[plug] setting up - "the Dark Art"

[sol]

##NB: What follows is my opinion only, take it or leave it, the decision 
is 100% yours.

Sounds like you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty. Under these 
circumstances I would strongly recommend using Debian. I moved over to 
Debian after nearly a year using SuSE, and have been using it for about 
8 months now. During that time my knowledge of Linux and computing in 
general has really shot ahead compared to when I was using SuSE. I'm not 
knocking SuSE, it's just that ultimately, all the hand-holding doesn't 
do the user any favours. It's best to dive in a get a grasp of what's 
going on beneath the bonnet.

I would recommend Debian to you because it has by far the best packet 
management system in dpkg/apt-get/deselect. If you want something you 
can browse through dselect find what you want and just install it. So if 
you don't like one mail client you can just download another and try 
that five minutes later. And there's no need to worry about dependencies 
and conflicts as dpkg resolves these intelligently.

Secondly the documentation is brilliant. I've downloaded entire manuals 
for applications I've tried out. It's a great way to learn.

Debian is highly configurable. It really is the distro for those who 
like to "roll your own". Sounds like you want to use Linux in a variety 
of situations and this feature will come in very handy.

It's completely free as in freedom and has a large support community. 
This also means it's virtually free as in price too. And it's going to 
stay that way.

The downside is that initially there is a fairly steep learning curve 
and you'll have to configure your own kernel to get your hardware 
working. However, when I encountered difficulty I brought my pc along to 
one of the PLUG workshops and got some very useful help from friendly 
PLUGers. This might be an option for you getting started.

With regards to the specifics:
emailclient: (take your pick) Mozilla, evolution, kmail, balsa, mutt, etc
internet access: pppconfig sets up the connection and then you use pon. 
Also has option of ppp on demand.
word processing: for uni assignment I use LyX which creates neat PDF 
docs with auto footnotes, etc. Otherwise Abiword or Kword are fine. Oh, 
not to mention the very M$ Word-like OpenWriter
spreadsheet: (take your pick) gnumeric, kspread, opencalc - there're all 
good
graphics: for posters etc, I use Scribus. But again, there's heaps of 
stuff available, it depends on what you're doing

regards,
sol



James Elliott wrote:

>Hi all
>
>Now my Uni exams are over for this semester, I and others will be moving on
>to other topics and not doing Linux/Unix again, but that is not the end of
>Linux for me - I would like to make it my main operating system and not have
>to switch backwards and forwards between Linux and Windows for different
>tasks.  The course was a good introduction to Linux and good way of getting
>started but I am very much a newbie and would like to hear differing members
>opinions on the merits of the various distributions.  Reading the large
>volume of PLUG e-mails that pass through my machine I see Red Hat, Mandrake,
>and Debian mentioned, just to name a few.
>
>For work and play, this is what I need:
>
>e-mail (most important)
>Internet access (I download a lot of drivers & product info for customers'
>Windows computers;  lookup wholesale price lists; Internet Banking; etc.)
>Word-processing
>Spreadsheet
>Minimal graphics (for designing pamphlets, letterheads, etc)
>
>I have an Epson 600 colour printer and a UMAX Astra 2100 USB scanner which I
>need to be functional (so I might need minimal photo editing software as
>well as I doubt that UMAX has Linux versions of its software).
>
>I will be buying/building a new computer soon and will network that to my
>current AMD 233 MHz 256 MB SDRAM computer.  I have a D-Link Internet
>gateway.
>
>I have the CD's for Red Hat 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 and am currently running 7.1,
>but before I spend time upgrading Red Hat I would like to know what you are
>using and what you suggest would be best for a new user.
>
>Many thanks
>
>James Elliott
>Ravensthorpe Computers
>ABN 34 305 232 710
>Tel:   08 9838 1043
>Fax:  08 9838 1049
>Cell:  0428 39 6052
>E-mail:  James.Elliott at wn.com.au
>Australia Post:
>PO Box 228, Ravensthorpe WA 6346
>
>
>  
>