[AuckLUG] questions - best PC setup

[Vincente Aggrippino]

On 1/14/07, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:
>
> "Chris Marshall" <cmarshall at actrix.co.nz> writes:
>
> ...
>
> If you do install Linux it is generally much easier to work with as a
> complete install, so taking over one of the two machines entirely will
> likely be less trouble -- not least because it makes data exchange
> between the two operating systems happen over the network, which is less
> trouble. :)


Just an alternative perspective to this.  If you do mix Windows and Linux on
your home network.  You will need to familiarize yourself with Samba (ref:
www.samba.org).  This is a valuable skill to have.  There are interfaces and
tools that are supposed to make it easier, but they don't always work as
expected.  Samba can be complex, but it is well documented.

Oh... make sure you do have a home network, if you don't already have one
:)

> And is Red Hat 7.3 (bought in 2003) good, or am I better off
> > installing a later / other version?
>
> ...


> I would suggest one of Ubuntu 6.06 or the most recent Fedora Core.  You
> will probably find, on the older system, that something with the XFCE
> desktop environment is nicer to use that either KDE or GNOME, but that
> any of them should work passable well.


I would like to recommend Xubuntu in this case (ref: www.xubuntu.org).  From
the home page :

> Xubuntu is a complete GNU/Linux <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux> based
> operating system <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system> with an
> Ubuntu <http://www.ubuntu.com/> base. It is lighter on system requirements<http://www.xubuntu.org/get#requirements>and tends to be more efficient than Ubuntu with
> GNOME <http://www.gnome.org/> or KDE <http://www.kde.org/>, since it uses
> the Xfce <http://www.xfce.org/index.php> Desktop environment<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Environment>,
> which makes it ideal for old or low-end machines, thin-client networks, or
> for those who would like to get more performance out of their hardware.
>

> I'm a computer programmer but have no special skills in operating
> > systems.
>

You will want to check out the Eclipse open development platform (IDE) (ref:
www.eclipse.org).  It has the backing of many stable technology companies,
including IBM, Borland, and Intel.  There's a bit of a learning curve and
its flexibility also makes it take a long time to set it up and personalize
it for your work environment, but it's worth the effort.

If you're a .NET guy, you might want to check out the Mono project.  I can't
speak from personal experience, but it looks interesting.  From the home
page:

> Mono provides the necessary software to develop and run *.NET* client and
> server applications on *Linux*, *Solaris*, *Mac OS X*, *Windows*, and *
> Unix*.
>

Linux can be an excellent platform for software development.  I do Java
application development as well as Web development with a LAMP (ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_%28software_bundle%29) stack.  I switched
to 95% Linux years ago and never looked back.  That remaining 5% is taken up
by a Virtual Machine (ref: www.vmware.com) which I only use for testing
pages for IE 4 - 7.  Based on the direction the market is heading, I don't
think I'll ever need to buy Vista.

The best PC setup?  That's a matter of opinion.  But you've come to the
right place for a variety of unbiased ( ;) ) opinions.

required reading: How to get a "Windows Tax"
refund<http://community.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/03/227237&tid=12>.
(http://community.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/03/227237&tid=12)
Old computer: Xubuntu
New Dell: Kubuntu

-- Vince