Hi Folks, Just something I thought I'd like to share with the list... It's nothing crucially important, so if you're in a hurry, feel free to skip over it.
I've sort of been into Linux for a year or so now, I guess. Actually, prolly not quite that long. I consider myself an 'advocate' and I'm administering a small ISP running a PPP server on a RedHat box, so I've had to learn a fair bit pretty quickly. But my primary machine at home has always been a Windoze box (Dual boot NT/95 at the moment). I do also have an old laptop, and now also a P150 also running Linux (both Debian 1.3). Last Friday, the IDE drive on my Windoze box died on me, taking with it Win95 and the NT loader I need to even get into my NT machine, leaving me effectively winless. I took it back to the shop today, but they say it'll take at least a week to get it fixed. So I'm winless for a while. My P150 Debian system (a real 'bride of frankenstein', make of lots of spare parts, but it works) has only been running for a few weeks now. Yet that was my only recourse, so I've suddenly become a 100% Linux man for a little while now. I think I have surmounted the major obstacles (the fact that I can send this sort of proves that). I have got X running with my fav. WM, AfterStep 1.0 (tho I don't like that Debian menu... how do I get rid of it so I can edit the .steprc and get my HotList back?), PPP working, Netscape, FetchMail to recieve my mail, Qmail 1.02 to send it, and mutt to write it . I even have xicq so I can get all those ICQ messages I'm missing (well, I don't have *that* many ICQ friends, but hey, don;t want to miss anything!) I think I can safely say that anyone who tells you Linux (any flavour) is as easy to set up as Win95 is pulling your leg. It's a lot of bloody effort, and many hours of reading, to get a functional system capable of PPP up and running. However, I believe that getting it up and running properly (or something approximating properly) is much more rewarding. You can make it exactly how you like it, and nothing (much) is forced down your throat. Do I miss windoze? Well, not windoze itself, but some of it's applications would be nice... I don't think mutt will ever replace Becky! in my heart of hearts... I think when I get my hard drive back, I'll load up something like MI/X so I can keep using both when convinient. Did this have any point? Well, prolly not :) I guess I may never have got around to setting up my Debain system properly had I not been thrown in the deep end, but now I have plenty of time to make it like it should be! Goodnite, damon -- Damon Muller ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Systems Administrator EmpireNET Melbourne, Australia -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
