DEBIAN! via Corel! (was Re: RHat, Suse, Mandrake)

[chewie@wookimus.net]

On Fri, Apr 07, 2000 at 10:40:50PM -0500, Dave wrote:
> I recently switched from RadHat 6.1 to Caldera 2.4 (I know it's not
> either Suse or Mandrake...) on my laptop. The install went
> perfectly, with Partition Magic taking care of the partitioning
> details (not much in my case: I simply reformatted my RedHat
> partition), and BootMagic taking the place of LILO (BM starts the PC
> into a GUI right away, with keyboard and mouse support, allowing me
> to choose which OS I wish to use by clicking a button or using the
> arrow keys and pressing Enter). 

That is certainly a strength in the commercial distributions.  Extra
blinky software. ;-)  PM is sweet, but I've never seen BM.  By your
description, it sounds nice.  I'm having a hell of a time with LILO
and my two drive system.  I'm not going to get into the details,
'cause they're boring. ;-)

> Caldera starts right up into X, with KDE as the desktop environment.
> Personally, I prefer KDE to gnome ("Mister LaForge, shields
> maximum!!!") for my GUI environment.  

Heh.  *Chewie applies the religious GUI toolkit war repellent.*

> Calderan came with plenty of software, so I've got no complaints
> there. The only thing I miss from RedHat is linuxconf -- Caldera
> uses a web-based system which I am still playing with, trying to get
> used to it.

* CRINGE *  GUI.  OK.  I'll resist. ;-)  * whistle *

> My wife was so impressed with KDE on the laptop, she asked me to
> install it in her desktop PC! So I did, and again the install went
> perfectly. She is now using the Gimp and killustrator for web
> graphics, instead of Paint Shop Pro on Win98, and she loves them
> both.

WOOHOO!  This is just as exciting as it was when one of my co-workers,
a Receptionist/Customer Service Rep who I had using an X-terminal at
work asked me, "So, how can I get Linux for my computer at home?"
* boing *

> KDE has a Visual C++ development tool called kdevelop, free for the
> download (around 12 MB total, if I remember correctly).

Hmm...  Not much of a KDE fan, but I wouldn't mind taking a look at
that.  I'm just impressed at the number of IDE tools that have been
popping up lately.  Pretty exciting times for Linux developers!

> Caldera cost me $40 at CompUSA.

Yep.  Corel Linux, based off the Debian distribution sells for around
that.  I think the Delux edition, which has BRU backup and a couple
other commercial products, goes for around $80.  If you buy Corel
Wordperfect Office Suite Delux for Linux, you get Corel Linux as well.
I think there's a $40 rebate available right now, too.  So for $110,
you can get a very nice GUI install for Debian and a dynamite Office
suite for Linux, plus phone support!  I REALLY wish I had money to
spare right now. ;-)

> I am a relatively inexperienced user of Linux, so perhaps my opinion
> isn't worth a lot, but hey, there it is anyway.

BAH!  You're using Linux aren't you?  Isn't that what counts?

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Chad Walstrom                         mailto:chewie@wookimus.net 
a.k.a ^chewie, gunnarr                http://wookimus.net/chewie

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