[vox-tech] What's in RedHat 8.0

[Rod Roark]

On Friday 04 October 2002 10:50 am, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> i'm finding myself disagreeing with rod.  a dangerous pursuit.  :)

That's OK.  My wife does that too.  ;-)

> if you're new to gnu/linux... if you're kind of new to unix...
>
> i would _definitely_ without a doubt stay away from debian and gentoo.
> cut your teeth elsewhere.  install redhat, mandrake or suse.  no doubt
> in my mind whatsoever.

Consider the objective.  Red Hat and Mandrake will give you=20
an easy experience and a working system, but if your goal is
to learn about Linux and friends, you won't be very far
along.

For the newbie who really wants to learn, I'd suggest=20
Slackware and a couple of good books as a starting point.
*Then* try Debian or Gentoo.  ;-)

> as for getting distro, despite what other people say, buying the distro
> has some distinct advantages:
>
> 1. you're supporting a company.  if nobody bought linux, most of the
> distributions would shrivel up and die.  and where would that leave us?
> mandrake nearly declared bankruptcy this year, and they're one of the
> most popular distros!  these companies have employees to pay, business
> expenditures to pay.  no matter how much i make fun of redhat and
> mandrake, i would just die if they folded.  lokisoftware going under
> cast a dark cloud over me for months when they called quits....

I guess this doesn't worry me as much as it does you.  Red=20
Hat and other for-profit companies do contribute to open=20
source projects, but they are not the core.  Ultimately they=20
are just trying to make a buck, and if they fail it's only
their fault and the foundation will remain.  I would be=20
disappointed, but it's not our job to prop them up.

-- Rod
   http://www.sunsetsystems.com/