[vox-tech] What's in RedHat 8.0

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Peter Jay Salzman (p@dirac.org):

> 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.

If you want to learn system fundamentals, and don't mind a learning
curve, go straight to Slackware.

If you want to get lots of prepackaged "desktop" geegaws and kid
yourself into thinking you don't have to learn Unix, go straight to
Libranet, Lycoris Desktop/LX, SuSE, or Linux-Mandrake.  Of those,
Libranet is the most long-term maintainable, as it's 100%
Debian-compatible.[1]

> 2. you get the installation book.  i've seen the install books for
> redhat and suse.   they are very high quality and will have all the
> information a new user needs.

For about a week, if the user has at least reasonable amount of interest
in the system -- since the knowledge one needs over the longer term is
deeper and not distribution-specific.  Then, you need a good general
tutorial on Linux-based systems, such as _Running Linux_,
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/runux3/ .  A while later, when you find
you need a good general reference, and can find one in _Linux in a Nutshell_,
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxnut3/ .

> 3. every so often, like when a new major number comes out (redhat 9.0,
> 10.0, etc) evaluate your situation.  if you've got some spare cash, buy
> the distro.

Or, if you have successfully migrated at some time towards the end of
your first year from Libranet to Debian (which requires only editing a
couple of lines in /etc/apt/sources.list), laugh and relax, instead.

> my 2 shekels

And 50 agurot is your change.  Thanks for shopping!

[1] Where _are_ all the people who bitched and moaned about Debian's
installer and default absence of proprietary browser plug-ins, etc., 
now that Libranet's around?  Oh, I forgot, their next objection is that
they need to feel "safe" running it, in the sense of using what a lot of
other people are using.  Fscking lemmings.

-- 
Cheers,             We write precisely            We say exactly
Rick Moen           Since such is our habit in    How to do a thing or how
rick@linuxmafia.com Talking to machines;          Every detail works.
Excerpt from Prof. Touretzky's decss-haiku.txt @ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/