[ltp] Beginner: best starter config

[Bret Comstock Waldow]

--nextPart1880761.nrdPuugiXG
Content-Type: text/plain;
  charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition: inline

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:55, Davide Eletto wrote:
> Dear All,
> Can anyone of you give me a suggestion for the best linux distribution
> for my Thinkpad T21?

Of course.  Everyone can.  8-)

I have a T21, and a T42.  APM works well for T21s.

You're only a beginner for a little while.  Getting things installed is=20
important at first, so you have a working system you can learn from.

After that, you start wanting to get things done.  The sooner you want=20
something that isn't what the distro planners thought of, the sooner you fi=
nd=20
out what you're actually working with.

I started with Linux back in '93.  Later, I ran SuSE (5.4, 6.x, 7.3), then=
=20
tried Red Hat (7.3, 8, 9) then went to Debian and variants - Libranet,=20
Xandros, & Ubuntu.  Now I use Gentoo.

SuSE & Red Hat are rpm based distros.  When I wanted to start putting acade=
mic=20
software (math programs, mapping programs, some programming tools) I ran in=
to=20
"rpm hell" (<=3D widely know and used term) - the rpm tool does not work ou=
t=20
the dependencies.

Nowadays, to deal with this issue, there are several tools - yum, urpmi, an=
d=20
Debian's apt-get ported to rpm.  But since these weren't working back in th=
e=20
day, I tried Debian.

Bliss (mostly).  The apt-get .deb system handled dependencies just fine.  I=
=20
had to find the right repositories to install from, but most of the problem=
s=20
went away.  (And finding the repositories isn't hard - www.backports.org &=
=20
www.apt-get.org.)

As well, I found that there was better package coverage for Debian based=20
distros - I could almost always find what I wanted.

Just these days, we can't get JBoss 3.2.5 for a customer on Red Hat Enterpr=
ise=20
AS 3 - no one has bothered to roll the package for it.  Debian wouldn't be =
a=20
problem.

I tried Libranet in the hopes of finding a managed distro (you pay for=20
Libranet) for my Dad so that the bug fixes would be up to date, and the ext=
ra=20
tools would make management easy.  Libranet does a good job of this.

Ubuntu/Kubuntu seems even better.  They are dedicated to helping, keeping t=
he=20
distro up to snuff, and they are Debian based, so it's easy to go off the=20
reservation and have it work.

Xandros is a managed distro, pretty good, but like most "appliance" oriente=
d=20
distros ("now don't you go looking under the hood!") it's a bit of a=20
straightjacket, and since it's managed, community support isn't as good. =20
Ubuntu/Kubuntu seems to be humming along quite nicely, and that's what I=20
recommend for newbies now - it works, it's current, and it's fine to stay=20
with as you become an expert.  (Plus I can fix it for my Dad, friends, etc.)

I run Gentoo.  All(most all) packages compile from scratch, so library=20
mismatches don't exist, I can tune the options to my taste (no libraries I=
=20
don't want, optimizations targeted to my hardware, etc.)  The Gentoo packag=
e=20
system works out dependencies as well as Debian, and I could safely turn my=
=20
Dad loose on it once we get it installed (it's partly manual, not quite=20
newbie territory, although anyone who can read could probably do it).

Once it's in, like I say, you really don't need any more specialized knowle=
dge=20
than you would for solving problems for any of the other distros (you will=
=20
learn peculiarities for all of them - which is a big part of my criteria - =
I=20
don't want to learn lots of knowledge that's only specific to one company's=
=20
distro, and that's why I don't run Red Hat - they do too many proprietary=20
changes to the software).

But Kubuntu is what I'd recommend.  Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop, Kubuntu =
the=20
KDE desktop, and I like KDE's tool set better.  Try 'em both and see - you=
=20
can get live CDs for both.

Cheers,
Bret

--nextPart1880761.nrdPuugiXG
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQBC1MGa922F8D4woqURAowLAJ0b/T5v9wdOdfIPeAEf2B2laRu77wCdFL5E
VdWzaSE+w/eYqotukOlaMEc=
=cNVD
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--nextPart1880761.nrdPuugiXG--