[conspire] (forw) Re: red hat

[Rick Moen]

A follow-up exchange, after I sent the address/directions to him.

----- Forwarded message from "Williams, Mike" <MWILLIAMS at probusiness.com> -----

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 19:28:34 -0700
From: "Williams, Mike" <MWILLIAMS at probusiness.com>
To: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
Subject: RE: red hat

Ok. not finished until 8 pm but got add through mapquest. Ive been keeping up with linux but no install except for an older Xandros, RH, and Suse on laps and had some driver issues so i took it off. note they were all older versions though. Ive heard some things about ubuntu I recall reading that Google was considering this as an OS to compete with M$ but I dunno. 

[snip his inclusion of the entire preceding thread]

----- End forwarded message -----
----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 20:01:27 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: "Williams, Mike" <MWILLIAMS at probusiness.com>
Subject: Re: red hat

Quoting Williams, Mike (MWILLIAMS at probusiness.com):

> Ok. not finished until 8 pm but got add through mapquest. Ive been
> keeping up with linux but no install except for an older Xandros, RH,
> and Suse on laps and had some driver issues so i took it off. note
> they were all older versions though. Ive heard some things about
> ubuntu I recall reading that Google was considering this as an OS to
> compete with M$ but I dunno. 

It really does depend on what you're looking for.  

If you're looking to run lots of Win32 applications under emulation,
then you need something that runs Crossover Office.  Xandros Deluxe
Edition is the smoothest, least-difficulty ride to that destination, and
is priced accordingly.  Of course, lots of other distros can _run_
Crossover Office, but no others to my knowledge come with it built in
(not even the lower-priced Xandros editions).

If you think you need, for some reason, to run the exact same RHEL as
the boss runs on the work machines, then you're pretty much stuck with
RHEL or one of its freely redistributable "rebuilds", such as CentOS.
If you actually need paid "enterprise support", then your options are
RHEL, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop,
Novell Linux Desktop, and Ubuntu/Kubuntu.

If you like KDE and the rpm package manager, you're looking at
SUSE/Novell, Linspire, or Mandriva.  If you like KDE and prefer a
Debian-like setup, then you can pick among Kubuntu, MEPIS, Kanotix (all
installable live CDs) -- or Xandros.

If you like GNOME and the rpm package manager, look at SUSE/Novell,
or RHEL and rebuilds.  If you like GNOME and prefer Debian-style, then
you want Ubuntu.

"Driver issues" divide into two categories:

1.  "My hardware is too new for my distro."  The phrasing of the
question implies the answer:  You need an updated distro version.  This
is the _other_ main reason, beyond security, that continuing to use old
distro releases is not advised.

2.  "My hardware (some of it) is from a company that doesn't cooperate
with the Linux community, and thus far is support only by restricted 
proprietary drivers that my distro doesn't furnish."  E.g., there are a
bunch of winmodem designs and 802.11g/802.11a wireless chipsets for
which either no open source drivers exist or those drivers so far work
only haltingly.  I'm speculating, here, but I'm reasonably certain that
some of the "shrinkwrapped retail" distributions such as Xandros, some
SUSE/Novell distributions, Linspire, etc. are able bundle a selection of
restricted proprietary drivers by arrangement with their copyright
holders.  (I say "speculating" because I have little to do with those
distros, typically.)  On other distros, more work is required, because
you must acquire those drivers and install/configure them manually.

----- End forwarded message -----