Devil's Refugee

Does anyone use Linux as an everyday alternative to Windows or do they use it only on a second PC/ dual boot option ?

Seen Redhat Linux v9 on a cover DVD and might install to see how it performs.

Rusty Festa

I bought SAMS teach yourself SuSE Linux in 24hours from Oxfam for a tenner inc unopened CD with full OS on it but haven't got round to it yet...

Having installed and run Mandrake Linux before I imagine Red Hat will be as equally straight forward and you can get office apps for free

rogp

This months PC PRO magazine has an article on using Redhat (in server config) as a basis for a home network. That may be of use to you.

Roger

druddle

I have just been involved in a big Redhat Advanced Server install on a site that is using Solaris/Linux and Oracle Collaboration Suite for email and calendar applications instead of Windows/Exchange.

More people are switching to it !!!

Dave

ozzy

As a server, Linux has it's benefits and I use it @ work for SMTP e-mail (Sendmail), web proxy and a firewall.

As a replacement for a Windows desktop? hmm, not sure about that one. I've tried Mandrake, Corel and all the versions of RH since 6 and not one of them has been as intuative as Windows or even as fast. The GUI's have all been very poor and I wouldn't swap it for my XP desktop - not yet anyway.

Stefan

DazV

I've got RedHat sitting on my external hard disk waiting for evaluation.

Perhaps Linux users could tell me if its a viable mailserver alternative to the stuff on the PC ?

Just need a reliable app that can send / receive emails on behalf of our LAN.

ozzy

We use the Sendmail SMTP server (running on Red Hat Linux) as our corporate mail server. This receives all our external mail for our multiple domains. I know Sky TV use Sendmail too for this purpose and is very reliable.

However, we still use Exchange/Outlook as our desktop/LAN e-mail solution.

We used to have a few Oracle DBA's here @ work who were die-hard Unix/Linux users and they preferred to run this on their desktops. Most of their work is telnet sessions to a Mainframe and other Unix servers, but they did need access to our shared drives (NT), printers (NT) and e-mail (Exchange).

We had a few configuration problems, but we got their eventually. We had to use SMB services to talk to our NT boxes and to be honest that was a right PITA even for the experienced. Printing was slightly easier as they can send jobs directly to each printers JetDirect card using TCP/IP.

E-mail was easy enough as the Exchange box acts as a POP3 and SMTP server, so any POP3 mail client will work. The only problems we had were making sure the Linux client didn't download all his mail off our mail server. None of the Exchange-specific feature work (Out-of-office Assistant, rules, etc..) and he had to make sure the client check mail on the server every 1 min.

A Linux server/workstation running pop3 and smtp will be as reliable as any other mail server IMHO. Most of the reliability is down to the configuration, the hardware it's running on our your ISP.

Our Sendmail has been just as reliable as any our Exchange servers.

Stefan

Devil's Refugee

I intend to use this as a standalone on another laptop, so toying with the idea at the moment.

I have two PC's running XP Pro at the moment on a home wireless network.
Can I still connect to the network using Linux and share access ?

ozzy

Yes, but you need to configure SMB (Samba) to connect from Linux -> Microsoft shares or vice versa.

Have a look around this page for some details.

Hopefully the latest version of RH has all this cr@p configurable from the GUI.

Stefan

Devil's Refugee

Thanks for the info.

Anyone use Mandrake or recommend a flavour of Linux ?

ozzy

SuSE's supposed to be good on the desktop.

Stefan

suba

>> you want linux but dont want the GUI?

>> you want XP but dont want the OS?

then check this out ---> xpde!

Gedi

I have a large LAN running at home (I'm not wierd, I'm a computer science/security student). 5 run Linux, 1 runs Solaris, 1 runs Windows and 1 runs FreeBSD.

If your looking for Linux on a desktop as a Windows alternative, I would say SuSE 8.2 is the only way to go at the moment. It is by far the most advanced.

Redhat and Mandrake are good as they are popular and you will recieve lots of support online.

Slackware (my fav) is the best for more advanced uses or Linux lovers as it is more true to the unix style.

From what I have seen, Lindows is looking very promising and seems straight forward.

There are plenty of other alternatives like Debian, Gentoo etc, it all comes down to personal choice.

My recomendation ...... SuSE 8.2. I would advise buying it from www.suse.co.uk. You will get 30 days free instalation support and 2 large and very usefull user guides.

*spelling corrections*

[Edited by Gedi - 7/28/2003 2:55:58 PM]

Devil's Refugee

I take it's more beneficial to set up Linux as a Server rather than Desktop ?

gregh

I seriously tried to use Linux as an alternative but am now back in windows for the following reasons:

email support to exchange server: used Ximian, but it was no where near as advanced as Outlook.

Nothing comparable to Dreamweaver for web site use

One internal app I had could only run under Windows (or WINE on Linux - but that wasn't very stable)

On a laptop Linux support for suspend and hibernation is poor or non-existant.

I think that was about it

regards,

greg

Devil's Refugee

Thanks for all the comments so far.
I'm toying with the idea of using Linux on one PC only since I have one spare just to try it out.

Is it viable to use it as a small web server ?

stevencotton

Perfectly viable for things like that. I agree it's not 100% for an average user to switch, however I would recommend OSX

Markus

What about Apple's Mac OS X? It's got a nice GUI on top of BSD unix. Plus if you want PC stuff, run Virtual PC too!

I've been using this for a year and I'm no unix expert but I'm picking it up sort of quickly, and I like it. Have a shell window open all the time so if the GUI can't do something, well, get your hands dirty and do it at the command line.

OK, so it has to be run on Apple hardware, which is a BIG drawback, if only they would do a proper Intel port, that would be great!

stevencotton

I don't see the fact it only currently runs on Apple hardware as a drawback