A few questions about Fedora

[Mike McCarty]

Endre Szabo wrote:
> 
> Hello
> 
> I'm an absolute Linux novice with no experience with
> this OS. Now I'm looking for a suitable distribution.

I suggest you to start with a LiveCD like Knoppix.

> I've got a P3 800Mhz 256MB RAM 10GB HDD machine.
> I intend to make  database gui apps with MySql, Python
> and the wxPython toolkit with Boa RAD tool and also
> web developement. 
> So many of above will run simultaneously.

You will find that 10GB is a little bit cramped, I'm
afraid. The machine is fast enough, but you may be doing
a bit of swap with 256MB RAM. I find that I do. I use
a 2.7GHz Celeron, which is quite fast for stuff in
memory. But switching screens may take several seconds
due to swap. More RAM would be a Good Thing.

> I've got a few questions:
> 
> 1. Is Fedora suitable for me? Used with KDE and all
> above will it have the necessary speed and stability
> on my machine?

Depends. Fedora Core is for the people who like fiddling
with their machines all the time, not something that
"just works". Releases are frequent. If you want to install
and forget, then I suggest not to use FC. OTOH, if you like
reinstalling your machine at least once a year, then FC
may be just the thing. Be sure to make good backups :-)

> 2. Where can I find a list of apps wich come with FC5?
> 3. Can I install new softs or update existing ones
> without internet connection -- ie. from cd?

Depends. If it's part of the FC distro, then yes. If not,
then it depends on the vendor.

> 4. Can I install from tarballs (tar.gz) or only from
> rpm?

If you install the appropriate development packages, then
you can install from source. UNinstalling is a more difficult
matter if you use tarballs. Also, the dev packages will eat
more of your somewhat small disc.

> 5. Will softs not intented especially for fedora but
> for "generally Linux" work?

In my experience, yes.

Mike
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