Which Distro

[Patrick Turnage]

	Hello.
Here have been my experiences with Linux and the different distros.
First back in 1998 I began using slackware, maybe the kernel version was
2.0.32, or 2.0.34, anyway. I enjoyed slackware because I learned how to get
my hands dirty and jumped right in to configuring things making custom
scripts for things, etc. I remember my start with Unix was in 1995 or 1996
when I first got a shell on a Solaris machine and my shell at school on a
free bsd machine. You will spend a lot of time reading. When I look back at
my first year or two of using Linux mainly 1998 and 1999 I spent it reading
a lot of information. I found a good book that I read and referenced for a
few years called the Linux System Administrators guide located on
http://www.empowermentzone.com

I used slackware all the way through slackware 8.0. I installed debian
after I needed Linux and only had a debian cd, and I at first did not like
it. I then got used to it and how installing the packages worked right out
of the box, where in slackware I had to configure something or edit some
file or something. That I could get those packages from the Internet is
another plus that slackware still has not adopted. 
I believe if you are new debian will be better but if you want to learn
with slackware you'll really learn a lot. I will say that I love the
customization of slack though, I have made over the years several custom
zip disks for using zipslack when my system needed an emergency boot or as
a large rescue disk of course now bootable cd-roms are the solution of the
day but the idea that a highly functional slackware system that can do many
things can be installed and completely configured under 100 MB is good.
Debian has so many dependencies that slackware doesn't have because of the
extensive package management system.
I never have played with RH because most of the hardware I've used Linux on
has been Pentium 200 or less and 2.0 gb hd or less so RH is good if you are
looking to use it in a professional setting others who use rh on a more
consistent basis will be better at comparing contrasting it.

Sincerely
Patrick


-----
Patrick Turnage
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