Choosing a distribution

[Chris G]

On Mon, Nov 05, 2007 at 04:59:48PM -0700, Scott (angrykeyboarder) wrote:
> Chris G spake thusly:
> > I have been using Linux for many years, for the past two or three
> > years I have been using Slackware but recently have been looking for
> > something that's a bit easier to maintain and update.
> > 
> > I've been using Fedora 7 for the past month or two and it provides
> > some of what I need but also has some disadvantages.
> 
> I'm curious. what are it's disadvantages?
> 
Mostly the 'continuous updates' philosophy, if you do 'yum update all'
at intervals (or accept the updates that automatic updating gives
you) then, among other things, the kernal will get changed quite
frequently and that forces a recompile of the Nvidia drivers and
Vmware - which doesn't always work .... so sometimes hassle.


> > So, I'm thinking > about an Ubuntu distribution but would like to ask a few questions:-
> > 
> >     I need an apache server, an ssh server and (probably) MySQL.  Does
> >     this mean I *have* to go for Ubuntu Server?
> 
> Nope. You can install Apache, SSH and MySQL (among thousands of other
> programs) on any flavor of Ubuntu. The Server edition just makes it
> easier from the getgo (LAMP option at setup).
> 
OK, I think I'm clear on this now!  :-)


> >>     I don't use KDE, Gnome or Xfce (I did run Xfce for a while) but
> >     fvwm2, is this easy to do on Ubuntu?
> 
> 
> 
> 		$ sudo apt-get install fvwm
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> >     I run Vmware to run a Windows XP guest, will this sit in Ubuntu
> >     Server quite happily?
> 
> I'm doing it now. It works quite well.
> 
Good.

> 
> > 
> >     Does Ubuntu force me to use sudo or can I (as I do now) just
> >     switch to root on the command line using 'su' and do root'ey
> >     things that way?
> 
> It does initially but if you reeeealy must have "su" then it's very easy
> to set up a root password.
> 
> 	$ sudo passwd
> 
OK (and lets not open up the sudo can of worms any more!)  :-)


> After you've done that, you can "su" to your hearts content (or even log
> in as root in a console or terminal).
> 
> Based on what you've described I'd suggest the server CD.   After you're
> done that, install fvwm.  You'll also need to install X Window (the fvwm
> package doesn't seem to depend on it for some odd reason) and a display
> manager (e.g. xdm or gdm) along with fvwm  (i.e.: [sudo] apt-get install
> fvwm xorg xdm).
> 
I'd probably dispense with xdm/gdm/wdm, just leave the system to
default to init level 3 and run 'startx' to start X windows.


> Once you've done a command line install you can add anything from the
> Ubuntu repositories that you want (even GNOME, KDE....).  Virtually any
> package you've installed from the Fedora repositories is also available
> in the Ubuntu repositories (and vice-versa).
> 
Thanks for the useful reply!  :-)

-- 
Chris Green