[CALUG] Linux choices

[Eric Bassett]

I'm surprised that nobody has exclusively mentioned Gentoo yet.  I know it was referenced, but considering the amount of customization and scalability that Gentoo offers, you can make anything from a ridiculously lean and optimized system to something that runs almost every Linux app known to man.  Additionally, if trying to learn the nuts and botls of Linux, building your system piece by piece and compiling everything along the way is a great place to go especially if you're familiar with Linux already and want to dive deeper into the thick of it.

Be advised - if doing a Stage 1 install, you'll need to know your hardware very well.  However the results after finishing a proper Stage 1 installation are fast, fast, fast.

However, back to Russ's original question, if you're planning on working exclusively with RH based distros, I think Sean Wilkerson summed it up very nicely.  RHEL will cost you, CentOS or StartCOM are pretty damn good clones of the RHEL platform, and Fedora is more bleeding edge but potentially less compatible and stable.  Personally, I've been running Fedora at home for quite some time with no serious side effects, but of course that all depends on what you're planning on doing with it.

My suggestion?  Pull down VMware server, create some VMs and roll with whatever you feel comfortable with.  Don't like a distro - destroy the VM and try something new.  It's free and very easy to work with.  Once you find something you like, make your dual-boot system.


http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora

http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/isos/

http://linux.startcom.org/

http://www.gentoo.org/


--
Eric D. Bassett



From: calug-bounces at unknownlamer.org [mailto:calug-bounces at unknownlamer.org] On Behalf Of Keith
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 9:10 AM
To: calug at unknownlamer.org
Subject: Re: [CALUG] Linux choices

Another good "learning" linux is Linux From Scratch. I personally don't run it myself on anything I use, but I've built a few versions of it to gain a better understanding of how the linux OS works. You work from the build chain up, with great documentation from the distribution authors, watching how the whole linux machine is put together.
The one popular distribution I know of that uses LFS for its production releases is the firewall application, IPCop (http://www.ipcop.org)

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

Keith
On Dec 20, 2007 2:32 AM, Bernard Karmilowicz <karmilow at intencorp.com> wrote:
Hi Russ:

> I want to install and dual boot another version of linux at home. I'd
> like to backup data, share files between Windows and Linux, practice
> web development, web deployment, scripting, have a stable, dependable
> system, and learn more about Linux. I am a recent CS graduate.

A good alternative to Redhat distros is Slackware. Since you are a CS
graduate, you may be better served by your alternate Linux distro if you
choose Slackware. Avoid distros that give you cheat-sheets
(administrative shell scripts and/or GUIs) if you want to learn what is
happening under the hood. When the distro forces you to learn what files
are referenced by the Linux kernel, and to become familiar with the
records and fields of those files, you will be competent with any Linux
distribution. Slackware is an excellent learning tool.

I've found Redhat distros annoying because their kernels deviate from
the official Linux kernel source tree. The deviation is reflected in the
configuration files, and manifests itself when you edit a config file to
cause a behavior you've experienced on umpteen other Linux boxes, but
find something unexpected happens on a Redhat box. Then you have to read
configuration scripts particular to Redhat to figure out how to get that
behavior you want since your general knowledge is insufficient, rather
than spending those four minutes enjoying a beer. With Redhat, you have
to learn how to do things twice - the way it is done by Redhat, and the
way it is done by everyone else.

Regardless of which distro you choose, install the software development
packages and kernel source package included with your distro. This will
allow you to peruse kernel source files of particular interest to you to
gain an understanding of that part of the kernel's activity. It is easy
to edit a kernel source file, recompile, and reboot (or reload if the
modified code is a module) to see the effect of your modification. The
source has lots of comments and cross-references. Many drivers I've
looked at are also well-documented, so you don't have to be an expert in
C (but you should be proficient).

If you enjoy networking, you may find installing the application source
packages included with your distro useful as well. This will facilitate
edits to network daemon source files (and recompiling) as a way to
better understand how each daemon works, and the trade-offs their
developers made. The Apache daemon may be especially interesting since
familiarity with its source code may influence how you write your web
applications.

Happy computing.  {:-)

- Bernie

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