RE: [Sheflug] My first post

[Barrie Bremner <nospam [at] ecosse.net>]

>===== Original Message From "Sheflug" <sheflug [at] vuw.ac.nz> =====
>Dear All,
>	This is my first post although I have been lurking here for some
>time. I am still using Windows as there are many Windows programs with no
>Linux equivalent and I have had a singular lack of success connecting to the
>Internet via Linux.

 I found setting up the internet a chore when I started using Linux, over a 
year
ago. Since then the distros have made it much easier to connect to the net.

 The only problem for Windows users is WinModems - not real modems at all - 
most
of the work is done by Windows, and hence these 'modems' cannot be used with
other OS, whether it be BeOS, Linux or Mac.

>	My question is, Is there a distribution of Linux which contains only
>rock solid tested programs.My first impression of Linux is that it is Ok and
>most of the core crucial programs work well but there are a lot of other
>programs put in there just to bulk it out and make it more attractive to a
>potential purchaser. I am running SuSE 6.4 ( with 1500 packages, maybe 200
>of which work properly). In that case less is more.

 I've run RedHat 6.0,6.1,6.2 and 7. These distros also have several hundred
packages - and I've rarely had a problem. I reboot my rather new Windows 98 SE
machine a couple of times a day - Excel crashed in quite an impressive manner
yesterday.

 Just because a package has been 'tested' doesn't always mean anything :-)

 Most modern distros are very, very good.


>	I tried installing the SuSE 7.0 which was given away free on the
>front of a magazine but it really fouled things up and I ended up having to
>wipe the disk and start again with a clean installation of 6.4.


 Even if you'd installed everything, OK you'd probably decide to do things
differently and have another go anyway :-)
 I installed my first setup several times...

>	The second question is if such a distribution exists how do I go
>about getting it onto my machine, where is it available.

 The painful way is to buy it. - I bought RH6.0 - and the manuals were not a
great deal of use - online support, from http://www.linuxdoc.org/ and user
groups like ShefLUG are more useful.
 You can most distros from http://www.linux-emporium.co.uk/ - prices range 
from
£2 up.
 You could even download the disk images, and burn them to CD, if you have a
fast enough connection. I got RH7 this way. Probably not the best way to start
with Linux tho.
 If you have a friend with a CD burner and a copy of a distro, they can always
run you off a copy.

 If in doubt, post here!

 Hope this helps.

Baz.

----
Barrie J. Bremner

Email: TheEnglishman [at] ecosse.net
(PGP key available at my website)

URL: http://www.geocities.com/thefatenglishman

Telephone: UK 01672 811246
Mobile: UK 07968 792975

 The answer to your question is....Welcome to Tomorrow!

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