OFF TOPIC TO JC Jaros: LINUX
<This seems appropriately off-topic. I'm about to purchase a PC. I have heard enough about Linux to know that I'd like to install it,>
LINUX INSTALLATION CAN SOMETIMES BE TRICKY! I SUGGEST YOU GET RED HAT LINUX 4.2. YOU CAN GET IT FOR FREE OVER THE WEB. BUT FOR 49.95 YOU GET IT WITH A MANUAL AND A CDROM THAT HAS A WHOLE LOT OF USEFUL APPLICATIONS ON IT AS WELL. THIS WAY, INSTALLATION IS VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD, MENU AND QUESTION-AND-ANSWER DRIVEN. RED HAT HAS DONE A GREAT JOB HELPING PEOPLE DO THE INSTALLATION.
THE ONLY PROBLEMS YOU'RE LIKELY TO ENCOUNTER WILL ARISE FROM ANY "NON-STANDARD" HARDWARE YOU MIGHT HAVE. TAKE VERY SERIOUSLY THEIR SUGGESTION THAT YOU GET COMPLETE INFORMATION ABOUT ALL YOUR PERSIPHERALS BEFORE YOU START TO INSTALL.
THIS IS ESSENTIAL FOR YOUR VIDEO CARD AND MONITOR. YOU CAN DAMAGE BOTH IF YOU SET THEM UP INCORRECTLY!
<learn it, get a feel for UNIX (via that flavor) and presumably have better and cheaper >
RED HAT PROVIDES A LOT OF APPLICATIONS AND UTILITIES ON THE CD-ROM. THERE IS A VERY ACTIVE LINUX COMMUNITY ON THE WEB FROM WHICH YOU CAN GET EVERYTHING YOU NEED AS FREEWARE OR SHAREWARE.
YOU CAN ALSO BUY COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS. APPLIXWARE SELLS AN "OFFICE SUITE" FOR LINUX, THAT IS FAR SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING MICROSOFT HAS PRODUCED, FOR $199 (79.95 IF YOU ARE A STUDENT). THIS COMES WITH "FILTERS" THAT ALLOW YOU TO EXPORT FILES IN A VARIETY OF FORMATS THAT ARE COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS AND OTHER OSS.
<access to open standards based web stuff. I suppose I'm looking (reluctantly) at a dual boot type of thing (with Windows).>
DUAL BOOTING IS NOT A PROBLEM. LINUX COMES WITH A BOOT LOADER, LILO, THAT ALLOWS YOU TO BOOT FROM ANY OS YOU HAVE INSTALLED.
< What type of hardware (processor, motherboard, etc) should I be looking for, and what to stay away from? Chung- I noted awhile back that you mentioned purchasing an AMD chip. Would that be necessarily better than a Pentium II for Linux? >
LINUX WILL RUN ON ANY INTEL-BASED SYSTEM, 486 AND ABOVE, THOUGH OBVIOUSLY THE FASTER THE CHIP THE BETTER IT WILL BE. UNIX/LINUX IS FAST.
UNLIKE WINDOWS, IT USES ALL CPU CAPACITY - PUSHES THE CPU TO ITS LIMITS. I'M RUNNING LINUX ON AN INTEL 83 MHZ. OVERDRIVE PROCESSOR AND HAVE ADEQUATE SPEED (I DO QUITE A BIT OF PROGRAMMING AND COMPILING IS VERY CPU-INTENSIVE.) SO THERE'S NO NEED TO GO FOR THE MOST EXPENSIVE CPU.
WHERE I SUGGEST YOU PUT YOUR MONEY IS IN RAM (I'M USING 40MEG BUT WOULD RECOMMEND AT LEAST 64) AND A BIG HARD DRIVE. NOT THAT LINUX IS PARTICULAR LARGE - THE RED HAT INSTALLATION CAN FIT INTO 200 MB OR SO DEPENDING ON WHAT OPTIONS YOU INSTALL. BUT IF YOU'RE ALSO RUNNING WINDOWS, YOU'LL NEED ENOUGH SPACE FOR IT AS WELL.
ALSO, UNIX SYSTEMS ARE TYPICALLY INSTALLED ON SEVERAL DISK PARTITIONS (THOUGH LINUX DOESN'T HAVE TO BE) WHICH ULTMATELY INCREASES THE AMOUNT OF DISK SPACE YOU NEED.
I ALSO SUGGEST THAT YOU GET A GOOD VIDEO CARD AND MONITOR COMBINATION. THE XWINDOWS SYSTEM (UNIX'S GUI ENVIRONMENT) IS VERY POWERFUL AND FLEXIBLE. YOU'LL FIND YOU HAVE MANY WINDOWS OPEN AT ONCE AND ANYTHING LESS THAN A 17 INCH MONITOR GETS REALLY CROWDED. WITH A MONITOR THAT SIZE, YOU CAN USE HIGHER SCREEN RESOLUTIONS AND STILL READ TEXT. AND FOR THAT YOU NEED A VIDEO CARD WITH AT LEAST 2 MEGS OF VIDEO RAM, THOUGH 4 IS BEST.
I'M RUNNING WITH 2 MEGS ON AN OLD 14 IN. MONITOR AND CANNOT PRACTICALLY USE ANYTHING ABOVE 800 X 600 RESOLUTION. YOU CAN COMPENSATE FOR LOW RESOLUTIONS WITH A WINDOW MANAGER THAT ALLOWS VIRTUAL DESKTOPS AND MULTIPLE SCREENS YOU CAN SWITCH BETWEEN. (THE DEFAULT RED HAT WINDOW MANAGER HAS THESE CAPABILITIES). BUT THIS IS NOT ENTIRELY SATISFACTORY.
<Also, what considerations (if any) should I give to future JAVA hardware implimentation /installation?>
NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT JAVA. YOU CAN RUN JAVA (VIRTUAL MACHINES, PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENTS AND TOOLS) ON ANY SYSTEM THAT SUPPORTS LINUX (OR WINDOWS, OR MAC OS COME TO THAT).
Thanks, JOhn BeyOnd
PS. IF YOU'RE BUYING A BRAND NEW SYSTEM, SEE IF THE VENDOR WILL PARTITION THE HARD DRIVE FOR LINUX AND WINDOWS FOR YOU. IT'S EASIEST TO DO THIS BEFORE YOU INSTALL ANYTHING.
FAILING THAT, GET HOLD OF A PRODUCT CALLED PARTITION MAGIC WHICH WILL ALLOW YOU TO PARTITION YOUR DRIVE, FROM THE WINDOWS SIDE, WITHOUT DESTROYING WHAT'S ALREADY INSTALLED ON IT. OTHERWISE, UNLESS YOU'RE REALLY CAREFUL, PARTITIONING THE DRIVE CAN DESTROY ALL YOUR APPS AND DATA! THE LINUX DISK PARTITION UTILITY IS NOT ALL THAT USER FRIENDLY.
MEPHISTO'S FRIEND
PS2: Sorry for the delay. I forgot to mention your letter to housemate last night. I hope this helps. Mephisto.
PS3: I hate long paragraphs so I separated housemate's paragraphs. If the logic from one paragraph to another doesn't follow, blame me! |
