Re: [PLUG] Yet Another Distribution Question

[Bill Jonas <bill@billjonas.com>]

On Sun, Apr 22, 2001 at 09:34:36AM -0400, Beldon Dominello wrote:
> However, you might want to consisder Debian or even RedHat if what she's 
> using at work doesn't use X.  Both these distros are great for text-only 
> machines because they allow non-graphical installs by default (i.e. they give 
> you the option of installing X or not).

I can't speak for RedHat (having never used it), but I have to agree with
you about Debian.

> Don't know 
> about Slackware-- it would probably be okay as well.  However, the guy who 
> turned me on to Linux was a hardcore Slackware fan and said to me, "If this 
> is your first time out with Linux, don't try Slackware."  It is the most 
> obtuse distro, although I haven't tried it for 2 years so your mileage may 
> vary.

I have to agree with you there.  I recall reading somewhere in a summary
of distributions for the new user, regarding Slackware, that "the only
people who should use Slackware are people who've used it before".  It was
my first distribution, though, and this was in 1999.  :)  It was mainly
because of ZipSlack -- it was about a 30-35 meg download, and I was really
strapped for cash at that point.  Go to the web site and check it out --
it's designed to fit on a Zip disk and provide a fairly complete
command-line development environment, and installation is no more complex
than unzipping it.  I recently installed it on my laptop because Debian
was beginning to mildly irritate me for various reasons and I wanted to
try something else.  slackware-current is nice -- it contains what you'd
expect a Linux distribution to have -- KDE2, XFree86 4, etc.  *Plus* it's
been the only distribution so far to allow me to run X at 1400x1050 on my
laptop LCD.  :)  (I recall that when I switched from Slackware to SuSE,
the framebuffer X server didn't work properly anymore (before I got a
better video card) and I wound up using the XF86Config from Slackware.)

Oops, where was I?  Oh yeah... </ramble>

-- 
Bill Jonas    *    bill@billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/
"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,  we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and
this we should do freely and generously."          -- Benjamin Franklin


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