlugNPlay, I found to be very good, as it detected all the devices on the 3 or 4 PC's I have installed on. If you REALLY want to go Linux (non-BSD) then I would vote for Ubuntu like the others on this list have. pd Butch Evans wrote: I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Yes Ubunto! Bo On 1/11/07, W.D.McKinney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hello Butch, Yes FreeBSD is great. That's why I have a MacBook Pro. :-) -Dee Alaska Wireless Systems 1(907)240-2183 Cell 1(907)349-2226 Fax 1(907)349-4308 Office www.akwireless.net - Original Message - From: Butch Evans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Wispa List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:44:59 -0900 Subject: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop > I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process > of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I > would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux > thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), > but their desktop OS is not the best. > > -- > Butch Evans > Network Engineering and Security Consulting > 573-276-2879 > http://www.butchevans.com/ > My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 > Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf > Mikrotik Certified Consultant > http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Hello Butch, Yes FreeBSD is great. That's why I have a MacBook Pro. :-) -Dee Alaska Wireless Systems 1(907)240-2183 Cell 1(907)349-2226 Fax 1(907)349-4308 Office www.akwireless.net - Original Message - From: Butch Evans [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Wispa List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:44:59 -0900 Subject: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop > I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process > of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I > would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux > thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), > but their desktop OS is not the best. > > -- > Butch Evans > Network Engineering and Security Consulting > 573-276-2879 > http://www.butchevans.com/ > My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 > Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf > Mikrotik Certified Consultant > http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Easy & with the highest 'user friendly' factor for kids, family, non-computer geeks ==> Ubuntu Most technically advanced, source build distribution ==>gentoo Those are probably the two ends of the spectrum :-) On 1/11/07, Butch Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. -- Butch Evans Network Engineering and Security Consulting 573-276-2879 http://www.butchevans.com/ My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf Mikrotik Certified Consultant http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
Personally, I use ubuntu. Like it, primarily because it's debian-based (I like the debian package system a lot more than the rpm varieties), very actively supported/developed, and hacker friendly. Have about 7 ubuntu machines at home (some of which are servers for the community wireless network that I'm involved with). Must use RHEL at work (CentOS is free tracker of same, Fedora is bleeding edge) and not nearly as happy with it. However, RHEL is intended for enterprise deployment, and works well for that---my day job is managing the standards/tools development and central services team for an environment that's about 25000 desktops and servers, mostly Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris---as it's version-stable for fairly long periods of time. You could get vmware player, stand up some virtual machines and decide from there. Fairly lightweight way to sample things. BTW, I agree that FreeBSD is an excellent server platform as well... FWIW, Bob Butch Evans wrote: I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. begin:vcard fn:Bob Knight n:Knight;Bob email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] tel;work:505.667.4300 tel;home:505.466.4548 tel;cell:505.310.8409 note:GUIs are a passing fad. version:2.1 end:vcard -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
[WISPA] Linux distro for the desktop
I am a FreeBSD guy. Heart and soul. However, I am in the process of evaluating which Linux distro I want to put on my laptop. I would just go with FreeBSD, but I want to try this Linux thing...FreeBSD makes the BEST server platform (no flames, please), but their desktop OS is not the best. -- Butch Evans Network Engineering and Security Consulting 573-276-2879 http://www.butchevans.com/ My calendar: http://tinyurl.com/y24ad6 Training Partners: http://tinyurl.com/smfkf Mikrotik Certified Consultant http://www.mikrotik.com/consultants.html -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
