[geeks] And The Linux Weenies Wonder Why They Aren't Mainstream...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com>
>Date: Mon Feb 27 23:48:22 CST 2006
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] And The Linux Weenies Wonder Why They Aren't Mainstream...

>On Mon, Feb 27, 2006 at 06:47:44PM -0500, Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
>> I don't use Linux because it's a mess.
>
>I just installed Linux on a "new" computer and 'bloged about it.
>SuSE was a disater, Fedora core4 was not any worse than windows, possibly
>better. 
>
>But my needs are simple:
>
>A terminal window where I can run ssh.
>Playing media files including MP3s, MP4 sound and video files and 
>DVDs with surround sound.
>Firefox
>Watching TV and video with a TV card.
>Windows Solitare (runs under wine)

What, you haven't listed Mahjongg - Fedora has a nice one installed by default...

I'm working on setting up a server for a school project (ultimate purpose of server will be a public portal for school alumni), and I've been tinkering with various distributions of Linux, looking for one I'm comfortable with:

Fedora Core 4 is very comfortable, but the typical installs are very "inclusive" - not a fualt, just anobservation.

Ubuntu - install is very easy, quite usable, but since it installs from one CD, it is not as "inclusive", requiring some excursions into "yum-land" for a proper server install.

Mandriva (SP?) - looks GREAT, installs nicely, seems pretty good for a desktop, but I'm challeneged to "go under the hood" and set things up (this is a lack effort on my part to investigate, not a fault of the OS install).

I've been playing with VMWare Server Beta program to play with the distributions, and I've been impressed with it's ablity to run linux under a WinXP host OS install.

I'm about to take a look at Solaris on x86 as a server option, that would be easier for me, but my "clients" (the school) may not be pleased with such an arcane OS to work with (this is a small private high school, nearly ZERO IT knowledge)...

Lionel