Charlie Kuss wrote:
Paul & Listers,
I'm getting really sick of IRQ conflicts (dispite MS's plug &
pray) in
Windows. Even Windows 2000 Pro gets flakey after a while. I'd like
to learn more about switching to Linux. I have an old Suse 6.1
edition that I've never even opened. Could I start with that and
upgrade to the newer version 7.x OR would I be better off just
going down to CompUSA and buying a newer edition? Any suggestions
on which distribution to use? I need hardware support for the
following:
FIC 503A motherboard (VIA chipset with onboard sound and USB) (I
also have a Creative AWE 32 ISA sound card) AMD K6-2 450 mhz CPU 512
megs PNY PC 100 memory 40 gig ATA 100 Maxtor hard drive (5400 RPM)
3Com HomeConnect ADSL Modem (PCI) Actiontec 56K PCI modem (I found
that this company supplies Linux drivers for their products, as does
3Com) Nvidia based TNT2 M64 AGP video card 32 megs Hewlett
Packard DeskJet 812Cse printer (parallel port) Umax Astra 2100
scanner (USB) Hi Val 16X10X32 CD burner (ultra DMA) LS-120 Super
drive (120 meg optical floppy drive)
I'm also looking at building a new machine based on:
ECS K7S5A motherboard (SIS 735 chipset) with SDRAM & DDR support
AMD Athlon CPU (either a 1 gig Thunderbird or a new XP1500) 512
megs DDR memory Nvidia based GeForce 2 MX400 series video card (64
megs) 60 gig ATA 100 Maxtor hard drive (5400 RPM) 3Com HomeConnect
ADSL Modem (PCI) Actiontec 56K PCI modem same scanner, burner and
LS-120 drive listed above
Am I going to have problems getting drivers for the above hardware?
What other issues will I have to contend with?
Charlie Kuss
Linux is not for the faint of heart Charlie. There are still bugs in
NetScape mostly. There are a few work around that I have developed.
Having said that what I would go for is RedHat 7.2. RedHat is good
about updates. They have developed update and program installation
utilities that work very very well in my experience as I have first
hand knowledge on it.
Besides that RedHat 7.2 has Star Office for free not to mention
a zillion other useful programs. Also I can help you to a certain
extent but I am far from a Linux guru. We have guys on here that are
however.
If you speak and read German and like Ikon gui's (KDE) S.U.S.E is
supposed to be very good. Once you start with something however it is
hard to switch to another distribution unless you want to start over.
I started with Caldera four years ago and a friend of mine convinced
me to switch to RedHat. Caldera was absolutely bug free but it was an
old version of Netscape without a spelling checker and data base which
I really needed.
Also I highly recommend getting a CD burner for backups. A low cost
way to go.
Win modems won't work as far as I know. I use a US Robotic's external
modem. I am sure Russell Kent can give you more and better advice.
Paul Lamar
I have been resisting this post for months but recent problems with Windows have
me really frustated. I have been a IBM Mainframe programmer for business
applications for 23 years and we hardly ever have hardware or Operating system
problems - yes, I do remember when this wasn't the case but this has been true for
at least 15 years. I have a love/hate relationship with PC's though. I love the
internet and some of the applications. I HATE the SOB's for crashing and
incompatabilities - it drives me crazy, especially since this just doesn't happen on
the mainframe side (heck, maybe we just have really good system programmers
that keep it going). Heck, if IBM can fix its operating systems, why can't Microsoft?
Man, I hope COBOL and PL1 survive for 10 more years until I retire! I would hate
to have to learn C++, HTML, etc now. It is interesting that many of my peers have
made the switch to programming PC's though. It will be intesting to see if I survive
until retirement. Heck, I always wanted to be a 'Greeter' at Walmart anyway!
Ken Powell
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