Another one takes the penguin plunge...

[B3Nut]

I finally got around to building a box from leftover parts from work (P3/500, not enough RAM) to give Linux a spin (settled on Mandrake 10). So far, I'm liking it a lot. It's slow still on my home box as 96MB physical just won't cut it running KDE, the GUI takes quite a chunk of RAM. But I've been messing with it all weekend and having fun. Today I installed it on a spare machine I have at work, a Win2K box. I stuck another hard disk in it and installed Linux on that, and LILO set itself up to dual-boot when I was done. Neat!

I build and support Windows boxes for a living, and I suppose the instablility and trouble-prone-ness of M$'s OS'es keeps me employed :D but I'm liking Linux more the more I use it. Now just to cook up ways to start sneaking Linux onto desktops in our office, I still haven't figured out how to get Linux to join a Windows NT domain....

Linux is looking more and more like a refreshing alternative to Microsoft's bloated hegemony and staggering corporate arrogance (witness XP Lite, as if M$ thinks Asians can't handle running more than 3 apps at once or using higher than 800x600 resolution!). Looks like I'm in for a neat journey, I'm psyched. :)

TP

[Rinias]

GOOD NEWS!!!

There's always SOMETHING that turns us away from the "way of the win" :D

You might try out another desktop because of the low amount of RAM you have- I like to use Fluxbox, but there are many, many WMs that are "lite"- yet powerful. It all comes down to a matter of taste...

As you go on a little more on your "quest for the truth" you might run into other distros that tickle your fancy- and don't rely so heavily on resources... Try them out- there's lots of flavors!!

Good luck! Hope to hear more!!

[fatTrav]

a G4L search for "join a Windows NT domain" turns up several hits (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=join+a+Windows+NT+domain&btnG=Google+Search). It seems one can use Samba to accomplish this.

Things like GNOME and KDE are memory hungry applications and won't run that great on systems with low ram. I personally wouln't run anything less than 512mb.

The SuSe distro might be worth looking into. They are owned by Novell and their professional version seems to have a lot of nice features, particularly those that allow them to communicate with Novell technology (Groupwise, for example). You can get a three dvd set of their enterprise server, and suse professional versions 8.2 and 9.1 for FREE here (http://www.novell.com/community/linux/order.php) . I got it and it only took a few weeks to get here.

Best of luck

Travis

[B3Nut]

Oh, I'll pick up a 256MB stick someplace, 96 was all I could scrape up at work from leftover old PC100. It's running nicely with 160MB on my second workstation at work, so 256'll give me room to mess with whatever. Going to stay put with Mandrake 10 for now so I can get my head around it. I have SuSE and Debian on CD's too, but their video drivers didn't like my generic leftover Trident cheapie. Mandrake's working well for now, I'm sure I'll dink with more distros as I get more familiar with the Linux way.

Going to paw around for a good book or two as well, help me up the learning curve.

Fun schtuff, for sure... :)

TP

[cybertron]

Originally posted by B3Nut
Now just to cook up ways to start sneaking Linux onto desktops in our office, I still haven't figured out how to get Linux to join a Windows NT domain....


You could try a liveCD distro like Knoppix or MandrakeMove since you seem to like 10.0. That's how I sneak Linux into various places:)

[Rinias]

Just a note... I was putting Slackware on an old laptop (100 MHz 10 MB RAM), and I had a Trident card for the video. Trident didn't work. Vga was crap. But vesa- vesa got me up and running just fine! Really, the graphics were better than in the old Windows that I destroyed!! :D

G/L!

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by B3Nut
I build and support Windows boxes for a living, and I suppose the instablility and trouble-prone-ness of M$'s OS'es keeps me employed...
That was the mantra, back when I was taking my MSCE exams:
"Remember, if Microsoft did it right, you wouldn't have a job."
Pitiful.

Well, welcome to the ever-growing family of linux users, admins and developers. We're a bit strange, but we have more fun than most. :D

[fatTrav]

A bit strange?? Hardly! I think it is strange that people put up with an inferior operating system that breaks down and corrupts itself more times than team usa men's basketball...

A good book I've found is the Linux System Administration Handbook. 2nd Edition. You can get it from Amazon, but I'm pretty sure a 3rd edition is coming out soon as this books is over two years old. Even still, it's not a bad pickup.

enjoy

[EnigmaOne]

Originally posted by fatTrav
A bit strange??
:D
Unique, maybe?

Calling one's group-affiliation "strange" is often seen as less egotistical, as compared to the more correct alternative of "the top 1% of the bell curve which is uniquely suited to rule the world in peace and happiness." ;)

[gehidore]

i never told you this but there is a DE that mimics windows xp pretty darn well, if you have good image skills you can fool just about anyone into thinking they're using windows :p

[cybertron]

Originally posted by EnigmaOne
:D
Unique, maybe?

Calling one's group-affiliation "strange" is often seen as less egotistical, as compared to the more correct alternative of "the top 1% of the bell curve which is uniquely suited to rule the world in peace and happiness." ;)

I've always been proud of my strangeness, personally:D

[DimGR]

Do you want a great distro for old machines? Try damn small linux or feather. They are liveCDs but both can be installed on a hard drive.

[gehidore]

Originally posted by DimGR
Do you want a great distro for old machines? Try damn small linux or feather. They are liveCDs but both can be installed on a hard drive.

very true, very true.

[Admiral Frosty]

Want Linux Live? Bet your find something here (http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php). Its got a list of just about every Linux live disk out there! Like Slackware? (I'm just starting with it after dabbling after using everything else out there) There's SLAX (http://slax.linux-live.org/). Like games? If you have a non-fx Nvidia card, there's Morphix (http://www.morphix.org/modules/news/) gaming disk (with ET, Vega Strike, three doom engines ect. ect.). My Favorite: Advance CD (http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/cd-readme.html). MAMEing on the go!

There is a Linux live disk for you!