[colug-432] Introduction and distro preference question

[Dan Kaiser]

Thanks for all of the feedback, gentlemen. I do appreciate it.

Sounds like a good idea to pick a Debian based distro at first (because I'm
familiar) and then try many others virtually and branch out as time goes on.

I have only used VirtualBox (VB) under OS X, but will have to do some
playing with KVM and others if available. VB had the limitation of only
running 32-bit systems. If I can find one that will host 64-bit systems I
can nuke my win7 partition and only use it virtually when needed.

My current plan is to dual boot the distro of my choice along with win7 (it
came with the computer so why not) on a smaller mSATA drive, and have the
standard HDD be shared storage (vFAT or NTFS).

Anyone using a similar set-up and have any warnings or tips for setup?

Thanks again for your replies (both to the group and private.) I'll make it
a point to try out each distro recommended here.

Dan
On Jan 31, 2014 8:49 PM, "Joshua Kramer" <joskra42.list at gmail.com> wrote:

> An interesting question to ask would be: what V12N platform is easiest to
> get running on what distro?  When I had primarily Windows systems (i.e. at
> work), I'd throw VirtualBox on there and be done with it.  I have found
> that running KVM on CentOS is very, very easy: just install the OS (and
> whatever else you'd like) and make sure you include the virtualization
> packages.  Then start the virtual machine manager and begin installing OS's
> in KVM.
>
> I use CentOS 6.5 primarily, and that's because it's very little hassle for
> my use pattern, which consists of running "stable" apps (i.e. those that
> don't need the latest libraries and API's).  When I need newer applications
> (i.e. video editing), I boot my Ubuntu VM.  I also have Windows 7, Windows
> 8, and Windows Server 2008 VM's to play around with.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 7:29 PM, Brian Miller <bnmille at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 01/31/2014 11:30 AM, Dan Kaiser wrote:
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > I'm fairly new to Linux (I've dabbled for the past four years or so) and
>> > newer still to the group (joined in late December.) . . .  If anyone
>> has notes from the scripting talk I'd love to see
>> > what was covered.
>>
>> I just used a very simple outline.  Nothing that would be helpful if you
>> were looking for good advice.
>>
>> >
>> > I have a question for the group.  I've recently purchased a new-to-me
>> > ThinkPad X220 with the intention of making it my primary machine running
>> > Linux full time.  I used to triple boot my MacBook Pro, but I found
>> > myself in OS X most of the time, and while I tried virtualization, I
>> > couldn't really make myself "work" inside a virtual machine.  Now that
>> > my wife's laptop died and she started using the MBP more and more, I saw
>> > it as an opportunity to finally make the jump.
>> >
>>
>> I use OpenSuSE, mostly because SLES is our Linux of choice at work.  I
>> started running Red Hat, but when Novell bought SuSE, that forced my
>> hand.  We were a large NetWare shop at the time.
>>
>> Jon talked about different Window Managers.  Another reason I like
>> OpenSuSE is that they default to KDE.  It uses more memory than LXDE,
>> but I find it more configurable and useable.
>>
>> SuSE also has a great advantage for people new to Linux:  YaST.  If you
>> don't know what file to edit, or how to make a configuration change, run
>> YaST, and you will likely be able to figure out how to do it.  Over 90%
>> of your system administration can be done through this one interface.
>> The other distributions generally require you to know multiple commands.
>>   The disadvantage of YaST is that you might not learn the command line
>> options as quickly.
>>
>> Red Hat and SuSE are about as close as you can get to each other, too.
>> Other than the distribution specific management commands (and Red Hat's
>> default to Gnome), if you learn your way around the command line on one,
>> you can find your way around on the other.  They are both LSB compliant.
>>   They both use RPM under the hood for package management.  And although
>> Red Hat gets most of the press coverage, most large organizations which
>> years ago used NetWare, will likely be using SLES, just because of the
>> NetWare connection.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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