[ILUG] Free Linux? Newbe Q

[Gareth Eason]

	   Hi,

	As was already mentioned, Linux (including RedHat Linux) is inherently 
'free' (as in beer.) You may download it, install it and pretty much do 
what you like with it (caveats apply to redistribution) from either 
redhat's site (www.redhat.com  - usually heavily loaded and thus quite 
slow) or a nearby mirror (ftp.heanet.ie is always good. Check 
www.redhat.com for a list of more.)

	You may also purchase a box set of RedHat CDs - Last I looked (a while 
back) the cost was somewhere in the £70 range here in the UK, and you 
get nice printed manuals, a printed installation guide and 90 days 
(IIRC) telephone support. I think they throw in a year's subscription to 
up2date as well, though that might have changed now. If you're just 
starting off and installing your first box, especially if you don't have 
broadband, it's well worth the money. The money you pay is for printed 
manuals, nice packaging, etc. and _support_.

	If you don't want to spend that much money, and don't have broadband, 
someone has already mentioned that people on the list will generally be 
quite happy to burn you some CDs for the price of blanks and some 
postage. Or if you're near Dublin I'm sure you'd be made very welcome at 
a LEWD or POTD (Pint of The Day) where you get a chance not only to 
collect some disks from someone, but also a chance to have a beer and 
discuss $stuff in an appropriate atmosphere :-)

	Hope this helps somewhat.

	Best regards,
	-->Gar

Andoni wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for that but I have already chosen the distribution I am going to use
> after a big distro-war I started about 2 months back ;-)
> 
> Now I am just trying to scab a free copy of RedHat.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Andoni.
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Sean O'Donnell" <sodonnell at 3q-solutions.com>
> To: "Andoni" <andonilist at eurokom.ie>
> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 2:36 PM
> Subject: RE: [ILUG] Free Linux? Newbe Q
> 
> 
> 
>>Hi Andoni, For a non desktop machine , I would recommend debian ,
>>it will make installing and managing server apps a lot easier.
>>you will need mpkg-j2sdk to install the sun jdk , but after that you
>>can just apt-get everything on your list below.
>>
>>good luck
>>
>>Sean
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: ilug-bounces at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-bounces at linux.ie]On Behalf Of
>>Andoni
>>Sent: 13 October 2004 16:43
>>To: ilug at linux.ie
>>Subject: Re: [ILUG] Free Linux? Newbe Q
>>
>>
>>Hi,
>>
>>Actually what I am looking for is something with no applications at all.
>>
>>I have plenty experience in using Linux just not in installing, compiling,
>>administering, etc.
>>
>>What I want to do is install Tomcat, JBoss, Apache, PHP. Stick it in
> 
> behind
> 
>>my Firewall and bob's your uncle. I don't care about applications on it at
>>all.
>>
>>Now that you know better should I go for RedHat or Fedora?
>>
>>Andoni.
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- 
>>
>>>From: "David O'Callaghan" <david.ocallaghan at cs.tcd.ie>
>>>To: "Andoni" <andoni at ireland.com>
>>>Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 4:22 PM
>>>Subject: Re: [ILUG] Free Linux? Newbe Q
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi Andoni,
>>>>
>>>>On Wed, 2004-10-13 at 15:11, Andoni wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I am going to go with RedHat if I can get a free copy so will look
> 
> up
> 
>>>the
>>>
>>>>>URLs suggested to find where people have already compiled them.
>>>>
>>>>As others have mentioned, if you're interested in trying out Linux
> 
> then
> 
>>>>RedHat Enterprise (or one of the recompiled clones) may not be the
> 
> best
> 
>>>>thing to start with. As the name might suggest, this is intended for
>>>>business servers and so is quite conservative in the software it
>>>>includes. If you're looking for a RedHat distribution with the latest
>>>>desktop applications then Fedora (http://fedora.redhat.com/) will suit
>>>>better.
>>>>
>>>>David
>>>>
>>>
>>-- 
>>Irish Linux Users' Group
>>http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/
>>
> 
>