[Pdx-pm] RE: [Off Topic] *nix Question

[Stout, Joel R]

Many thanks to the list!  I think I'm going to try Knoppix for the short term and then re-evaluate.  Your suggestions have prompted a real learning experience at this end (so many flavors so little time).  Thanks again. 

- Joel

pdx-pm-list-bounces at mail.pm.org wrote:
> I wish I had your problem.  Where I work, our IT dept is trying to get
> rid of Linux machines to free up extra funds to fight off the frequent
> viruses that affect their MSWin machines.
> 
> Cygwin from RedHat is good if you still want your Windows apps
> available at the same time.  You can also run your laptop as a server
> with ftpd, mysql and apache, and you can get all the development
> tools for console applications.  It's great for beginners and
> dabblers.  I haven't had much luck with using X-Windows apps with it,
> though. 
> 
> If you want to test GUI apps (such as KDE or Gnome desktops), there
> are several Linuces that boot and run from CD, then let you store
> data files on your hard drive or a USB key.   Two I can think of are
> Knoppix and Mandrake Move.   Of you want to do GUI development, a CD
> can't hold enough libraries, so I'd reccommend a full distribution
> such as RedHat or Mandrake (my favorite) and put it on an old
> machine.  Dual-booting is a hassle if you have to switch OSes more
> than twice a day.  VMWare is rather expensive, about as much as
> buying another old machine. 
> 
> -  Dennis McNulty
>    (retiring in a year)
> =============================================
> 
> Stout, Joel R wrote:
> 
>> Hola,
>> 
>> Looking for some advice.  I've been a M$ programmer for a while (ASP,
>> VB.Net, etc) but always kept a small amount of Perl knowledge in my
>> back pocket so I could miraculously glue everything together.  Now I
>> am being faced with a shift in environments.  Unix is the route my
>> department is taking and I must adapt.  I have heard a couple
>> suggestions about transitioning over - CoLinux, running RedHat under
>> VMWare, buying an old pc and putting Debian on it....
>> 
>> Basically I want to be able to learn more about Unix basics and do it
>> on my laptop - without changing over my main operating system.  Any
>> suggestions from the group?  Any experiences with CoLinux?
>> 
>> Thanks for any help,
>> 
>> 
>> Joel Stout (PDX PM Uberlurker)
>> Calaban on PerlMonks
>> EDI Systems Engineer
>> 
>> *My last email bounced because my address changed.  Hopefully you
>> won't be bothered with two of these emails. 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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