Re : A basic 'newbie' question

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Hi Keith!

My experience with Fedora urges me to tell you to stick with it. I
started with Mandrake 8.0, then went to 9.0 and 10.0 but, during that
interval I tried Fedora Core 2, 3, 4 and now 5. I kept with Fedora at
FC3 as I hit problems with Mandrake 9.0 and only tried the rest of the
Mandrakes out of curiosity. In my opinion, FC wins as it gets everything
up and running whereas Mandrake (Mandriva) balks at various peripherals.
Also, although I started with KDE (the Mandrake default), when I
switched to Fedora it defaulted to GNOME and, in the end, I grew to
prefer it and Mandrake 9.0 hit problems with GNOME even though the
documentation insists that both desktops run OK.

However, one piece of advice : DON'T upgrade. Always install from
scratch as I've found in the past that upgrading results in problems
which disappear when one goes to a direct install of the new version.
Everything from FC2 up to 5 has proved worth it even if it meant only in
little ways. I particularly like yum as it operates far more reliably
and easily than did the rpm method of installation and upgrading of
applications. So, I am eagerly awaiting FC6 and will be getting it as
soon as someone makes it available on DVD.

One tip, though (and this probably applies to any distro) try to keep
your /home on a separate drive if at all possible (hard drives are so
cheap these days anyway) or at least on a completely separate partition.
In this way, you can hang on to all your files and settings without
having to run through "preferences" again and again! During the install
you merely tell the install GUI to do "custom" partitioning and then you
indicate that you want /home left as is -- doing this ensures that your
files stay put and that the partition doesn't get formatted.

For me, long before the "freebie" appeared in "Linux Format" magazine
(yes, it's easily obtainable here in Canada and half the newsstand price
if one subscribes directly) I bought FC5 on DVD for about $10.00 and
consider my expenditure well worth it.

One thing that may be coming in FC6 is reversion to the upcoming
standard updating method (whose name I've forgotten at the moment) but
means that the Linux community is aiming for a universal installer so
that one doesn't depend upon yum, or rpm or apt etc. depending on one's
distro.

Also, each new FC issue contains the latest versions of the standard
things such as : Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, GIMP and useful things
such as Tomboy. One can also install various KDE apps which run just as
well on GNOME such as Kooka, K3b, KOrganize, KAddress, KAlarm and so on.
I also found that FC5 likes Samsung laser printers and the built-in
drivers work just fine but I don't know about Canon as they are like
Windoze modems : for my Canon color ink-jet I use Turboprint which,
although it costs about $30.00 or so, is well worth it as it even
interfaces to the printer's internal data such as cartridge status,
cleaning, setting nozzle line-up and so on.

Hope this helps.

CroombeFP




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