h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm in love, well maybe deeply in lust.

With my new Fedora linux OS.

It's just, well gourgous. It's got lots of lovely features and works like a dream.

I don't know if it's more user friendly than my last Linux distro or if I've just got better at configuring Linux.

This has lots of highly impressive things that Suse 8.2 didn't though.

Kopete - sort of like trillian but Linux,
Ximian Mail - which actually sends via STMP instead of just recieving via POP.
Loads of multi media features, my music collection is having great fun as well.
Endless desktop distractions. Including snake and hangman, not to mention clones of every game MS could ever think of.

That's not to say it hasn't got a downside, it was difficult to get online because the Internet dialer has so many options, and I didn't know what any of them meant. And it took me 20 minutes to configure the sound card. Also installing downloaded programmes requires some use of the command line interface.

If anyone's thinking of taking the plunge and switching to Linux I'd really suggest getting hold of any of the help books that come with a free copy of Fedora Linux. It's a lovely distribution to start with, very friendly for Non s, well it hasn't bitten me yet.

*strokes *

If any one wants to borrow the installation CDs let me know!

I'd borrow them, except I use Mandrake, which I prefer to Red Hat

When I finally take the plunge, I may take you up on that. May be a little while yet though. And then you'll get lots of calls from me asking for help.

Most linux/unix mail programs I've used over the years send mail via SMTP. Good to see you've got things going, it's not as hard as a lot of people make out

"Suse 8.2 didn't though."

Well yes, but then that's a bit like comparing a Speccy 81 and Sun SPARC.

Modern Linux's are getting very good. I just recently upgraded to SuSE 9.1 and yes, the latest Kernel and KDE and Gnome are all terribly shiny. Still some way to go, but that's open source for you.

Ximian is cool, you set the RSS feeds up yet? I sooo miss RSS at work.

Oh, and, erm, Fedora = Red Hat = M$ of the Linux world.
I might have to pretend to shun you in geek company

Red Hat is bad? Oh dear, I had a feeling it was pretty bad, after all they are just a big thing aren't they. But you see I'm not a real geek, I'm just an imposter. I need Linux for Dummies and that sort of help book to actually get the thing to work, and they are all written around Fedora?

I know

So what is the most ethical Linux distribution?

Debian GNU/Linux distribution http://www.debian.org/ , or to roll your own (linux from scratch - http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/ ).

Don't get too hung up on it Z, at least it's Linux and Fedora is the free version of Red Hat.

indeed, I suspect a lot of the snotty nose comments about RedHat derive from it being usable with but basic geek skills.
Mind you same could be said of SuSE, my favourite, and indeed Linux as a whole as the real uber-uber geeks are all on BSD anyway.

Debian is (used to be?) very good out the box providing you knew exactly what you were doing. Very configurable.

Indeed the fact is that I'm not a well I am, but 'Geek of GU Medicine' doesn't get mentioned in the Geek code!

I'm not a computer my knowledge of how my computer works is small, and I really don't have any desire to increase it!

I do find Fedora the most useable, and I don't know what I'm doing, even configuring my dial up connection was difficult because I didn't understand the options. I had to work out every available option involving gatways, DNS servers, and scripts and try them all until I found what worked.

Sound slike you have it sorted, but most isps now provide all the info you need to connect from non ms-systems.

Downloaded nethack yet?

So why did you decide to go for Linux? Is it just linux or are you dual booting with windows?

I'd love to pretend I have the faintest idea about all of the above... but I haven't...

Glad its working well for you though!