RE: [Nolug] Distro suggestions

On Wed, 2003-11-05 at 14:51, Alex McKenzie wrote:
> <quote who="Ron Johnson">
>
> > There is *no* dependency hell in the "stable" version of Debian.
> > There are times, occasionally, where packages get moved into "test-
> > ing" or "unstable" before a subsidiary package gets moved, or there
> > may be a packaging bug, where the maintainer forgot to update the
> > dependencies. Wait a few days, and it'll get fixed.
> >
> >> I've had bad experiences with Mandrake and simple hardware, like a
> >> mouse.
> >> And 8.0 (2.4.3 based) paniced a lot, but that was probably the
> >> instability
> >> of that kernel.
> >
> > How geeky are you?
> >
> > If so, install a minimal Debian Woody (i.e., stable). Then imme-
> > diately upgrade to "testing", and then make a combined "testing/
> > unstable" system. By keeping up with it on a weekly basis, you'll
> > be very happy with it.
>
> What I need to do is setup a Linux workstation in the lab I work in. I
> want to set it up and forget about it, I've got plenty of work and several
> 2K/XP machines to worry about. I won't even be the one usign it, it's for
> a grad student in the lab.
>
> All it's going to do is run Mathematica and some fortran code, and I'll
> want samba. Possibly OOo, if it proves useful, and websurfing. I don't
> forsee any problem setting any of this up, in a minimal fashion. The
> machine is an old P2, no exotic hardware support needed. Although hooking
> it up to a DAQ board might be an interesting future project...

Then Debian will suit you fine. Note, though, that modern UIs
assume modern h/w, and a P2 isn't.... How much RAM?

Since it's slow h/w, I'd stay away from Gnome & KDE, and go
for XFCe4, which is different, but still simple to use.

I'd install a *minimal* text-only Debian 3.0, immediately upgrade
to "testing" and kernel 2.4.22, then:

# apt-get -u install xserver-xfree86 discover mdetect read-edid \
        xbase-clients xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-base \
        xfonts-scalable msttcorefonts xfce4 xfce4-iconbox menu \
        xfce4-mixer xfce4-systray xfprint4 sylpheed dillo \
        cupsys cupsys-client smbclient cupsys-bsd cupsomatic-ppd \
        cupsys-driver-gimpprint samba g77-3.3 g77-doc gdb \
        vim jed jed-extra cooledit fte fte-xwindows nedit \
        nano emelfm

That should provide you with
XFree86 + fonts
XFCe4, a user-friendly, medium-weight desktop
Sylpheed, a light-weight GUI mail reader
Dillo, a light-weight GUI web browser
CUPS, for printing
SAMBA
A bunch of text editors
emelfm, a file manager

> The reason I'm looking at Debian is because of apt, I'd like to be able to
> tune it so that all I get are security updates, and they are applied
> automagically, as needed. Alternately, I'll apply them manually as they
> come out.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
"A C program is like a fast dance on a newly waxed dance floor by
people carrying razors."
Waldi Ravens
___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org