Fedora Core 4

JoshK · « **on:** 20 Aug 2005, 04:58 pm »

Well I finally got Linux up and running. Well I had RedHat 9 running but I couldn't get it to recognize my NIC so I upgraded to Fedora Core 4. Long story but a crashed HD on my wintel box made life a bear in trying to get the files burned to ISO discs so I could update the linux box.

Well finally got it up and I am writing this message from my linux box, so I am good to go on the network. If anyone has never tried Linux before and wants to, I recommend getting any distribution with kernel 2.6. Fedora Core 4 is such a distro.

This box is for my media server, so now I can mess around with my SqueezeBox 2.

gitarretyp · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 05:16 pm »

Nice to see a fellow linux convert. I converted several years ago.

For others interested in linux, this site provides a nice list of distros and their features Distrowatch. I would agree with JoshK on a distro running a 2.6 kernel for its default kernel. You can always update your kernel manually or using your distro's package management system later, but it's nice to start with the newer kernel.

For begginer distros i would recommend mandriva, suse, or fedora. All are robust and well supported distros that make the switch from windows to linux as painless as possible. Once you get more experience, i would recommend trying other distros (gentoo has been my favorite for a few years).

Hantra · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 05:25 pm »

The problem I had with Fedora is that it was very chunky. I tried it b/c I wanted to save some resources, but quite honestly, it was as resource intensive as XP. I suppose if you can tune and tweak it, it would be different, but out of the gate, I'd say the two are the same as far as hardware demands.

I really would like to find a base, easy to use distro that doesn't have much on it for use with VMWare GSX Server. The ESX is too expensive. Maybe I'll check out that Distrowatch site.

Thanks for the link!

B

gitarretyp · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 06:02 pm »

Quote

I tried it b/c I wanted to save some resources, but quite honestly, it was as resource intensive as XP.

In what way was it resource intensive? Linux reports memory usage rather differently than windows and can seem to use considerably more memory. Also, your choice of window manager (WM) or desktop environment (DE) can have a huge impact on memory and processor usage. DEs like kde and gnome can be resource hogs. If you want something lighter, you might try a WM like fluxbox, enlightenment, or windowmaker.

brj · « **Reply #4 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 07:15 pm »

Also realize that most major distros will install everything under the sun by default. Once you have some basic familiarity with Linux, it would be worth doing a custom install the next time around to limit the mass of tools installed. Many people tend to forget that Linux distributions include not just the operating system, but office suites, databases, information managers, web servers, tons of games, development environments for a dozen different programming and scripting lanuages, desktop publishing apps, and on and on and on....

I think that Josh is gradually convincing me that I need to install FC4 along side the 2 Linux (Rh9 and SuSE 9.3) and 1 Windows (Win2k) OS I already have running! There's nothing like having a quad-boot machine!

JoshK · « **Reply #5 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 07:36 pm »

brj & mizzumo were both very helpful in getting me up and running on linux. I couldn't figure out why the hell my NIC card wasn't working under rh9, they convinced me to try a more modern kernel. That did it.

FC4 is also organized a lot nicer than RH9 was make it a little more intuitive to find analogous things that I knew from windows. Subtlely different but it made the difference.

mizzuno · « **Reply #6 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 08:19 pm »

Josh, great to see its upand running. The 2.6 kernel had many changes and defintely greater driver support. Those linux boxes can be very usable in heterogenous networks. I advise you try samba so that you can create windows network shares and read shares as well. Hell, you can even make linux act as a windows domain controller.

mizzuno · « **Reply #7 on:** 20 Aug 2005, 08:27 pm »

Quote from: brj

Also realize that most major distros will install everything under the sun by default. Once you have some basic familiarity with Linux, it would be worth doing a custom install the next time around to limit the mass of tools installed. Many people tend to forget that Linux distributions include not just the operating system, but office suites, databases, information managers, web servers, tons of games, development environments for a dozen different programming and scripting lanuages, desktop publishing a ...

Suse 9.3 has the new kernel and is very intuitive compared to other distros, Yast in and of itself is a nice config/update tool. You may want to try the new Suse 10 beta, i believe its beta 2.