[Bendug] Getting Started...

[Emery A Grantier]

Tim,

Thank you for your detailed replay.  I have been burried with work and
have not played with any of this since you wrote back in May!

The geek part of me would love to "roll my own", but as a matter of time
and priority I don't think I can practaly do that.  Given that
constraint I am probably looking for a more out of the box solution. 
Open BSD has some appeal to me because of where it falls in the
Unix/Linux family tree.  I downloaded the latest "stable" release, but
could not get it to install.  I may have hardware problems in my test
box.  If I did get it installed I would like to try the KDE desktop.

I may be able to get back to this project in a month or so...

Thanks again for your thoughs which were very helpful in clarifying my
own!

On Sun, 22 May 2005 09:31:40 -0700, "Tim Howe" <thowe at my180.net> said:
> What are your main goals with a distro?  Do you want to "do it yourself"
> or do
> you want it done for you?  I have to say that, for a nice desktop, Ubuntu
> looks
> cool.  I sort of like to roll my own workstation, so I have stuck with
> distros
> like Slackware and Crux (current favorite).  I much prefer a ports tree
> to a
> binary package manager, so Crux and Gentoo pull me a bit for that. 
> However,
> OpenBSD will probably always be my first choice.  I switched to BSD many
> years
> ago and only recently have I been compelled to play with Linux more.  Try
> everything.  Trying is half the fun.  Once you know what you like, you
> can turn
> any distro or BSD into what you want, and then you can focus on goals
> other than
> desktop and drivers..
> 
> Now as far as hardware compatability, first you really need to know what
> it is
> you have.  Don't be discouraged if you can't find a distro with all of
> your
> hardware supported by default; if Linux supports it you can build it in. 
> Maybe
> a bit of playing and research is something we can do at a meeting.
> 
> Speaking of a meeting, anyone can call a meeting (if there is a place to
> do it).
>  I ussually hold them at the OneEighty office, but my situation there is
> changing soon and I don't know if it will be available.  Also, I call
> meetings
> and nobody shows so I REALLY need more input from people on what days
> work.  So
> far I have only heard from Dave.
> 
> I think we need a thread about what days work and schedula a few in
> advance.
> 
> --TimH
> 
> On Thu, 19 May 2005 08:40:28 -0700
> "Emery A Grantier" <emerygrantier at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> 
> > Tim,
> > 
> > I am having a difficult time finding a distro that I want to hang my
> > (not red) hat on.  I have tried several on my test box, with and without
> > doule boot with Win98SE, with variable results.  My top two picks so far
> > are Kumbutu and Soloris 10.  I like Kumbutu, but the most recent release
> > won't install doule boot.  I have a free copy of Soloris 10 which works
> > well, but don't know about upgrades down the road.
> > 
> > I have not been able to install programs that were not part of the
> > defined package set for any distro yet.  I want to install GnuCash to
> > try it, and also netbeans and the java run time.  I need help with the
> > various package installers (rpm etc).
> > 
> > My luck with finding and using my Win98SE workgroup and printer on my
> > LAN have also been variable.  There are two Win98SE and one WinXP pro
> > boxes on the LAN.
> > 
> > Getting the right drivers for my video and sound cards has also been a
> > problem.  It is a HP box, and I have looked on drivers.com.
> > 
> > There are other periferal issues (data pen etc) also.
> > 
> > As you can see I need lots of help!
> > 
> > I could bring my test box with Win98SE pre-installed and the rest of the
> > disk blank.  I would like to install Kumbutu, or Debian, or Soloris and
> > then install some non-package software.
> > 
> > When and where would this meeting be?
> > 
> > I appreciate the help,
> > Emery Grantier

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