[clue-tech] Installfest in 3 weeks.

[Collins Richey]

On 8/6/06, Joe Wojcik <joe.wojcik at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dave, I have Suse 10.0 that I can bring. Joe
>

Although I have had somewhat positive results with Debian
Etch/Testing, I would recommend Ubuntu 6.06 LTS for the novice/casual
user with a somewhat recent PC . For a dual boot machine with Windows,
the resize utility built into the installer works like a champ.

I prefer the Kubuntu variant, but it doesn't matter which dektop you
choose, it's only a 15-20 minute process (on cable or DSL) to install
the alternative desktop.so you can evaluate either at your leisure.
For older machines with low memory/cpuspeed  the Xubuntu variant is an
excellent choice.

With most things you need for local fun (KDE, Gnome, Apache, Perl,
Python, PHP, Ruby, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firefox, Open Office, gimp,
basic compiler and libraries for install from source, sane for
scanners), you're only looking at 3-4 gig used. Most everything extra
you need is available in the repositories (mostly < Debian).

A side note for Ubuntu: the updates have moved well beyond the
installation media, so you're looking at 30+ minutes (cable or DSL) to
come up to current. After that, you can keep the system up to date
pretty painlessly even on dialup.

A second side note: the Ubuntu amd64 variant works reliably (that's
what I'm running for the most part), but there's not a clean solution
for getting all the plugins to work under Firefox. The win32codecs are
32-bit only, for example. The Debian folks recommend a chroot setup
for Firefox as a bandaid, but I haven't toyed with that yet.

A third side note: avoid the Ubuntu Edgy development release. It's
total trash (IMO) at this point

My $.02

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.