Subject: Re: Academic Linux Opinions? From: robin@vax1.mankato.msus.edu Date: 29 May 1993 13:41:16 -0600
In article <1993May28.162152.9223@news.unomaha.edu>, rfulk@cwis.unomaha.edu (Bob Fulkerson) writes:
> Greetings, fellow peoples!
>
> I have convinced the Computer Science Department at my undergrad (now
> graduate!) school to get their own Unix machine up and running in order to
> support classwork and general computer literacy and Internet knowledge amongst
> the students.
>
> Hopefully the machine will be serving about 10 different classes and numerous
> faculty and students (I'd say no more than 100 or 200, at least for now).
>
> The machine should arrive sometime during July (university funding procedures
> to jump through), and it will inevitably be running Linux.
>
> I've perused the FAQs and the like, and I'm not too terribly worried about
> actually getting it up and running. What the FAQs _don't_ cover is overall
> satisfaction with the package itself.
>
> I would interested to hear from some other people/sites who are using a Linux
> system in a "real-world", Internet-connected, preferrably (but not
> necessarily) University environment.
>
> Are you pleased with Linux? Are there any hurdles or obstacles that you
> would warn against? Would you reccommend Linux for this type of environment?
> Would you not? I'm assuming you would suggest the SLS package, but perhaps
> not ... ?
>
These comments are strictly my opinions! They are nothing more! Please leave
them as such and don't waste net bandwidth by replying.
Linux is a reasonably stable system. I like having all the source code avail.
It makes fixing location specific things very easy. My complaints are not
directed at the kernel. I think that part is terrific.
On the subject of disributions: SLS has been a _HUGE_ headache. Great! All
of the utilities you would ever need are in there. But only about 2/3 of them
work and then only after _MUCH_ work configuring them. The source is not
always included and when it is, there is no underlying structure to it. You
can nearly never find what needs to be changed or how to change it in less
than a day of searching.
There are not enough man pages in the SLS!!!!! The ones that are there are
right only about 50% of the time. A good example is look at the tar TeXinfo
man page and then do a tar --help. Most of the TCP/IP utilities are extremely
poorly documented!!!
I have spent two months configuring our local system which is being used in
much the same light as you intend. When it took me as much as three days to
configure something as trivial as mail to _PARTIALLY_ work, I was more than
a little disappointed.
My recommendation:
If you don't have time, use the SLS and live with the headaches. You can
get a system up and useable in about a week. To get all the bugs ironed
out, give yourself about six months.
If you have six months (and I mean 40 hour/week months), build your own
system from pieces on the net. You will probably end up with a much
easier to administrate system.
Good Luck,
Robin Holt.