Re: [TCLUG:11512] Re: RH Linux (Was:[TCLUG:11507] Help with NE2000/Linksys16 LAN Card)

["Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom" <carls@agritech.com>]

>Just out of curiosity, what do you have against Red Hat? Is it a technical
>issue, i.e., you don't like the way they set up the directory tree, or
something
>else? I am running RH 6.1 on my ThinkPad 1552, and while I did experience a few
>hiccups during installation, they were not insurmountable, and now the system
>runs just jolly.
        I personally was very happy with RH5.1 (not least of all because of
the 'redneck' language install option. ;> gotta love anyone who can poke fun
at themselves like that.) things worked; it was a pretty straightforward
install (even for a complete newbie like myself, it was easy.); nothing was
badly b0rked.
        RH6.1 has been a very different experience. 6.0 seemed a lot like
5.x; the installer was marginally better (tho I think I could suggest some
UI improvements), but it was pretty similar (mind you, I only set up a
couple of headless boxen w/ 6.0; no workstation stuff). still, when 6.1
became available, I wanted to upgrade (better lpd, more trustable kernel),
but was still pretty new to upgrading stuff individually; so I just chose
the 'upgrade' option for 6.1. 
        bad idea. :( the new kernel stuff all installed nicely; but there
were some problems with packages. for instance, man pages on both the
systems I upgraded, have spurious <AD> characters scattered within them.
dunno whether this is from groff or less; haven't had time or incentive to
poke at them. also, I think a couple of scripts call 'wish' while in console
mode, instead of tclsh. (I forget which scripts, and under which
circumstances; but it led me down the wrong path for a good while; wondering
why wish was 'broken')
        I tried using 6.1 as a workstation at home; where admittedly I think
my hardware is a bit flaky (I did some kernel builds this weekend; and got
occasional 'signal 11' errors during compilation); but I can't get GNOME or
Enlightenment to work reliably. (FVWM2 is pretty stable; but I have crashed
it, and I have locked it up solid).

I think I prefer the Debian packaging system as well; and I like how stable
and well-tested the Debian stuff seems to be. it may not be 'cutting edge';
and it may not have all the management tools that RH or Caldera have; but
when it works, it *works*. 
        that's why I chose Linux in the first place. not because it was
easy; not because it was 'cutting edge'; but because it works. and continues
to work. and doesn't crash and doesn't lose it's settings and doesn't do
'smart' things for me behind my back. 

mind you, redhat is still a good distro; especially for newbies who buy the
boxed set. it has a lot of support, it has the most popular packaging
system; and the doco in the box is some of the best I've seen. it also has a
big name, which makes it a good 'corporate' distro.

>I am interested in looking at Storm or Corel Linux for my home workstation,
>though, since I share it with my wife.
        I'm going to try Stormix myself; see what it's like.

best of luck,
Carl Soderstrom.
System Administrator	307 Brighton Ave. 
Minnesota DHIA		Buffalo, MN	
carls@agritech.com	(612) 682-1091