Think! -- Nix

Think! - Nix

I'd grown fed up with M$ way back when RedHat released 5.0. Using M$ & telnetting into various Unix systems didn't really prepare me for running anything like Linux on my own computer (at that time) -- a P-II 333 which my oldest friend now uses -- but I dual-booted it with NT 4.0. Because I couldn't figure out how to get better than 8-bit colour, I'd dumped the whole config for W98 & dual-booted the computer I used at work. I was a tech for an isp, so there wasn't any problem in doing so.

Since then, I've run RH 6.0, 6.2, 7.1 &, 7.2, as well as Mandrake 7.2, 8.0 & 10.0 & Slack 9.1 &, now, 10.0. I've found that while things get better, other things get worse. Yes, I like colours, so I use X, but I spend a great deal of time at the command line, using a text-based Web browser, & editing files -- as this Web page -- in pico (hey, pico's not so bad -- it's simple, like most things anyone who's only coding is that of html is simple).

I think the trouble is that I'd grown dependent upon RedHat & RedHat-based distros. While I've no great fondness for coders, as most (of course, there are exceptions to every rule) are lazy or short sighted. What I'm directly referring to is the RedHat Package Manager, or rpm. These rpm files, which certainly are easy to install -- once you take the time to find every dependency & install them & their dependencies (we wouldn't want to make things easy by getting those dependencies for the user from any one of numerous central servers mirroring them, now would we?), but the coders rarely take the time to add in support for common features of the same software in source (ending in .tar.gz, normally). That, & the idiocy that I have to get so many packages just to try something new out, had driven me nuts for over three years.

Now, with the news that AOL is (or was, or, as RH would have us now believe, wasn't) planning on buying RedHat, I, like many a RedHat user, have decided to get out before we find a simple update downloaded has dumped an ugly AOL logo on our desktops. So, I'm going to be installing Slackware. I should have done so long ago, I know. Maybe I'm lazy too.

Anyway, I've not yet created a Slack page, but I plan to do something along the lines of what I've neglected for so long on the Linux Help page. I'll continue to maintain some Linux notes, as they may be of help to someone -- including myself You'll also find some specific tech docs I've created below.

Some time hase passed since I'd written the above. I've been running Slack for rather a long time. I'd started with Slack 9.1 & soon moved to 10.0. I much prefer Slack to all of the above. I think, when I return to the Mainland (I've been in Hawaii since mid-February; it's now early July), that I'll look into any new releases the folks at Slackware may have released. Don't know when that will finally be. I have some people looking round for work for me, though nothing's come up yet.

Oh, boy! I've made it back. Some six-seven months watching my credit debt mount in Santa Cruz & Fairfield Ca, I've now returned to Seattle. Let's hope I get work soon, as my creditors are none too happy with me. Although I don't yet have a connection to the 'Net, I do have my 'puter Ra-Hoor & my site on-line with ZipCon, a great local isp, I can update pages, finally. Once I get work & get connected at home, things will start changing on this site again.

I'd noticed some time ago that some of my howto's never got uploaded. Here they are:

TRPlayer
Ripping Audio
Burning Audo
Fetchmail & Pine
Crontab

I've started my own mailing list on FreeLists called Linux Anyway. For this, I now have a Linux faq (based upon a faq written by Scott -- a friend on many Linux mailing lists) of my own. Check it out.

And Now...

This link is to my Linux Help page. It's general config stuff, & annoyances I'd fixed after long searches for something which works. I'll be adding to it as I come by things & the time to do it. And here is my Linux Anyway files section, featuring Alanna Roe's magical DUNWizard script -- works everytime.

My general page | My personal home page
Me, Myself, & the Voices in my Head