Glint driver no problem/GIS CAD workstation

[Jon_norstog]

To the list:

Following Carl Lowenstein's post of 13/3/07, I rpm -ivh the Glint
driver, who knows where it went?  Next boot, the boot screen came up and
the Xserver came right up, too.  I was pleased to note that most of KDE
is included in the default install - that saves me chasing down the
libraries, etc.

Lots of broken bits:  for instance, the graphic first-boot screen
wouldn't create a user account, and the Gnome user management utility is
broken as well.  Fortunately the command line stuff all seems to work.
I'm going to regard it as a security feature.

KPPP is missing, shouldn't be too much trouble to install.  Or maybe
I'll look for a simpler alternative ... 

I've been working a little with this new open-source GIS software, QGIS.
It has a lot of good basic functionality and can use modules from GRASS
GIS.  I'm shooting for something that works as well as ArcView 3.2 and
doesn't kill you with all its dependencies.  The QGIS works well with
"shapefiles" which are an export option with my orphan-license Tru64
version of ArcInfo.  

that and a decent CAD program - I'm thinking about putting together a
distro geared for CAD/GIS and graphic work, with all the right libraries
for GRASS, plus QGIS for day-to-day GIS work, and Qcad for CAD, CNC
work, etc.  Theoretically the 64-bit systems are superior for this sort
of thing, but realistically, who uses more RAM than a 32-bit system can
support in a workstation?  Even today?  On the other hand, two years and
we will routinely be seeing systems - workstations and gaming machines,
not servers - with 8G of ram, maybe more.

Too bad they killed off the Alpha.  

thanks for the help

jn