1) Which was your Linux distribution story?
I started using Linux in 1992 or so with MCC Interim Linux. I had been working with a realtime Linux called LynxOS porting a primitive version of Sendmail to it so it could actually send me mail if the remote telescope it was supposed to operate was functioning.
2) What is your preferred $your_distribution version?
I primarily use CentOS-5 as a desktop these days. While it is very far behind what the cool kids are using.. it matches the servers (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) I am running so code I compile/run are better assured at working at it. When I get a chance I switch to Fedora on desktops that are my preview systems so I know what the servers will be later. However I constantly run into projects that lifetimes for the core OS API's are 5 to 7 years which leaves using Fedora on them not much of an option.
3) Write a short story (more like an anecdote) about your past distribution.
I had spent a month or so working on that versus my school work and one of the technicians downstairs decided to help by bringing up a stack of floppy disks... in 2 days of loading (getting replacement floppies etc) I then got a bunch of tar-balls and got a lot of things working that had cost us over 10k for. While the kernel did not have a millisecond realtime factor.. we were actually getting a lot of stuff done we had not expected to have done. I think we then went to TAMU and SLS over the next couple of months as they had X and other things 'working' in them. By the end of 1993.. we had a working SLIP connection over a 50 km microwave link using custom hardware. By the middle of 1994 I had gotten my own 386 and was using Slackware for everything. I used it until 1996, when I worked for a company that was infamous for giving Microsoft Internet Explorer 1-> 3 and somewhat infamous for Red Baron browser.
2008-12-30
2008-12-05
The lack of blogging and Lessons learned.
Well I have been 'vacationing' from Fedora for a bit, and work has been rather crazy with various people trying to make up for the 2 jobs David Northrop did.. so I have not really had much urge to blog. However I am going to be changing that hopefully in the coming weeks as the school goes into winter break and I can work on puppet and stuff.
One thing that I have done is work with other operating systems during my vacation to get an idea of where OS's are these days.
1. OpenSolaris. Wow.. this really could do with a 'modern' package management system. I guess some of the blends come with one, but the version I tried on my Sparc Blade was painful to work with. I thought about doing some rpm work there but ran into other issues.
2. MacOS-10.4. Ok I got to spend some time seeing how this OS is set up and I can see the pretty factor.. Installation and removal of stuff seems pretty easy (well except when it isnt) but wow. it is a pain in the butt to find applications at time. I have applications in my tree, my kid's tree and in the main tree.. and some of them are duplicates.. and wow.
3. MacOS-10.5. I now understand the beauty of a 5 second startup. I spend most of my time watching servers where each peripheal card can take 5-20 seconds to set-itself up. The amount of time to get X going is a trivial amount of waiting compared to the various other times. But sitting at the Imac and being able to get to a browser within 30 seconds of turning the system on does have an emotional impact I was not aware of. Finding applications is still a pain.. I guess I am still too menu driven in my logic to understand the Mac way.. but it has been interesting to see what the various Desktop groups are trying to 'keep' up with.
I will be looking at 'administration' of these systems next to see what they have that might be nice to have and what I just can't grok. After that.. I am hoping to have a system where I can run 'Vista' so I can get a full spectrum of what computing is like for others. And then it will be time to look at Fedora Server projects that would be useful to jump into.
One thing that I have done is work with other operating systems during my vacation to get an idea of where OS's are these days.
1. OpenSolaris. Wow.. this really could do with a 'modern' package management system. I guess some of the blends come with one, but the version I tried on my Sparc Blade was painful to work with. I thought about doing some rpm work there but ran into other issues.
2. MacOS-10.4. Ok I got to spend some time seeing how this OS is set up and I can see the pretty factor.. Installation and removal of stuff seems pretty easy (well except when it isnt) but wow. it is a pain in the butt to find applications at time. I have applications in my tree, my kid's tree and in the main tree.. and some of them are duplicates.. and wow.
3. MacOS-10.5. I now understand the beauty of a 5 second startup. I spend most of my time watching servers where each peripheal card can take 5-20 seconds to set-itself up. The amount of time to get X going is a trivial amount of waiting compared to the various other times. But sitting at the Imac and being able to get to a browser within 30 seconds of turning the system on does have an emotional impact I was not aware of. Finding applications is still a pain.. I guess I am still too menu driven in my logic to understand the Mac way.. but it has been interesting to see what the various Desktop groups are trying to 'keep' up with.
I will be looking at 'administration' of these systems next to see what they have that might be nice to have and what I just can't grok. After that.. I am hoping to have a system where I can run 'Vista' so I can get a full spectrum of what computing is like for others. And then it will be time to look at Fedora Server projects that would be useful to jump into.
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