[ale] Various Rambling Linux Thoughts/Difficulties

[Thompson Freeman]

While I've been on various RedHat distributions for years (since 4.0), I'd
like to give Debian a try. I can burn the CD, so I'd like to just download
an iso image and have at it. Is there an image file out there that I don't
recognize, or do I pull things together myself and have at?  Some fairly
specific pointers at this time (about locations and getting everything
needed) will be appreciated.

Related to above, has anybody else tried the RH7.0 release? I'm finding
myself somewhat disappointed with my efforts here, although I suspect
eventually things will fall together again.

Specifically:

Gnome & X - under 6.2 I had them working nicely, but I have yet to get 7.0
to give me a usable display (either it's unreadable with transparent
portions, or you cann't drag something across the screen without bits
being dropped off, or both, or something else.) FWIW, I'm not getting X to
work right yet either, something that happens to me everytime.

Why is it needed to install apmd on a desktop machine? OK, I could have
found it and dropped it during install, but that takes significant time
during install.

I happen to _loath_ linuxconf, which RH supports and loves. I forgot to
drop that one also. 8-(.

A number of documentation files have changed locations (from /usr/doc to
/usr/share/doc).

I'm finding other sharp edges, but I can at least point out some positive
experiences also.

LILO has gotten some graphic capabilities, although I haven't find how to
create my own splash screen. The display, however, is pretty enough to
make it worth having. (Anybody know where the secrets of these file are
documented?)

LPRng is part of the distribution. I haven't gotten to it, but I've heard
good things and look forward to trying.

And the continuing nonissue: the traditional Unix stuff went in and came
up slick as a whistle without hassle with respect to configuration.

Since I'm running this strictly on a test bed basis, and expect to fool
with it several more times from installation, I'm not ready to shoot down
RH's efforts. I would like to look at Debian more closely tho, as I'm not
quite as happy with RH as I have been in the past. 


Thanks to one and all for letting me bend your collective ear. I
appreciate it!

-- 
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The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iocca
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Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net

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