is fedora for me ?

[Doug Stewart]

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John Walsh wrote:

|
| Hi,
|
| As a current RedHat Linux 9.0 user - I'm wondering if Fedora is the
| replacement for me ?
|

Yes, it is.  FC1 could be considered "RedHat 10" for all intents and
purposes.  The community-driven aspect of the project is just getting
ramped up and (I'm suspecting) we won't see how it will fully work until
FC2 or 3.

| If it is, then I'll try to contribute any way I can, which would
| probably come down to helping
| newbies out with things that I've got working - so I understand how to
| configure them...
|

If there's a Linux Users' Group near where you're living, I'd suggest
joining up.  Knowledgable users are always helpful at Install Fests.  *grin*

|
| Anyway - I would describe myself as a 'home user', who is lucky enough
| to have a fixed IP
| connection (because thats what I wanted) and runs a web server with a
| small internal network.
|
| Although I am a software developer - I did not want to get into a
| 'techi' relationship with
| Linux - I just wanted a system which will work. I don't mind doing
| configuration, but I didn't
| want to be chasing problems... I would love to see Linux more widely
| used, and so 'just working'
| is an important feature for that to happen, and as it does happen, I
| feel more confident in
| recomending Linux to other (none technical) users.
|
| Reasons why I choose RedHat to start with (3 years ago):
|
| very good installer,
| updates available (up2date),
| modern kernel (modular, USB support),
| works reliably (just as I wanted above),
|

All of these things apply today.  In fact, the installer has gotten
better and GNOME 2.4 is a great leap in desktop usability.

|
| My other options would be:
|
| RH Enterprise WS - not designed to be a server ?
|
| RH Enterprise ES - all that I need (?), but expensive.
|

Fedora's what you want.

|
| I did try Debian - but the installer is not very helpful, and it simpy
| crashes or only lets me
| install such an old version of Linux that its of no use to me.
|
|
| Having read the goals for Fedora, it looks like a good option for me.
|
| My only concern is the frequency of new releases and if this means that
| I will need to
| re-install at the same rate - and how that effects me keeping my server
| going with all
| its history (eg. mailman lists... which I am new to, so have not been
| through an upgrade
| yet, but I did find and half fix a bug in it).
|

As long as you stay current with updates, you could theoretically use
yum/apt to move from FC1 to 2 and so on.

| In fact, on the subject of doing re-installs (for an upgrade), I have a
| suggestion. Would it
| be possible to create a floppy disc with your install options stored on
| it, so that when you
| come to do your next install, you can pop in the floppy and click the
| button 'get options
| from floppy' ? It would save having to go through the package list every
| time... although
| there may be some changes between releases, but I'm sure that can be
| flagged to the
| user, who can then sort it out....
|
| Or, is it possible to create a minimal list of all the 'top level'
| RPM's, such that selecting just those
| would force all the dependencies to be installed too...
|
|

The "upgrade" function on your CDROM distro of Fedora already performs
this function.

You could also look in to creating a Kickstart file and adjusting it
slightly for each release.

| So, if anyone has any wise words for me, or advice as to which Linux I
| should choose,
| it would be appreciated.
|

Wise words: Always make /home its own partition.

That is all. *grin*

- --
- ----------
Doug Stewart
Systems Administrator/Web Applications Developer
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs
dstewart at atl.lmco.com

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
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