Topic: Linux?

[desert storm]

are you still able to get linux for free?

if you can, were do you get it?

[number6]

www.gentoo.org

 

[Ixchael]

http://www.linuxiso.org/

Has a list of many different distributions with descriptions and links to each. Remember, there are a lot of different distros and finding the right one for you may take some time.

I would suggest trying out the ones that have a "Live CD" version first - that way you can try them without installing anything and possibly messing up your PC.

[gryphon]

I used to get a lot of bad links with LinuxISO.org ..

You can download all Linux Distrubutions from the site itself.

I personally use RedHat Enterprise myself. Which you need to pay for. But the Fedora release it free.
www.redhat.com

The other exeption is SuSe. Which you can get from www.Novell.com or with a redirect from www.suse.com

You also have debian.org, Gentoo.org, NetBSD.org, OpenBSD.org and FreeBSD.org. Although BSD officially is UNIX and not Linux.

The choise of your OS is usually more a personall one then really realated to the best OS.

[desert storm]

ok, so I am building a amd 64, asus sli delux motherboard with 1gb of memory.... what would be the bes OS to download.  I noticed that there are codes like 'i386, i586, PPC, Alpha, Sparc'   so what would be the best one to use on my new comp? 

[gryphon]

ok, so I am building a amd 64, asus sli delux motherboard with 1gb of memory.... what would be the bes OS to download.? I noticed that there are codes like 'i386, i586, PPC, Alpha, Sparc'? ?so what would be the best one to use on my new comp?

Well, logic suggest you take the build that suites your computer type. PPC is IBM's power PC, SPARC is just SPARC. ALPHA is for ALPHA CPU's. . .and i38X is for i38x architecture.
As you are building a 64bit cpu system. Usually called something like x86_Alpha.

[number6]

ok, so I am building a amd 64, asus sli delux motherboard with 1gb of memory.... what would be the bes OS to download.? I noticed that there are codes like 'i386, i586, PPC, Alpha, Sparc'? ?so what would be the best one to use on my new comp??

I guess my first question would be what do you want to do with Linux once you get it installed? If you just want to play around with Linux you really don't need to worry about optimizations (unless that's what you want to do, but that would require you to know what you are doing in the first place so it really does not apply in this case). The best way to go when you are learning is to get one of those Linux how to books that usually have a CDROM with Linux on it and the book takes you through the install process step by step. Trying to install one of the online ISO's can be tricky for less experienced nix users.

[desert storm]

allright.  I will look into the book thing, but I will probaby just teach my slef how to do it.  Thankx for your help!!  if I have anymore questions, I will ask them as needed. 

Oh, At first I will just use it as a learning tool,you know, get to know what it does, how it works, what it can do......  that kinda stuff, I will want to use it as my main OS later on.... I think.  it all depends...  I just want to have an experience using it so that I know if I like it and if I should use it....

[Ixchael]

Ubuntu is a nice first-time Linux I would say.
Very user-friendly and comes with most of the applications a typical end-user would need.

They also have a live CD version, if you just want to try it without installing.

[gryphon]

I will want to use it as my main OS later on.... I think.

If you want my advice. Don't.
At this point you have no clue about Linux and what it can do. [ no harm ment here ]

Although Linux is a nice invention. [ it's not even an OS, just a kernel ] You might find it disapointing if you are used to Windows. It generally lacks any widely adapted standard. There is no official support. So unless you pay your local 13 year old kiddy is your only news source. I must admit that in general there is nothing that any Linux distribution can do but which I can't do with Windows. [ in some way or another ]

Just to give you a little warning that Linux sounds cool and all. Although before you switch to Linux. . . learn it and then make perfectly clear for yourself why you want to change.

[Ixchael]

I don't know. I don't get any "official support" from Microsoft either - never really been an issue.
And you can get support - either by paying a company (if a company made the distro) - or by the community that has grown around Linux. I don't think "lack of support" is a reason not to switch.

On the other hand, from my limited exposure to Linux, I can't really find any compelling reasons to switch either - aside from cost (free, without being illegal ), possible security increase, and the fact that I like the idea of Open Source Software. Like I said, though, I have only had limited experience with various Linux distros.

[gryphon]

I don't know. I don't get any "official support" from Microsoft either - never really been an issue.
And you can get support - either by paying a company (if a company made the distro) - or by the community that has grown around Linux. I don't think "lack of support" is a reason not to switch.

For example. No real good how-to documents are online. You have one that works with Redhat 9. And one that works with Fedora 2. Then you find one for Debian and as you might guess non of them say the same.

You might not get official Microsoft support.. . but at the MS website you can download how-to's for anything. From setting up multiple users on Windows XP. To configuring a wireless WPA environment with a RADIUS server. I like to see the first Linux how-to doc walking you through a case from start to finish. Not one just saying insert this text in there and it works

I think that's a level of support Linux generally lacks at this time. And then not having Linux distrubutions which are uniform is a big part in that.

[number6]

I agree with Gryphon in that Linux is not going to be a good replacement for you if you are coming from the Windows environment.  I tend to treat Linux as a working OS. It's great for running all kinds of services, but the windowing environment is hardly standardized. Though you can run MS Windows applications on Linux why bother with doing that when you can run MS Windows applications under MS Windows?

[desert storm]

hmmmmmmmmmm.... verry good points.  WELL, I think I will still try it, but I probably won't use it as the main os. 

again, thankx for your support.

[Ixchael]

Have you looked at the Linux Documentation Project? Like I said, there are many good community support sites around...

[gryphon]

Have you looked at the Linux Documentation Project? Like I said, there are many good community support sites around...

I just went over there and must say it's a good site for Linux documentation. Although you know there is a "but" . .

After all this it's time to start named. If you're using a dialup connection connect first. Now run named, either by running the boot script: /etc/init.d/named start or named directly: /usr/sbin/named. If you have tried previous versions of BIND you're probably used to ndc. I BIND 9 it has been replaced with rndc, which can controll your named remotely, but it can't start named anymore.

taken from a DNS server configuration. Linux has so many programm's for it. . and yet you keep finding support for the same at one place. But ok. Nothing wrong with NAMED. Just one thing in the guide. In 10 years time, I never have run a NAMED service from that location. And that's not after tweaking or editing. Just default installs from the mayor Linux distributors.
My point. Linux documentation is usualyy good. But only appliable to certain systems depending on the configuration. The Fact that you are using a guide means you don't know how it works. Although the differance between systems is just miniem.. . you can get enourmous headaches finding those little changes and why it doesn't work on another systemconfig.

Another thing about the site. . .if you are using Apache 2.X .. you can change your webservers identification with just one line in httpd.conf. No recompiling needed. Now. . how do I find that line ? [ and it's not done with a module for Apache to ] I have n clue where even to begin on that site.. ..

I don't wan'na make Linux support really bad Ixchael. I just think that support for Linux services / programms is not centrally structured and managed. How could it be as it's not the nature of the OS. And online communities do provide a good solution for that. Although I find that a strange way of getting help. . . first you need to find the right place. . then you can search for your answer.

[Ixchael]

I do think that the number of distributions is both a blessing and a curse.

It can be difficult to choose the right distro for you, and even more difficult - as a developer - to make sure your software works in all of them.
Standards are important in such a case, and there is work being done to establish such standards.

On the other hand, there is a wide range of choices and every distro has a different focus areas.

[kraznuk]

i worked with linux / unix for over 10 years now geeeez time does go fast. and as for general browsing text documents etc (no gaming) the X11 Standard are pretty good and decent now for development and services its better in my point of view, installing etc aint always easy and you need to learn to use the command line interface. so to play around with for home use or make a home server with http ftp etc its great to games wouldnt recommend it.. wine is okay and works for most but with games its not that great wow works in wine if you play that.

When it comes to documentation yes MS with multi billion dollers has alot of howtos but if you start with linux paying dist like redhat or suse they generally have alot of howto's diffrence is just you have to pay to get access to that place where they host em.

But like someone stated earlier it can be found around the web sometimes you have to search for a loooong time but its there if you type in the right search words.. most dists are the same some commands when installing is diffrent if its a packaged file. but other than that the commands are the same

If you want a howto on BIND etc well then you can find some that will help you make it but usually you want the installation in another way so you combine the things from diffrent sites to make it work the way you want it to work or you read the acctual documentation for that given project. you just have to read and understand.. its not all logic but its there...

Ie i can provide feedback on... RedHat Linux, FreeBSD , ESX Vmware , VMware fusion , VMware Server, and Solaris, WINNT 4.0 and windows server.  which are the operating systems i know the best windows im no expert though...