Slashdot Mirror

• Mepis
• Fedora
• Debian use the new installer, Testing rocks.
• Feather Linux for those of you still running your favoite 486.

I doubt they will block Slashdotters.

It's less effort, really it is. We now return you, of your own volition, to Windoze hell.

If you haven't tried out Open Source software yet (shame on you, why are you reading slashdot then) then its time to try some.

Start off by trying an open source web browser, such as firefox. I have personally installed it on several machines, and it works wonders.

Then try some more software, Such as Gimp, OpenOffice, 7Zip.

If you liked that software, then you may Like to try e Linux, the Open Source Operating System! It even works on Macs too! See how easy to use and reliable open source is. Try Mandrake or Fedora as they are both good versions of Linux.

Changing the system means possibly breaking compatibility with other systems

Slackware is a commonly misunderstood linux distribution. Many feel it's communist. It's not at all. Is Linux and the open source community more "left leaning" yes but SlackWare people definetely are not. Below is a brief fact based historical overview of the leftist movement and how it relates to open source software : Torvold Linus Torvold, a soft headed finish lad first decided to write linux after reading about soviet farmers not being able to afford Windows operating system software. Some call him a traitor including Anne Coulter, personally I call him an enemy non-combatant. The Revolution After corrupting many many perfectly patriotic programmers into believing that software should be free and we should all share, Linus started really pouring on the heat. HE formed the aptly named Red Hat Software company to "spread the message". The truth is redhat has been investigated many times by the CIA and Microsoft for subversive activity. Nothing was ever proved but that was before 9/11. Now no real evidence is needed we only need to suspect subversion in order to act. The Rise of the SubCulture The subculture surronding this communist open source community reached a boiling point when crackpots from San Fransisco started making millions selling pea brain ideas to Wall Street. This was known as the dotcom boom (or bust?). Swanky communist headquarters started sprouting in every major city and propeller hat wearing storm troopers started taking over. Luckily market forces prevailed as they always do and now most of these treachorous baffoons are now unemployed. The future of the greatest nation has been restored.

Good for her! You should not trust things you do not understand and because Windoze is closed source it's imposible to understand or trust. As has been documented here many times, Microsoft uses it's software to report things that are none of it's business without notice. The notice is now in the EULA, where Microsoft granted themselves control of your computer with a new one and in the one for Media Player. Late admission of such spying is hardly grounds for trust but is a clear indication of intent and lack of respect. If your wife bothered to fool with the computer long enough, she would notice the unusual hangs such nonsense generates. You have to wonder why they keep doing that kind of thing. M$ has enough trouble making it's "normal" software work.

Other software based on different principles is far more predictable. Even it's comercial varients are more trustowrthy.

Hi, and welcome to the club. I am glad that you are now considering the transition. Just to give some of my credentials: I am ungraduate at a fairly well known university, taking computer science. I also have about 3 years of summertime employment in ASP, VB, and minimal web server management.

Well now to the point. I have made the transition to linux environment about a year ago -- and I now consider myself an average user/admin. The main question in performing the transition is to ask yourself, how much unix/linux/BSD you already know. If the answer is none -- I recommend to not do an immediate transition, but instead get a separate computer, install a distro of linux, and just play with it, to get stuff figured out and working. This step will take a few weeks of devoted time. The main thing is DO NOT GIVE UP. Linux has all the features, but if you do not know where they are, stuff won't work. In which cases post questions to those who know. Or even better yet get a book. $50 will give you up front useful info on networking, and may tell you how to get the webserver running. I am using the book Using Linux, Sixth Edition SE. It has been a lifesaver, although it is oriented towards redhat, debian, and caldera versions.

Some usefel links:

RedHat Linux

Mandrake Linux

Debian

Linux Documantation Project

I recommend downloading (or purchasing) one of the distros above. The first two try to be really user friendly, and do a decent job at it. The third one is a bit more cryptic, but you will probably want that version for your real server, since it does not have a ton of annoying unnecessary flashy things, like graphical bootup. Besides the install the real diference is update management, which both redhat and mandrake do using rpm system. It is easy to figure graphical rpm. Once you get comfortable with that, consider using that book that yau bought, along with linuxdoc (the fourth link) to figure out how to get all that networking, like VPN, DNS, etc, using the configuration files -- the only good way of setting up the network.

After you figure out basic administartion, Try getting some simple pages to learn apache.

Apache web server
Perhaps a book on apache Perl and PHP programming might help. Do not actually know any specific titles. Basic idea is the same as in IIS. There is a public directory, similar to inetpub\wwwroot. where you can put the files. I believe that PHP is most similar to ASP. And since you did not use SQL server for database access, but Access, I assume that you do not need the speed of a full blown server. In this case MYSQL will do the trick. For something more significant you should check out Postgres db, or a commercial product such as db2. Learning these will take some time, but remember, these things have been written with an simplicity in mind. It just takes a little bit, to see where this simplicity is.

Well this msg is already too long. To sum it up, do not throw away your old system yet. Take time to learn linux, and in a little time you will possess the necessary skills to do transition. As for the tools that will make the transition for you, I have not heard of them, however they probably do exist. And starting somewhat anew is not always a bad thing. A lot of us hope that some version of windows will be written anew, but I doubt it will happen.

Well, good luck! The switch is not easy, but there are plenty of benefits in the long run. Do not give up, and you will see them soon.

finding out where all the links go to in these articles?

sorry, couldnt resist... there are sooooo many links in this one, i got confused :o)

I suffered the first two errors mentioned, after the upgrade failed. The upgrade had some kind of network problem. Suffice it to say that I was dissapointed and very supprised after the third attempt had failed. When I had trouble retreiving the corrected installer, well that was four strikes. The upgrade was a tease, because everything that did work, worked much better!

Debian, though more difficult to deal with and not nearly as beautiful or wizzbang, worked in fewer tries. Their ftp and http instal was also very impresive and open next to the problems I may have had with Red Hat's ftp bug fix (it might have just been bussy).

I will not give or even recomend 7.0 to anyone, but would recomend they wait for a while until they fix some of these problems and release 7.1 Don't get me wrong, Red Hat does lots of things right, but so does Debian and right now I'm going to play with it. What's the use of choice if you don't use it?

By the way, this little bummer could have embarased me. I'm happy that my boss did not see 7.0 blow up when I tried to put it on a machine at work (one strike and you're out that time!). I work in an MS shop, and companies like RH and Correl are my only hope to escape the talking paperclip. If the first thing the PHB sees is a failed install, my hopes would get dimmer fast. That little box (a P90!) now runs RH6.2, and it's running aps and collecting uptime that NT never knows, a much better demonstration. I want to get much more familiar with Debian before I pull a stunt like that in front of people.

check it out..... www.redhat.org.....

All i have to say.... COOL

FreeBSD, simply the Best ;)