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> I hadn't decided on a distribution yet...RH 8.0 I was thinking, but maybe
> that is too much, especially if I am using an older machine?
Why would that be?
A distro is just a set of precompiled binaries and (usually) a pretty,
branded installer.
The installer might be too much of a hog to run on a really old system,
but rh8 does have a fallback to console only mode.
Once you install linux, you can recompile kernel and packages that you
need. All linux distros that I've ever seen can boot to console only mode
as well.
There are downsides to each and every distro. rh has fewer downsides than
most as they are the biggie in the linux game. However, if one is picky:
1. Too many packages installed by default. No matter what I tell the
installer, it crams my hard disk full of things that I don't need. Each
thing sucks up disk space, clutters up the system, and opens up security
holes (especially where you are giving untrusted users console access).
These can be uninstalled (sort of) but this leads to the second problem.
2. annoying package manager. up2date seems to me, to be a last ditch
attempt to suck money out of my pocket. the registration is really a pain
in the ass especially if you want to have this installed on a bunch of
machines. If anyone knows how to install rh w/o registering, please let me
know.
I know that you don't have to pay, but then they treat you like a second
class citizen, and I don't know an easy/stable way to set up one's own
mirror.
rh does pay some great developers (Alan Cox), but they still are trying to
get paid for something that I can get for free (including a distro).
3. no known way that up2date can upgrade you to the next distro: 6.0->7.0
w/o downloading media (there is floppy net upgrade, IMHO, which is nice).
This means that you are going to have to sit in front of the actual
machine and reboot it at least once.
The redhat installer is really pretty and there are lots of rh packages
out there. Most commercial software targets rh. But if you want
commercial, you need to think about if you really want linux in the first
place. Maybe solaris would be a better fit.
A advocate debian (www.debian.org) b/c they are commited to completely
free software--not: we like free software, now pay us for shininess. Yes
there are free rh downloads of all iso and they do pay really great
developers to make linux better for everyone.
Debian is not hard to setup a console only system. If you know enough to
setup a linux server at all then you'll know the answers to all the
questions anyway.
There are net install floppies available for all the major filesystems,
including jfs, reiserfs, xfs, and ext3.
There is a system (jigdo) to make bootable installer cds of all the
releases (including sid). I think that a full distro is about 8 cds full
of software.
Good luck,
Fred
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