linux distro curiosity

[Nothinman]

Also, if you are going to want to learn how to recompile a kernel (which i think EVERYONE who wants to use Linux should know how to do),

In general, noone needs to compile their own kernel on a current Linux system. The distributers provide everything possible as a module and the kernel headers necessary to compile 3rd party modules. The only reasons to do that anymore are if you want to start into kernel development or you want to run some extra kernel patch that isn't included in the base RH/SuSe/etc kernel.

These types of distros also provide native RPM support. Not to say that distros like slack/debian/gentoo don't, but it's much friendlier in RedHat-based distros.

Depends on your definition of friendly. The RedHat, SuSe, etc people have a lot more GUI tools but Debian is a lot more automated, once a Debian system is configured it needs almost no attention to stay running. And a lot of the Debian packages use their preinstall/postinstall scripts to get you started (provided you havn't told Debconf to shutup) by asking a few questions and setting up the basics of the package.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: pak9rabid
Also, if you are going to want to learn how to recompile a kernel (which i think EVERYONE who wants to use Linux should know how to do), then I think you should go with slackware, or the like. my reason for this is because compared to distros like RedHat, I've found that recompiling/installing a kernel is MUCH easier to do with slack.

make menuconfig
make rpm
cd ..
rpm -ivh kernel-image-XXX.rpm

What more could you ask for?


edit: formatting

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Also, if you are going to want to learn how to recompile a kernel (which i think EVERYONE who wants to use Linux should know how to do),

In general, noone needs to compile their own kernel on a current Linux system. The distributers provide everything possible as a module and the kernel headers necessary to compile 3rd party modules. The only reasons to do that anymore are if you want to start into kernel development or you want to run some extra kernel patch that isn't included in the base RH/SuSe/etc kernel.

These types of distros also provide native RPM support. Not to say that distros like slack/debian/gentoo don't, but it's much friendlier in RedHat-based distros.

Depends on your definition of friendly. The RedHat, SuSe, etc people have a lot more GUI tools but Debian is a lot more automated, once a Debian system is configured it needs almost no attention to stay running. And a lot of the Debian packages use their preinstall/postinstall scripts to get you started (provided you havn't told Debconf to shutup) by asking a few questions and setting up the basics of the package.

Debian makes me Lazy.

 

[hungrygoose]

ok.....here's another question then since you guys are being so helpful.....which linux distro would be the most useful (if any) in becoming familiar with sco?.....basic commands only such as common network and printer solutions

 

[Nothinman]

I would do my damnest to not become familiar with SCO...

 

[drag]

SCO is fine if you have it, if you depend on it. But realy anybody who depends on SCO realy needs to think about running away.

Most third party developers left SCO long ago, and most that still support SCO, support Linux.

Aside from that you have to be pretty specific on what you mean when you talk about "SCO". Is it the old OpenServer stuff or the Unixware stuff? With Unixware it's pretty modern and even has good Linux binary support. So I am guessing that if you use something like Slackware it will make you somewhat familar with running around inside Unixware.

But OpenServer is just so old, that I have no clue about that think. Also OpenServer is going to be the most popular SCO OS out there. So I think the only thing that will realy prepare you for that is to use it.

Not that I know a lot about SCO or anything.

 

[hungrygoose]

the only reason i need to be familiar with sco is b/c i have to install print drivers on old unix servers sometimes for my job.......i'm lost when i have to do that and if i ever ran into a problem i would not know where to start troubleshooting......i wish sco would just go away to be honest with you and i have no interest in learning it......but some familiarity wouild not be bad....thnx for the advice guys

 

[drag]

I'd learn SCO if I could have access to it or had a real reason too.

You see that's one of the the things that SCO screwed up on. They had a great opertunity to become the OS of choice for colleges and college students everywere. But they wanted to compete with the high end and kept their stuff out of reach of most people.

But what do I do if I want to run Openserver or Unixware? Were do I go? Is there a free download I can use, is their something I could get for cheap to screw around on? If I am lucky I could maybe find a ancient SCO server on E-bay that would be near death. But there are no classes on SCO I can take or anything. It's retarded what they did.

If they openned it up slightly and made it cheap for the average person to get, Linus would of never started Linux and SCO would now be a realy mainstream OS.

At least Sun is smart enough that they have easy to get OS versions now for x86. And MS gives their OSes away to college students studing IT and IT-related adminstration stuff. I got a copy of Windows 2000 datacenter server for free from them and that would normally cost close to 3000 dollars for something like that (or something realy stupid expensive).

They have a realy dependable, stable OS. Made to run in back rooms on servers for years and years and years without major hassles. It's realy lame what they are doing to themselves.

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle

Originally posted by: pak9rabid<BR>Also, if you are going to want to learn how to recompile a kernel (which i think EVERYONE who wants to use Linux should know how to do), then I think you should go with slackware, or the like. my reason for this is because compared to distros like RedHat, I've found that recompiling/installing a kernel is MUCH easier to do with slack.

<BR>make menuconfig<BR>make rpm<BR>cd ..<BR>rpm -ivh kernel-image-XXX.rpm<BR><BR>What more could you ask for?<BR><BR><BR>edit: formatting

well, in slackware, for example, there are small things you have to do for rpm'ing. like add the --nodeps option or you get a big list of dependency errors. i know you can fix that, but the average newb isn't going to know that. a good amount won't even figure out the --nodeps without even asking someone first. I'm just saying that with redhat-based distros, it's a lot easier to learn because those small extra annoyances aren't there.

also, as far as the compile recompiling goes, i don't think it is a bad idea to know how to do that. what if someone wants to install a newer (possibly more secure) kernel without having to reinstall or upgrade the entire distro. also if you want support for things that aren't normally there (like connecting an SNES controller thru the parallel port, for example) then you'll most likely have to recompile. I think it's a good skill to know become sometime somewhere you probably will have to do it at least once.

whoops, i totally misread what you typed...scratch that last paragraph.

 

[Nothinman]

well, in slackware, for example, there are small things you have to do for rpm'ing. like add the --nodeps option or you get a big list of dependency errors. i know you can fix that, but the average newb isn't going to know that. a good amount won't even figure out the --nodeps without even asking someone first. I'm just saying that with redhat-based distros, it's a lot easier to learn because those small extra annoyances aren't there.

You have to specify --nodeps because Slackware doesn't use any real package management and definately not RPM. So you basically tell RPM "just install it and see what happens" instead of letting it do it's real job and manage packages. If you're running Slackware you should really not be using RPMs anyway, there are slack packages that are just really tarballs and most slack people use slack because they like compiling and installing things by hand and package managers are meant to alleviate that.

also, as far as the compile recompiling goes, i don't think it is a bad idea to know how to do that. what if someone wants to install a newer (possibly more secure) kernel without having to reinstall or upgrade the entire distro

Just about every distro releases kernel packages regularly. If you want to mess with it yourself you'll need to compile it, but most people don't care.

also if you want support for things that aren't normally there (like connecting an SNES controller thru the parallel port, for example) then you'll most likely have to recompile.

These days just about everything is installed as a module with a distro kernel, so anything you could need that is in the base kernel or the patches the distro kernel maintainer includes is available without a recompile.