I'm a little more advanced, I set up and troubleshoot communication
interfaces for a software company, and have recompiled the kernel a few
times. I just am getting frustrated with the dependencies when building
the latest release, gphoto2 for instance.
My question was if there was a place that can assist me. A simple "I
don't know" or xyz Computers is what I am looking for. An evaluation of
the different distributions is not what I am looking for. I download and
install the programs I need, this is what I want help with.
On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 16:52, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-11-17 at 09:05, SOTL wrote:
> > I am going to make the assumption that if you are asking for commercial help
> > that your Linux knowledge is approximately equivalent to mine. That is you
> > have knowledge of some installation procedures but not of writing and
> > compiling programs nor the knowledge of Debian or Gentoo installation.
>
> I typically don't like to state anything in terms of Brand X or Brand
> Y. As such, one could easily categorize distros either "packages" based
> or "ports" based.
>
> A "ports" based distro like Gentoo or FreeBSD tends to cause people to
> shy away because of that "compile" word. To me it's just a few extra
> considerations, but I actually started out as a developer, which skews
> my viewpoint.
>
> Which brings us back to "packages" based distros. There are the Debian
> and Fedora projects, and then there are many other distros either based
> on them, or a fork of a prior version. The overwhelming majority of
> "packages" based distros discussed on this are of either a current or
> past version of the Debian or Fedora projects.
>
> > The easiest and safest way for a person with the above level of knowledge to
> > up grade is to purchase one of the commercial distributions
>
> To me, commercial v. community is not the overriding factor. It all
> depends on what the computing needs of the user are. That brings me
> back to the viewpoint I've always held, answered in the first question
> here: http://www.vaporwarelabs.com/linux.html
>
> I'm in no position to evaluate the "best" distro for someone. A person
> can only determine that on their own. The best and repeat success I've
> seen is for someone to find someone else just like them, with the same
> or similar computing needs, and follow their lead to start. That way,
> they get using Linux now, and they get the best peer support too.
>
> > of which the best choice for some one in the US currently are either
> > SuSE or Mandrake.
>
> I don't try to assert what the best distro in the US is, and I never
> will. But I do have to note that Linux as a community project is
> global, while distros tend to be more localized.
>
> As far as SuSE goes, it's one of the best distros for German consumers,
> as it is German-based. For Mandrake, the same holds for the French, as
> it is French-based.
>
> Now SuSE certainly has large-scale deployments in the US, and this will
> continue thanx to Novell. And Mandrake is well-liked by many American
> consumers. But I would not assert those are the two best, especially
> since both are based on past forks of (what is now) Fedora.
>
> For example, we should not forget about Xandros, the former Corel
> distribution, from Canada. A lot of American consumers seem to liken to
> Corel products, and Xandros has taken the distro even farther for a
> paultry $79 in the "Deluxe" version.
>
> > Personally I do not like SuSE because of their YEAS-2 installation program
> > which if you want to intall and operate as per SuSE standard installation is
> > the greatest thing since salted popcorn but if you like me desire to do
> > something slightly different then it is plain installation hell.
>
> Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don't particularly care for
> YaST either, but I know many corporations that deploy SuSE because of
> YaST. And with Novell making YaST GPL, this is only positive from the
> community vantage.
>
> > The latest Mandrake 10.1 has currently been placed on sale orderable from
> > Mandrake in France. There I like the single DVD non box disk version for $US
> > 59 as the greatest deal.
>
> As many have stated, they like Mandrake. In the past, Mandrake was
> released all of its work GPL. Is this still the case?
>
> > I do NOT need the installation books.
>
> Books are for people who like books, they are neither an indication of
> whether or not a distro is "easy" or "hard" nor someone is "capable" or
> "incapable."
>
> In fact, the "Fedora Core for Dummies" series is one of my highest
> recommendations -- even for seasoned Linux admins. For $29, you get the
> distro, a lot of commercial value-add, as well as step-by-step
> instruction on both installation and usage. There is also a $39
> reference version that sits on my shelf, and it was a good read. John
> "Maddog" Hall writes that "more technical" reference version.
>
> <side note>God knows I'm currently writing an article entitled "Why Open
> Source Projects FAIL" and I plan on writing a future book called
> "Systems and Configuration Management" which focuses on proper Fedora
> and RHEL deployment. In a nutshell, just because Linux saves companies
> money doesn't mean it inherently removes all of the other, necessary
> "costs" like configuration management, deployment, maintenance,
> etc...</side note>
>
> > Currently I have a copy on order which I should have before Xmas with luck.
> > Mandrake has not started shipping yet so it may be after Xmas before
> > it arrives.
>
> So why not recommend the CheapBytes version of 9.0 for now, until he
> gets that one?
>
> > As for as upgrading RH 8.0 I did NOT like RH 8.0 to me 7.3 was much better
>
> A Red Hat Linux (and now Fedora Core) ".0" release is _always_ an "early
> adopter" release that breaks ABI (binary) compatibility. They should
> _not_ be adopted for those looking to minimize frustration.
>
> > and 7.2 was even better than that.
>
> I'm interested in knowing what you didn't like about Red Hat Linux 7.3?
> It's still supported via Fedora Legacy, largely because Red Hat Advanced
> Server 2.1 (which is based on RHL 7.2-7.3) matches its updates.
>
> > Point is to upgrade RH you would need to up by Fedorada which does NOT
> > have any of the quasi commercial programs
>
> Actually, not Red Hat Linux before nor Fedora Core now has anything that
> doesn't comply to their "free software" guidelines. There are legally
> problematic programs that a US corporation cannot ship. There was a
> limited time where Red Hat bundled other software, but that ended around
> the same time as Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1 came out, the same time as
> Red Hat Linux 7.2.
>
> *BUT* you _can_ get all the "goodies" with 2 commands, tapping the
> Livna.ORG repository. Livna.ORG was formed by the original U of Hawaii
> "Fedora Project" (Fedora.US) after Fedora.US became "Fedora Extras" and
> had to follow Red Hat free software guidelines (largely because Red Hat
> provides all infrastructure for Fedora Core, Extras, Legacy, etc...).
>
> I won't argue with the fact that Red Hat requires an extra step or two.
> But I will point out that many people blindly download Knoppix and other
> Linux distros without realizing that they have serious legal questions
> and considerations when used in the US. Questions that make many
> corporations scared to allow it in the building, and I don't blame them.
>
> > in it that Mandrake Commercial does. By quasi commercial I mean
> > programs that Mandrake provides certain funding to to keep the project
> > afloat.
>
> Red Hat's viewpoint is that they'd rather put forth funds to buy out and
> GPL things, than support programs than have legal issues. Being a US
> corporation, I have to understand Red Hat's viewpoint. Especially since
> they develop or buy out a lot of the GPL software, as well as directly
> support various GPL developments.
>
> > This is sometimes done by Mandrake to critically needed components
> > when there is no fully open source available.
>
> I'm interested in some of the projects (just interested, not
> questioning).
>
> > If after my receiving my Mandrake 10.1 disk you would like to up grade by it
> > contact me by the SLUG BB and we will meet at either the Tampa, New Port
> > Richie, or Dunedin meeting. Dunedin and New Port Richie are much better than
> > Tampa because of time limitations.
>
> Just be careful of any redistribution limitations. Most commercial
> distributions have limitations on redistribution because of the licenses
> of those value-add components.
>
> --
> Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subtotal Cost of Ownership (SCO) for Windows being less than Linux
> Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assumes experts for the former, costly
> retraining for the latter, omitted "software assurance" costs in
> compatible desktop OS/apps for the former, no free/legacy reuse for
> latter, and no basic security, patch or downtime comparison at all.
>
>
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