bleh. wanting to learn linux; where to download redhat 9?

[zixxer]

redhat's site seems to me slow, I dload at like 50k/sec..

any mirrors? what are the differences between srpms and regular i386??

im assuming srpm's are additional packages I don't need?

 

[Gyrene]

Meh, redhat. Actually...meh, linux. Download some FreeBSD, that's the nice stuff. If you're gonna go with learning Linux, make it gentoo.

 

[FoBoT]

linuxiso.org
and they have links for freebsd too

 

[Platypus]

If you want to "learn" linux as in you've never played with it and you just want to quickly install it and forget about it check out Fedora (the redhat project's home project) or Mandrake. If you want to actually learn how it works and you want control over a lot of the detail check out Slackware or Gentoo. If you're somewhere in between check out Debian.

 

[zixxer]

gentoo.. what's easier about it?

I've got an extra hdd to throw it on. It's going on a dell that supports redhat (drivers on website)

 

[zixxer]

i'm really not looking to install it and look at the pretty icons or whatnot.. I don't mind learning some command line stuff.


mainly, we've got one guy where I work that knows a decent amount of linux stuff.. (we use spamassasin .. or used to before postini) and some other stuff on linux. I was instructed during my performance review to get the basics of linux down.. well, we use redhat, so I guessed that it would be what I need to learn on.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: se7enty7
gentoo.. what's easier about it?

it's not easier. much more difficult in fact but that's the point.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: se7enty7
gentoo.. what's easier about it?

I've got an extra hdd to throw it on. It's going on a dell that supports redhat (drivers on website)

Easy...nothing. If anything, it's harder (have fun on your first install, make sure you've got the docs and alot of time.) But it's a good way to get into Linux as everything is compiled from source, and it gives you the opportunity to learn the more in depth things about the Linux environment.

 

[Platypus]

Originally posted by: se7enty7
i'm really not looking to install it and look at the pretty icons or whatnot.. I don't mind learning some command line stuff.


mainly, we've got one guy where I work that knows a decent amount of linux stuff.. (we use spamassasin .. or used to before postini) and some other stuff on linux. I was instructed during my performance review to get the basics of linux down.. well, we use redhat, so I guessed that it would be what I need to learn on.

If you want to learn the basics any of the generic home installs will be fine. It really depends on what you want to do with it.

 

[burnedout]

For mirrors, just look around. The mirror at UF was formerly fairly quick for me. UTK also had decent speed once upon a time.

I've had good luck with the INN, sendmail and many other rpms in the Redhat 9 distro. However, for OpenSSL, PHP, mySQL and Apache, I simply download the source files and compile.

 

[zixxer]

what's with fedora?

it sounds like redhat is going towards a "pay for it" scheme with redhat, and fedora will be the 'free' version...

should I go ahead and dload that, or go with tried/trusted redhat?

 

[Flyermax2k3]

I'm d/ling Fedora ATM. This should be interesting. I was trying to get Slackware but the torrent wouldn't work...

 

[Flyermax2k3]

This is taking forever! 3 isos to d/l and it's only 50% through the first one

I'm gonna be up all day doin this... Good thing I don't have a job or school anymore
I'm only getting 122kbps from Redhat's Fedora site but I am using another couple hundred kbps of d/l bandwidth in Kazaa atm

 

[GTaudiophile]

I just made the switch from Slackware to Gentoo. My first Gentoo install was successful, but I tried to remove a package and ran "emerge depclean". Well, that was a major boo-boo, so I think I'm going to start all over.

Live and learn!

Installing gentoo is not complicated if you carefully read the instructions and you're setting up a straight-up Linux box with no dual-boot. I also installed from Stage 3 to avoid the long compile times.

 

[djNickb]

Try Knoppix -- it loads off of a CD, then you don't have to partition your drive-- good way to get a feel for linux