From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jul 11 11:58:08 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A2EAC1065672 for ; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:58:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from mail.potentialtech.com (internet.potentialtech.com [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 891E68FC17 for ; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:58:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from vanquish.ws.pitbpa0.priv.collaborativefusion.com (pr40.pitbpa0.pub.collaborativefusion.com [206.210.89.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id CCFB5EBC08; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:58:07 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:57:08 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: "Ian Lord" Message-Id: <20080711075708.e9fee4a7.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <990695FC90DB4BC8B3439F779B73FCF8@msdi.local> References: <990695FC90DB4BC8B3439F779B73FCF8@msdi.local> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.8 (GTK+ 2.12.9; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Linux for freebsd admins X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:58:08 -0000 In response to "Ian Lord" : > > I have to install a linux machine and don't know which distribution to take. I highly recommend CentOS for the following reasons: 1) It's free. 2) It's kept up to date. 3) It's 100% Red Hat compatible, which means: a) 99% of the howtos on the internet will work b) 99% of the Linux packages you find will work c) You can lie to vendors and tell them you're running Red Hat to get support. As for the packages thing: 300 seems to be about the minimum # of packages to make a working Linux install. Keep in mind that _everything_ is a package in Linux, even the kernel, so just installing typical stuff like ls and ps and top adds packages to the system. The CentOS installer does have an option for an X-less install. The Red Hat mentality doesn't go much for rolling your own packages, so you might not like CentOS for that reason, but it's a compromise. They have a # of upgrade managers similar to portupgrade, such as up2date and yum. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com