[CLUE-Tech] information

[Joe Linux]

Very well said Matt!  And I have to say tech help on the CLUE list is 
really first class.  I doubt you can pay for better help.  Or putting it 
this way, paying for customer support would not get you more 
knowledgeable help.  The only thing is that in recent times most 
distributions have gotten rather good.  Now there seem to be little 
nagging issues specific to each distribution and on a forum such as this 
not too many members will be fully familiar with each different 
distribution even though they may have tried them in the past.  Actually 
one Distribution that hasn't been mentioned is Libranet. (debian based) 
 It is a great distribution and has great support from the people who 
produce it.  Plus  they have their own support forum with users that 
have been using Libranet and Debian for a long time. So Libranet would 
be an excellent first choice, but they sell their distribution so it's 
not as easy (cheap) to get the latest release from them as it is to get 
a free Red Hat or Mandrake download edition.   So if you think you 
really want to move to Linux, do consider Libranet.

www.libranet.com

Matt Gushee wrote:

>Just a couple of quick responses to Adam regarding the different 
>distributions, then on to the main question--why use Linux rather 
>than Windows?  
>
>On 30 May 2003 at 0:13, Adam Bultman wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Red Hat:
>>Package management: RPMs.
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>Debian:  
>>Pkg. Mgmt: .debs, installed with apt-get.
>>    
>>
>
>Of course, that's all Greek to someone who has never used Linux. 
>There are a couple of important differences between RPM, which is 
>used by Red Hat and several other distributions, and the system used 
>by Debian and a couple others. First of all, the Debian system has a 
>more sophisticated scheme for dependencies (i.e. determining, for any 
>given package A, what other packages you may need to install first.). 
>With RPM, you have  
>
>    Package A		requires		Package B
>
>or not--with the consequence that a lot of packages are tagged as 
>"required" when they're not strictly necessary. Debian has  
>
>    Package A		requires		Package B
>    Package A		recommends	Package B
>    Package A		suggests		Package B
>
>In general, Debian gives you more information and more choices, which 
>is great if you want a heavily customized system, but probably 
>overwhelming for new users.  
>
>  
>
>> Somewhat harder to use,
>>    
>>
>
>On what basis are you judging distributions hard or easy to use? As a 
>former RedHat and current Debian user who has flirted with SuSE, 
>Caldera, and Turbo, I don't think your choice of distribution makes a 
>bit of difference in the ease or difficulty of everyday use: it all 
>depends what software you install.  
>
>  
>
>>Suse:
>>Pkg. Mgmt:  RPMs.   Installs quite a bit of software (I haven't used it 
>>recently, either).  Desktop oriented, easy to use.
>>    
>>
>
>In my experience, SuSE seems to have better support for new hardware. 
>I think they are rather pragmatic in dealing with vendors, whereas 
>RedHat and some other distributions are more concerned about being 
>purely Free Software.
>
>On 29 May 2003 at 21:34, Kevin Cullis wrote:  
>
>  
>
>>The simpliest issue: Linux is great for DIFYers (Do It For 
>>    
>>
>Yourself),
>  
>
>>but the differing "distros" that are offered, like Red Hat, provide 
>>    
>>
>a
>  
>
>>bundle of things to get you started.
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, and each one tends to provide a slightly different bundle. It's 
>mostly small stuff, though, like configuration and system 
>administration tools.
>
>  
>
>>If we all drove a Ford, there
>>would not be much competition, but because Linux is Open Source, 
>>    
>>
>ANYONE
>  
>
>>can create their own, thus the DIFY perspective.
>>    
>>
>
>I think it's worth pointing out that open source (AKA free software) 
>has some important benefits even if you never want to personally get 
>under the hood and tweak things.
>
>  1) Your rights:
>      When you obtain a copy of Linux or other open source software,
>      *you own that copy of the software*, and you can legally do  
>      almost anything you want with it. You can install it on 2, 3,  
>      or 500 computers; you can give copies to all your friends, and 
>      so on. Of course, many people do just that with Windows .... so
>      it's more an ethical issue than a practical one. That's 
>      important to many people in the Linux community though, and I 
>      think it matters to many of the people who copy Windows, too,
>      though sometimes they may not want to admit it to themselves.
>  2) Support:
>      Though you don't usually get professional tech support for 
>      Linux without paying extra, the informal support from fellow
>      users is surprisingly good. Of course there are no guarantees, 
>      but when you ask a technical question on a mailing list like
>      this one (provided, of course, that you are courteous and 
>      reasonably focused), you almost always get at least one good
>      answer within a few hours. And you might be concerned about
>      falling victim to someone's bad advice, but in practice that's 
>      seldom a problem, because there are usually people in these  
>      forums with a really thorough understanding of various aspects  
>      of Linux--because it's open source, anyone who's interested is 
>      free to dig in deep and learn the ins and outs of the system--
>      and many of these experts are happy to share what they know.  
>      And when someone does give out wrong information, they       
>      will usually be corrected in short order by a more 
>      knowledgeable person.
>  3) Diversity:
>      In general, Linux offers more choices: different ways of doing 
>      work, different desktop styles, different programs to solve the
>      same problem. Of course, more choices means you need to put 
>      more effort into choosing, and not everyone likes that.
>
>Finally, there's the robustness/reliability issue. I haven't used 
>WinXP at all, so maybe it's better than previous versions, but a 
>properly configured Linux system very rarely crashes. And there's no 
>more of this nonsense of rebooting every time you install new 
>software.
>
>  
>

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