Re: LINUX Workstations -- MIDRANGE-L

Joe Pluta wrote:

From: James Rich

For a
single user who runs his own machine it will be easy and intuitive.

Okay, I'll take you up on this.  I have a RedHat 7.3 system running (in
character mode), and I am barely literate.  I can run "up2date -u", and
was recently able to scout through enough stuff to get the system
running after the SSL keys crapped out.  This involved FTP and RPM.

Other than that, I don't have a clue.  I can wander around a Linux
machine with the best of them; cd and ls are my friends.  I actually use
Cygwin on occasion to do heavy text manipulation on Windows.  But in
order to really use Linux, I'll need a desktop.

And herein lies the rub.  I don't know how to start or configure my
desktop.  I'm not really sure what hardware I have on the system; when I
bought it, it came with Windows installed.  I have messed with X in the
past and have managed to get it to work reasonably well.  I have also
entirely locked up my machine to the point of reinstall.  I'd prefer not
to do that again, since the Linux box is my mail server and is probably
the weakest link in my chain.

I also have a play machine and the RedHat 9.0 documentation, which I may
also choose to make into my guinea pig.  All it needs is a disk drive,
and I have a couple of those lying around.  Unfortunately the CD drive
on that machine is flaky; I may need to go get a new one.

So, given this, how do I get started?  What steps are required in order
for me to get a machine up and running wherein things are "intuitive"?
This s a real question, because I would like to get a CVS server up, and
not CVSNT.

Hi Joe.

If you'll bear with me for a moment, I'll try to explain how I think your troubles here are a good example of the point I was trying to make.

I said, "For a single user who runs his own machine it will be easy and intuitive." Let me restate that. For a user who does not get involved in administration it will be easy and intuitive. I think you are right. It is difficult sometimes to get a linux machine up and running. Sometimes the install doesn't go as smoothly as hoped for or, as in your case, something doesn't work and the user can't figure out what is wrong. But once configured and set up properly, I believe a linux system is very easy and intuitive.

And as you said, therein lies the rub. How do you get it configured and setup properly? Lots of suggestions have already been made to help you in your specific situation. Please don't discount those replies which say, "Read the README." Usually the very answers you are looking for are in that README.

My point was that admin'ing a unix machine is very different from a windows machine and that windows skills may not help you on unix. I believe that installing software, configuring X11, setting up the network are all administrative tasks. These things are very different from windows. In the mail I posted listing several ways in which linux can used to large advantage in a business I assumed that the linux machine was already configured by a knowledgeable staff. Trying to convert a company to any OS when no one in that company has experience with that OS is always difficult and expensive. I can only imagine the frustration of hundreds of windows-only users all trying to switch to linux at once! But I imagine the frustration of unix-only users all trying to switch to windows would be the same (I know it is for me!).

IOW, I believe that running linux is a lot like running an iSeries (only easier). Your users don't have problems using the system. Your administrators find it easy to administer. But an uninitiated person, if asked to install the latest PTFs, would probably give up in disgust because it is too hard to use.

So, my point is that admin'ing linux is not at all like admin'ing windows. On to your problem. Lots of good suggestions have already been made. Martin's suggestion to use 'lspci' is good - that will tell you what video card you have. Red Hat 7.x may not have this, but try X -configure and see if that brings up X for you. Once you know what card you have, you can run xf86config and answer the questions there. If none of this helps, join me in the midrangedotcom chat room and maybe we can figure it out.

Does this mean I think linux is too hard and shouldn't be used? No way! I think everyone should use it. There are some things that I think could be easier. But at the same time many of the things that make it difficult at first make it simple and automatic later. X sometimes is really hard to get working, but because of X smart displays can be used that save time, money, and make things easy. I want everyone to be really good admins and have fun doing it. But to get there may be hard sometimes.

James Rich