Well, I've just about had it with Windoze. It freezes, it hangs it does everything but what I want. Its just plain frustrating. I've reinstall the OS every 6 months and I'm sick of it.

Anyone out there running Linux? I feel its the best alternative on a Intel machine. I'd love to go back to Mac, but they're out of my budjet.

I've tried the Knoppix distribution and its pretty cluncky. I'm looking for suggestions on a free distribution that's good for 3D work and basic home stuff.

Redhat is probably the best out there but I don't feel like shilling out for their distribution. I'm looking for something free.

BTW, is openOffice any good. I can't seem to get it to work with Knoppix. It keeps crapping out on me.

I see that bandolin wants to try Linux instead of Windoze. 

You should read, "How to Download Red Hat Installation Files"

This seems to be where to get RedHat 9.0. 

Don't forget, "Sharp learning curve ahead".

--
Martin

Hi Bandolin,

I've used Open Office under Windows XP and it works very well. I havent used it under Linux.

Red Hat is a very good version to go with.

Good luck!
Clint

Thanks for the info. I'll be seriously looking into it during the holidays. Maybe I'll run a blog about my adventures.

Try "PC Linux OS"- it's derived from Mandrake Linux. I have used several versions, and compared to others it is the most "Windows-like" in my opinion. Very easy to migrate to. The Open Office apps work like a charm, and it's got many packages easy to download and install. Ubuntu is more like a Mac OS than most I've used, in case that interests you.

Ubuntu is probably  the closest to Windows style desktop & has great Open Office integration.  If you want Red Hat style distribution without the cost, check out CentOS.

Tim

I have done some improved ummm ... I think it's called, research ...
and I'm sharing my findings ...

RedHat 9.0 with 2.6 Kernel (from SourceForge)

Fedora 8 (from FedoraProject.org)

Please remember this critical advice when
embarking on a Linux journey of discovery,

Warning!  Warning!  Slow Down!  Danger, Sharp Learning Curve Ahead

--
Martin

Attached Link: My Blog

Fedora looks beautiful.

Ummmmmm ... did you know that the "My Blog" link went to My "My Blog"
instead of going to Your "My Blog"?

Maybe the link you posted should be bandolin's Blog

Cheers and congrats on instaling Linux. 

--
Martin

p.s. I also noticed that you said ...

*If you can keep your head while all those about you are losing
theirs, you may very well have misassessed the situation.

In that case, you might also want to check,
"The Normal Innocent Bystander's Survival Guide..."

I just copied the URL from my blog page, apparently that doesn't work. What did you do differently? Did you have to type in the ?member=bandolin manually?

I can't remember where I got my sig from, but its one of my favourite sayings. The other is:

*"The only reason why God hasn't sent another flood, is that the first one accomplished absolutely nothing."

*ps.
You're not a Linux guru are you? Because I could use a hand at getting my internet to work.

I see that bandolin was wondering,

What did you do differently? Did you have to type in the
?member=bandolin manually?

Good question ...

I went to your homepage and then cycled through the various options
(Artist Bio; Artist Input ; Gallery; Store; Contact) until I noticed that on
the "Artist Input" page, part of your Blog showed ... at the bottom of
that, I saw the magic words, "[view all]"

I have a suggestion (Drum Roll) ...

the contact page should have a link to the blog.

/suggestion (Rim Shot!)

In addition, I see that bandolin was worried about,

You're not a Linux guru are you?
Because I could use a hand at getting my internet to work.

No, I'm not here to grade your work [sly grin]. 

OTOH, I did run a SETI farm on about a dozen workstations using
(mostly) linux as the OS.  A SETI farm is similar to a Render farm in
that many machines cooperate to produce a result -- in the case of
a SETI farm it is to perform many calculations for the Berkeley 
SETI at Home Radio Astronomy project. 

Those workstations of mine have been idle for a while and recently I
have been thinking of refurbishing them into Linux based workstations
and donating them to ... well ... errrrr ... ummm ... whoever would take
them off my hands.  ... So your question does sort of fit into my plans. 

Please send a PM about the symptoms of how linux fails to access the
internet and I'll see what I can do to help. 

--
Martin

SETI: Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. A noble pursuit since there seems to be precious little on this planet.

Thanks for the offer Martin. I'll be sending you a SiteMail.

Curtis

@**bandolin

**I was able to get Fedora installed ononeofmy 'spare' machines.  

So far, I haven't been able to get ubuntu installed -- possibly because the first
2 PC's I tried are both SMP (dual processors) and I have seen some 'buzz'
that the ubuntu distro doesn't support SMP.  I'lll try some other stuff tomorrow. 

Happy New Year. 

Cheers

--
Martin

p.s. Composing this reply in FireFox runningunder Fedora 8

Is Fedora better than Ubuntu? Probably and inane question. I went with Ubuntu because the GUI looked very Mac-like (I know, I'm such a Magpie, I love pretty icons). Also the support looked very good.

My end goal is really to be able to continue doing my 3D stuff (Blender for modelling/animating and GIMP for texturing). I would also liked to set up MythTV which only works in Linux.

You see I just bought a bigass LCD and want to store my 250 movies on HDs connected my PC and just watch any movie I want by clicking on a menu. Also I want my computer to be like a TiVO (why not get a TiVO? Well, TiVO doesn't work in Canada and I don't want to pay more subscription fees than I already do).