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To: GVTucker who wrote (65933)	10/7/1998 1:07:00 PM
From: Gerald Walls	Respond to of 186894

The O/S that Red Hat bundles and sells with its package is already free (and also is a much more stable system). The only problem with the Red Hat version of Linux (or any other version) is that installation is difficult if you are not very comfortable with the inner workings of your computer. I just installed Red Hat Linux 5.1 on my "junk" fourth computer as it was just sitting around and I had no other use for it. The computer has a AMD-586 drop-in 486 replacement module, a 425 meg IDE HD, 32 meg RAM, a S3 DX/GX/blah/blah PCI video card, and an old Sound Blaster with proprietary 2x CD-ROM plugged into it. The only problem I had installing Linux was an incredibly bad error message ("Loading INITRD.IMG..........Boot Failed") which I eventually tracked down via an Alta Vista web search as most likely a bad floppy. Created a new Install floppy from the CD-ROM image file and everything went smoothly, although I had to guess at what values would be reasonable sometimes like with the size of the swap partition. I haven't done anything with it yet as I although I'm better than a novice with Unix I don't know anything about Unix sysadmining so I'm still reading the docs on the web. I will tell you, though, that if a user doesn't know anything about Unix then he'd be completely lost after the install and most likely wouldn't be able to get past the partitioning phase of the install without help. It is definitely not yet the OS for the masses. I evenually plan on using the system headless as a printer server and internet gateway for the other computers.

To: GVTucker who wrote (65933)	10/7/1998 5:54:00 PM
From: stak	Respond to of 186894

GV, >>The O/S that Red Hat bundles and sells with its package is already free (and also is a much more stable system). The only problem with the Red Hat version of Linux (or any other version) is that installation is difficult if you are not very comfortable with the inner workings of your computer. That said, your best case scenario could easily happen, for ease of installation is easy to fix. Good for Intel, bad for MSFT.<< Yes, the installation is difficult and not well documented for people that don't have a lot of O/S acumen outside of the Windows environment. This has been the major stumbling block to more widespread appeal for Linux. It has occured to me that Linux does have a fervent and fanatical following a la Mac. This could be leveraged for Intel's advantage. With Intel's financial backing a lot of software could be written and supported rather quickly. Intel could also persuade computer manufacturers to preload Red Hat at the factory. This would eliminate one irritation to Linux. more later,stak