Linux Don'ts

[Gary Hildebrand]

On Monday 18 April 2005 22:26, Jason Clinton wrote:
> On Monday 18 April 2005 21:34, Robert Kennedy wrote:
> > So here's what I want input on. Are there any brands
> > for the hardware that I should tell my nephew NOT to
> > consider? What are your practical opinions on the
> > distro?


Well, I've been a scrounger for most of my system,  I'm running an old AMD 
K6-2 @500 MHz/ASUS socket 7 mobo.  Started with 64 megs of memory; when I 
went to 128 it helped appreciably.  More memory, the better --- and it helps 
cut down on the swap space useage.

I have an AGP video card with only 8 megs memory, which is pretty good for 
most of my stuff.  Now if I want to do some very heavy graphics, then I'd go 
for the bigger fancier video cards.  I just won't pay more for the video card 
than I paid for the mobo/processor, if you know what I mean!!!

SCSI is better than IDE but you pay for it.  I use Adaptec AHA2940 cards, as 
they seem to be a standard in Linux.  The caveat is adapting from one series 
of connectors to another (the adapters are EXPENSIVE).  IDE now has the price 
advantage, but you're limited to 2 devices per IDE channel, and usually only 
two channels on the mobo.  With wide SCSI you can have up to 15 devices, and 
that also includes SCSI scanners, CD-ROM drives, tape streamers, and my 
peccadillo -- the old Syquest removable media drives.

I do aagree that AMD gives more bang for the buck than Intel.

My fav distro so far has been SuSE, as I once had very little problems doing 
installs on the 6.4 and 7.2 versions.  9.1 was another story, although I 
finally got things figured out earlier today. I found out from their help 
desk that since I bought my disks a year ago, the support window has expired, 
and I would have to BUY time with Novell for support.  Not very happy with 
that at all.  That's the caveat emptor about them. 

One hard rule I live by is:  Don't upgrade unless you need the features it 
will give you.  Each of the older distros had features I wish was still on 
the newest.  But you know how they LOVE to CHANGE THINGS. 

Aa with all things computer, your mileage may vary.

Gary Hildebrand 
St. Joseph, MO