Linux

Norm · January 18, 2004, 07:02:49 PM

Lo,what is the best flavour of Linux to use,for ease of use/installation?

I am in the process of building a folding farm from all the P3 boards I have laid about(11 at the last count) but obviously cant afford an O/S for each one.

Some links to useing/installing would be helpfull if you know of any good ones. :cheers:

Swoop · January 18, 2004, 08:01:03 PM

Well based on your info i'm guessing you want a system thats both easy to install and still has good potential to go further if needed ?

Anyways with my limited experience with linux i have concluded that thoose windows like installs are good for newbie, but really dont give you much experience with linux in general. So instead i would reccomend for isntance gentoo linux (//www.gentoo.org), which required some longer install, and more active participation during installation, but in the end gives you alot more experience with the system.

Othervise i would propably go for Debian linux, or if i just want a easy to use, fast install i say Mandrake.

Hope it helped...

Norm · January 18, 2004, 08:06:31 PM

Cheers swoop,I'll look into them,basically just want "an O/S" to get me going.Found a forum piece on a farm that only needs one h/d yet has 6 boards running.

TeaLeaf · January 18, 2004, 08:09:11 PM

I'm a total Linux noob and can only just handle what I need to know on BlackAdder which runs Debian. Apparently Debian is a geeks paradise, but Stryker hates it!

I have heard lots of good things about Red Hat (Stryker's fav), Mandrake & Suse. All have nice free distros knocking around - one of the PC magazines included a copy of Mandrake 9.2 about 6-7 weeks ago.

But, I have read about a boot from CD version of Linux (needs no HDD) specifically for Folding. Do a google search for that - I think it was someone on Extreme Overclocking but I'm not sure, there are a couple of others too.

If you run into trouble then shout and I'll try to dig out where it was I was reading about it.

TL.

Norm · January 18, 2004, 08:16:27 PM

TL is this it here

Swoop · January 18, 2004, 09:29:54 PM

In the end the point us just how much you really wanna do.

I mean for using, learning, and getting into using linux for daily tasks i actually think you should take a expert distro for starters. Here i reccomend Gentoo, which you have to install from scratch, and nothing easy about it. But it comes with a nice set of guides to get everything up and running, and during the process you are bound to learn alot.

But then again if you just need something similar to Windows only linux based, take for isntance Mandrake, which comes with everything easy to install, graphical everything... ect.

Debian is geeks paradise, and much similar to Gentoo. Both distros are very nice. I started out with Gentoo as my second try in linux, and had absolutely no problems with installing it and following the guide, and afterwards use of the system.

I really like the part of Gentoo that takes time. If you do the longest install every little part of your system will be fully optimised for your specific machine, and everything will be lightning fast. Unfortunately this also takes quite a long time to install... but it's worth it. However to starters do the stage 3 install, which is quite fast, and gives you a nice system all in all

Norm · January 18, 2004, 09:49:09 PM

Yeah,might be nice to learn something completly new, I will d/l the one you have suggested to have a play with,and use the disk one to run my farm. Thanks for the advice.

TeaLeaf · January 18, 2004, 10:20:12 PM

QuoteOriginally posted by Norm@Jan 18 2004, 08:16 PM
TL is this it here

Aye, that's it

Want to post that link in the Folding forum? I'll add a sticky to it. I may even add it to the Compaq server case when that is up and running.

TL.

albert · January 19, 2004, 11:48:30 AM

Gentoo is the most difficult and geeky install of Linux on the planet, avoid unless you are a Linux geek and want a ommand line only secure version of Linux.

Debian isn't a great deal better for ease of use.

Mandrake is a doddle to install and is very much like windows, it ssems (IMHO) to behave better and works more logically than Red Hat.

Swoop · January 19, 2004, 12:06:30 PM

Gentoo really isnt difficoult.
It's long install is hard no doubt. But the install guide is awsome, and if you run into a problem the gentoo forums are there ...

I mean i installed Gentoo without having any knowledge of linux for the first time. Up and running, and then i threw gnome desktop on it, and it's been working like a charm ever since.

And i think if you do a stage 3 install (then you skip alot) it's not really that difficoult, as all you need to do is partition and such...

Norm · January 19, 2004, 01:28:01 PM

:unsure: My head hurts now.

Must admit I'm a bit of a geek,

mainly on hardware issues though,so not too sure of long winded linux install.One thing I have decided on is to use a ramdisk option for my folding farm,and I will put one or the other copies of linux on LAN server #2(do all linux flavours run HLDS?).