Gentoo -- is it good?

patty pippins · External Since: Oct 02, 2006 Posts: 1

Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
our servers and desktops to "linux".
For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
"linux gentoo 2006.1".
But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......

1. How easy is it to install foreign (=distribution neutral)
software?

2. We have a lot of peripherals (printers, scanners, modems,
professionl audio hardware, etc) will they all work?
Installation disks only have Windows drivers.

3. While researching a video problem, I stumbled across this
site

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42130#c4

>From that site, it seems some applications in their repository
have unclear copyright problems.
Could we get into legal trouble if we install these two
applications, "xserver", and "imake"?

4. How fast is "linux gentoo" fixing security problems?

5. How smooth are upgrades from one version of their OS to the
next, say "2006.2"?

Please advise.

Thanks,
-- Patty

Linonut · External Since: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 3492

After takin' a swig o' grog, patty pippins belched out this bit o' wisdom:

> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".

patty pippins.

Sounds like a spammer name.

--
"Developers! Developers! Developers!" -- Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft

Peter KÃ¶hlmann · External Since: Jun 27, 2005 Posts: 1500

The racist, liar and software thief patty pippins (flatfish) nymshifted:

< snip flatfish droppings >

You lately nymshifted to

Abbie Diaz, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans,
allison_hunt1969, Ana Thema, Anna Banger, anonymous, Archie, Archie Moss
Bunker, Archie Watermann, Baba Booey, Babu Singh, Bill Thomson, Billy
<billy.the.kidd>,bill.gates.loves.me, BingoBongo, bison, Bjarne Jensen,
BklynBoy, bonobo magilla, Boyce Mabri, BSEE, Buster, CBFalconer, Charles
LeGrand, Charlie, Choppers McGee, Chris Thomas, Christine Abernathy, Claire
Lynn, Clippy, Clock King, Collie Entragion, Colon Singh, common cold,
compton.plaines_kid, Connie Hines, Corrie, corry.lebeu, Corrie Titlaand,
Cory Dyvik, Curtis Wilson, Dana Bush, dbx_boy, Deadpenguin, Debbie, Devon
Dawson, dismoqualifetch, Donn Carlsbad, Dr.Long John Jones,
echo.valley_26809, Elliot Zimmermann, Elwin Winters, Emmanuel Arias, Fawn
Lebowitz, flatfish+++, foamy, frank boson, Franz Klammer, Fred Simmons,
gabriele howorth, Gary Stewart, GayClod, George Cotton, George Littlefield,
Gilbert, Gilbert Goiter, Gilbert Hochaim, gilligan, Greg Finnigan, Greg
Laplante, Hans Kimm, Harry Hilton, Harvey Fogel, Heather, Heather69,
Heather Trax, Heddy Seafield, Heidi van Wong, hepcat, Hugh Himless, Ishmeal
Hafizi, itchy balls, Ivan Mctavish, IvanaB, Jason, Jeff Szarka, Joe
Josephson, John, John Shelton, Jorge Jorgensen, Jose Lopez, juke_joint,
kaptain kaput, Karel Olish, Karla Snodgress, kathy_krantz, Kendra, Kenny
Dugan, Kent Dorfman, Kristen, Kyle Cadet, L Didio, Laura Shillingford, Le
Farter, Le Yammy, Leaking Onion, Leo Diaz, Les Cramer, Les Turner, Les
Walton, Leslie Bassman, Lilly, Lindy, Linux Exposer, Lisa Shavas, Lisa
Cottmann, Lois Hunt, Long, long_tong_ling, Lukumi Babalu Aye, Luna Lane,
Major Mynor, Manny, McSwain, mista twista,Mogumbo, Moses, Mooshoo Bong
Singh, narrows_whitefish DeleteThis @yahoo.com, nate_mcspook, okto_pussy, organ.creep,
OSS KDE User, Paddy McCrockett, Paris Marriot, Patricia, patty pippins,
Patty Poppins, percy samson, Peter Gluckman, Peter Kohlmann, Phil, Phillip
Cornwall, phoung, phoung quoak, pickle_pete, Piss Clam, Poopy Pants McGee,
Quimby, Quinton Magee, Quizno Backer, Rich, Richard P. Johnson, Richie,
Richie O'Toole, Richie Spano, Robert Strunk, rothstein_ivan, Sally Vadi,
Sammy, Sammy Whalen, Saul Goldblatt, Schlomo Smykowski, Sharon Cackle,
Sharon Hubbasland, Sean, Sean Fitzhenry, Sean Macpherson, Sewer Rat,
sewer_clown, Sherlock Holmes , Schlomo Rabinowitz, Simon, simply.lisa,
sista sledgehammer, slacker.mcspritze, Spammy_Davis, spanny_davis, Stefan
Karstensen, Stephan Simonsen, Stephanie Mannerz, Stephen, Stephen Olsen,
Stephen Townshend, stomach.pump, SuckyB, Sue, sue quinterra, SunnyB, Susan,
Susan Bladder, Susan Lapinski, Susan Wong, Suzi Wong, Suzie Wong, Swampee,
Ted Bennington, Terri Sorensen, The Beaver, Thorsten, Thorsten Thigpen,
Timmy Luncford , Toby Rastus Roosovelt III, Tomas Bicsak, Tomas Dunton,
Tomas Lucatorto, Tori, Tori Wassermann, Torre Stanslaand, Trace Dennison,
Tracee, Traci, trailerpark, Trina Swallows, Trolly, Trudi Simpkins, Tryxie
Lustern, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince Fontain, Vladimir
Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, wendy, Wendy Duzz, Whizzer,
Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, Winnie Septos, Wobbles, Yanick
Schmuley and zyklon_C.
Plus many, many, many more.
--
Ehrman's Commentary:
(1) Things will get worse before they get better.
(2) Who said things would get better?

BearItAll · External Since: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 1713

Peter Köhlmann wrote:

> The racist, liar and software thief patty pippins (flatfish) nymshifted:
>
> < snip flatfish droppings >
>
> You lately nymshifted to
>
> Abbie Diaz, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans,
> allison_hunt1969, Ana Thema, Anna Banger, anonymous, Archie, Archie Moss
> Simpkins, Tryxie Lustern, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince

<snipped names>

> Fontain, Vladimir Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, wendy,
> Wendy Duzz, Whizzer, Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, Winnie
> Septos, Wobbles, Yanick Schmuley and zyklon_C.
> Plus many, many, many more.

Oh that's a shame, I thought it was a genuine post because it does ask some
good questions. Unfortunately it also suggests that had the situation been
real then the poster as IT would have a job-life expectancy of zero because
he doesn't seem to know anything.

But it will come up in a search and is an otherwise nice group of questions
so I decided to post a reply. Sorry if this puts his troll score up a bit.

ray · External Since: Nov 13, 2004 Posts: 3312

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:51:21 -0700, patty pippins wrote:

> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".
> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
> "linux gentoo 2006.1".
> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......
>

I have to second what another poster said. Gentoo is not good - it is
great - assuming you know what you're doing. I run it on my mini-itx, and
it is faster than any out of the box distro - but I'm running an
underpowered 1ghz system, so I need all I can get. For a business
scenario, you'd be much better off using one or more of the out of the box
distros. BTW there is no particular reason I can think of why you'd need
the same distro for servers and dekstops. I think you'd be a lot better
off starting with something a little more 'newbie friendly'.

BearItAll · External Since: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 1713

patty pippins wrote:

We have been told this is a post from a well known troll. But it is a decent
group of questions and likely to come up in a search. So for those others
who are looking I decided to post a brief reply.

> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".
> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
> "linux gentoo 2006.1".

You would find that speed will not be an issue, you get an immediate speed
boost from any linux. Also, with Linux servers, if particular tasks are
very busy then it is very easy, and cheap, to distribute the server
processes. So for example if you find print services are taking up too big
a share of the resources, then a second cheap PC with Linux on can take
over all print services and other general purpose services.

For example, in this current company, nearly every service job was done by
one very busy UNIX. I distributed the file and print services almost as
soon as I arrived. This cleaned up two bad areas, a bottleneck in
communications all centering on the one server and reduced the workload of
the UNIX which already had a busy time running the databases on two
continents and many out stations.

Distributing tasks in this way is natural to the UNIX/Linux approach.

If you are in a high volume processing situation that really does need
maximum raw power, then one of the Debian based distros will serve you
best. The Debian distro is clean with minimum clutter.

> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......
>
> 1. How easy is it to install foreign (=distribution neutral)
> software?
>

Installing software from source is well established. But those who wrote
their software, including database code, do not necessarily have a
UNIX/Linux version of that code. Data tables and SQL (other than MS's few
non-standard SQL ideas) would move to Linux, compiled support code would
not unless they have done a UNIX/Linux version that you can compile for
your machine.

> 2. We have a lot of peripherals (printers, scanners, modems,
> professionl audio hardware, etc) will they all work?
> Installation disks only have Windows drivers.
>

Yes.

The first job of UNIX is communication, so anything that involves
communication on a UNIX/Linux is sitting on the best tool for the job.

> 3. While researching a video problem, I stumbled across this
> site
>
> <snipped the link, not to hide it, but because it isn't significant to
this post>
>

That spoils your post. It has nothing to do with a potential move to Linux.
When it comes to stealing code they is no better example than MS.

> 4. How fast is "linux gentoo" fixing security problems?
>

As quickly as possible. How soon will MS fix their memory management
problems? Those that have been there since the earliest MS Win and
compounded by MS Office.

> 5. How smooth are upgrades from one version of their OS to the
> next, say "2006.2"?
>

No one would ever do a direct upgrade of a live server. You upgrade the
mirror or copy server, once tested you switch them over to upgrade the next
server.

The weekly updates though are very different, I can't remember the last time
I had a bad update on my Redhats, Suse's and smoothwall4, I would be happy
to allow them to update Live, it is just the old school IT background that
stops me being quite brave enough to do that.

Sinister Midget · External Since: Jun 17, 2006 Posts: 746

On 2006-10-03, patty pippins <patty.pippins.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> posted something concerning:
> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".

Nice try, Flatso. You should come up with a better naming scheme. I
didn't even have to read any of it to know it was you.

--
C:\WINDOWS\RUN
C:\COMPUTER\CRASH
C:\USER\CRY

yttrx · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 1246

patty pippins <patty.pippins.RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".
> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
> "linux gentoo 2006.1".
> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......
>

You're already mislead.

Lots of things fit your needs of customizability. Gentoo makes a
really great server and desktop for people *who know exactly what
theyre doing*...for an office environment thats switching to linux
from windows however, it's a very bad idea and will only generate
lots of headaches.

Also, compiling everything (gentoo style) is overrated these days.
There was a time when computers were very slow by todays standards,
so compilation for a specific processor architecture, say for PPC
instead of x86, was a good idea. Today It doesn't matter.

Debian for servers, SuSe for workstations. And RTFM. A lot.

-----yttrx

--
http://www.yttrx.net

yttrx · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 1246

Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann RemoveThis @t-online.de> wrote:
> The racist, liar and software thief patty pippins (flatfish) nymshifted:
>
> < snip flatfish droppings >
>
> You lately nymshifted to
>
> Abbie Diaz, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans,
> allison_hunt1969, Ana Thema, Anna Banger, anonymous, Archie, Archie Moss
> Bunker, Archie Watermann, Baba Booey, Babu Singh, Bill Thomson, Billy
> <billy.the.kidd>,bill.gates.loves.me, BingoBongo, bison, Bjarne Jensen,
> BklynBoy, bonobo magilla, Boyce Mabri, BSEE, Buster, CBFalconer, Charles
> LeGrand, Charlie, Choppers McGee, Chris Thomas, Christine Abernathy, Claire
> Lynn, Clippy, Clock King, Collie Entragion, Colon Singh, common cold,
> compton.plaines_kid, Connie Hines, Corrie, corry.lebeu, Corrie Titlaand,
> Cory Dyvik, Curtis Wilson, Dana Bush, dbx_boy, Deadpenguin, Debbie, Devon
> Dawson, dismoqualifetch, Donn Carlsbad, Dr.Long John Jones,
> echo.valley_26809, Elliot Zimmermann, Elwin Winters, Emmanuel Arias, Fawn
> Lebowitz, flatfish+++, foamy, frank boson, Franz Klammer, Fred Simmons,
> gabriele howorth, Gary Stewart, GayClod, George Cotton, George Littlefield,
> Gilbert, Gilbert Goiter, Gilbert Hochaim, gilligan, Greg Finnigan, Greg
> Laplante, Hans Kimm, Harry Hilton, Harvey Fogel, Heather, Heather69,
> Heather Trax, Heddy Seafield, Heidi van Wong, hepcat, Hugh Himless, Ishmeal
> Hafizi, itchy balls, Ivan Mctavish, IvanaB, Jason, Jeff Szarka, Joe
> Josephson, John, John Shelton, Jorge Jorgensen, Jose Lopez, juke_joint,
> kaptain kaput, Karel Olish, Karla Snodgress, kathy_krantz, Kendra, Kenny
> Dugan, Kent Dorfman, Kristen, Kyle Cadet, L Didio, Laura Shillingford, Le
> Farter, Le Yammy, Leaking Onion, Leo Diaz, Les Cramer, Les Turner, Les
> Walton, Leslie Bassman, Lilly, Lindy, Linux Exposer, Lisa Shavas, Lisa
> Cottmann, Lois Hunt, Long, long_tong_ling, Lukumi Babalu Aye, Luna Lane,
> Major Mynor, Manny, McSwain, mista twista,Mogumbo, Moses, Mooshoo Bong
> Singh, narrows_whitefish RemoveThis @yahoo.com, nate_mcspook, okto_pussy, organ.creep,
> OSS KDE User, Paddy McCrockett, Paris Marriot, Patricia, patty pippins,
> Patty Poppins, percy samson, Peter Gluckman, Peter Kohlmann, Phil, Phillip
> Cornwall, phoung, phoung quoak, pickle_pete, Piss Clam, Poopy Pants McGee,
> Quimby, Quinton Magee, Quizno Backer, Rich, Richard P. Johnson, Richie,
> Richie O'Toole, Richie Spano, Robert Strunk, rothstein_ivan, Sally Vadi,
> Sammy, Sammy Whalen, Saul Goldblatt, Schlomo Smykowski, Sharon Cackle,
> Sharon Hubbasland, Sean, Sean Fitzhenry, Sean Macpherson, Sewer Rat,
> sewer_clown, Sherlock Holmes , Schlomo Rabinowitz, Simon, simply.lisa,
> sista sledgehammer, slacker.mcspritze, Spammy_Davis, spanny_davis, Stefan
> Karstensen, Stephan Simonsen, Stephanie Mannerz, Stephen, Stephen Olsen,
> Stephen Townshend, stomach.pump, SuckyB, Sue, sue quinterra, SunnyB, Susan,
> Susan Bladder, Susan Lapinski, Susan Wong, Suzi Wong, Suzie Wong, Swampee,
> Ted Bennington, Terri Sorensen, The Beaver, Thorsten, Thorsten Thigpen,
> Timmy Luncford , Toby Rastus Roosovelt III, Tomas Bicsak, Tomas Dunton,
> Tomas Lucatorto, Tori, Tori Wassermann, Torre Stanslaand, Trace Dennison,
> Tracee, Traci, trailerpark, Trina Swallows, Trolly, Trudi Simpkins, Tryxie
> Lustern, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince Fontain, Vladimir
> Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, wendy, Wendy Duzz, Whizzer,
> Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, Winnie Septos, Wobbles, Yanick
> Schmuley and zyklon_C.
> Plus many, many, many more.

You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
evidence about the vast majority of these.

Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?

Thanks,

-----yttrx

--
http://www.yttrx.net

Kelsey Bjarnason · External Since: Sep 12, 2006 Posts: 1022

[snips]

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:46:46 +0000, yttrx wrote:

> Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann.DeleteThis@t-online.de> wrote:
>> The racist, liar and software thief patty pippins (flatfish) nymshifted:
>>
>> < snip flatfish droppings >
>>
>> You lately nymshifted to

>> Plus many, many, many more.
>
> You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
> evidence about the vast majority of these.

Is Patty actually flatty? Don't know for sure... but from the very first
line, that was my gut feeling. It's a question, I think, of how the words
in the post flow more than anything.

Is it guaranteed that everyone who sounds like that *is* flatty, or that
flatty will always sound like that? No. However, if it walks like a duck
and talks like a duck, chances are, it's a ... fish.

flatfish+++ · External Since: Dec 12, 2004 Posts: 2793

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 13:46:46 +0000, yttrx wrote:

> Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann RemoveThis @t-online.de> wrote:
>> The racist, liar and software thief patty pippins (flatfish) nymshifted:
>>
>> < snip flatfish droppings >
>>
>> You lately nymshifted to
>>
>> Abbie Diaz, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans,
>> allison_hunt1969, Ana Thema, Anna Banger, anonymous, Archie, Archie Moss
>> Bunker, Archie Watermann, Baba Booey, Babu Singh, Bill Thomson, Billy
>> <billy.the.kidd>,bill.gates.loves.me, BingoBongo, bison, Bjarne Jensen,
>> BklynBoy, bonobo magilla, Boyce Mabri, BSEE, Buster, CBFalconer, Charles
>> LeGrand, Charlie, Choppers McGee, Chris Thomas, Christine Abernathy, Claire
>> Lynn, Clippy, Clock King, Collie Entragion, Colon Singh, common cold,
>> compton.plaines_kid, Connie Hines, Corrie, corry.lebeu, Corrie Titlaand,
>> Cory Dyvik, Curtis Wilson, Dana Bush, dbx_boy, Deadpenguin, Debbie, Devon
>> Dawson, dismoqualifetch, Donn Carlsbad, Dr.Long John Jones,
>> echo.valley_26809, Elliot Zimmermann, Elwin Winters, Emmanuel Arias, Fawn
>> Lebowitz, flatfish+++, foamy, frank boson, Franz Klammer, Fred Simmons,
>> gabriele howorth, Gary Stewart, GayClod, George Cotton, George Littlefield,
>> Gilbert, Gilbert Goiter, Gilbert Hochaim, gilligan, Greg Finnigan, Greg
>> Laplante, Hans Kimm, Harry Hilton, Harvey Fogel, Heather, Heather69,
>> Heather Trax, Heddy Seafield, Heidi van Wong, hepcat, Hugh Himless, Ishmeal
>> Hafizi, itchy balls, Ivan Mctavish, IvanaB, Jason, Jeff Szarka, Joe
>> Josephson, John, John Shelton, Jorge Jorgensen, Jose Lopez, juke_joint,
>> kaptain kaput, Karel Olish, Karla Snodgress, kathy_krantz, Kendra, Kenny
>> Dugan, Kent Dorfman, Kristen, Kyle Cadet, L Didio, Laura Shillingford, Le
>> Farter, Le Yammy, Leaking Onion, Leo Diaz, Les Cramer, Les Turner, Les
>> Walton, Leslie Bassman, Lilly, Lindy, Linux Exposer, Lisa Shavas, Lisa
>> Cottmann, Lois Hunt, Long, long_tong_ling, Lukumi Babalu Aye, Luna Lane,
>> Major Mynor, Manny, McSwain, mista twista,Mogumbo, Moses, Mooshoo Bong
>> Singh, narrows_whitefish RemoveThis @yahoo.com, nate_mcspook, okto_pussy, organ.creep,
>> OSS KDE User, Paddy McCrockett, Paris Marriot, Patricia, patty pippins,
>> Patty Poppins, percy samson, Peter Gluckman, Peter Kohlmann, Phil, Phillip
>> Cornwall, phoung, phoung quoak, pickle_pete, Piss Clam, Poopy Pants McGee,
>> Quimby, Quinton Magee, Quizno Backer, Rich, Richard P. Johnson, Richie,
>> Richie O'Toole, Richie Spano, Robert Strunk, rothstein_ivan, Sally Vadi,
>> Sammy, Sammy Whalen, Saul Goldblatt, Schlomo Smykowski, Sharon Cackle,
>> Sharon Hubbasland, Sean, Sean Fitzhenry, Sean Macpherson, Sewer Rat,
>> sewer_clown, Sherlock Holmes , Schlomo Rabinowitz, Simon, simply.lisa,
>> sista sledgehammer, slacker.mcspritze, Spammy_Davis, spanny_davis, Stefan
>> Karstensen, Stephan Simonsen, Stephanie Mannerz, Stephen, Stephen Olsen,
>> Stephen Townshend, stomach.pump, SuckyB, Sue, sue quinterra, SunnyB, Susan,
>> Susan Bladder, Susan Lapinski, Susan Wong, Suzi Wong, Suzie Wong, Swampee,
>> Ted Bennington, Terri Sorensen, The Beaver, Thorsten, Thorsten Thigpen,
>> Timmy Luncford , Toby Rastus Roosovelt III, Tomas Bicsak, Tomas Dunton,
>> Tomas Lucatorto, Tori, Tori Wassermann, Torre Stanslaand, Trace Dennison,
>> Tracee, Traci, trailerpark, Trina Swallows, Trolly, Trudi Simpkins, Tryxie
>> Lustern, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince Fontain, Vladimir
>> Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, wendy, Wendy Duzz, Whizzer,
>> Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, Winnie Septos, Wobbles, Yanick
>> Schmuley and zyklon_C.
>> Plus many, many, many more.
>
> You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
> evidence about the vast majority of these.
>
> Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
> style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
> for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
> just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
>
> -----yttrx

He's wrong again, as usual.

The Linux nutsacks post these things from time to time in order to blame
flatfish.
They all follow the same pattern.
And as usual, there is never any proof offered up.

Hadron Quark · External Since: Sep 10, 2006 Posts: 1621

yttrx.DeleteThis@yttrx.net (yttrx) writes:

> Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann.DeleteThis@t-online.de> wrote:
> Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
> style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
> for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
> just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?
>
> Thanks,

You'd have more chance of having that tattoo of Roy's arse removed from
your pecker free of charge on the British National Health system.

The Ghost In The Machine · External Since: Aug 04, 2005 Posts: 3878

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, patty pippins
<patty.pippins.RemoveThis@yahoo.com>
wrote
on 2 Oct 2006 21:51:21 -0700
<1159851081.599009.26650.RemoveThis@k70g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>:
> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".
> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
> "linux gentoo 2006.1".
> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......
>
> 1. How easy is it to install foreign (=distribution neutral)
> software?

Not that difficult. There are some issues if one is
running on non-x86 hardware and one wants to run stuff
requiring Win32. However, Gentoo does offer wine.

>
> 2. We have a lot of peripherals (printers, scanners, modems,
> professionl audio hardware, etc) will they all work?

No guarantees. The probability is that they will, but
without more specifics how can I even answer this question?

Printers are generally not an issue.
Scanners I don't know, since I don't use them.
Modems can be problematic if they are WinModems. Some manufacturers
have released specs and/or drivers, some have not.
Professional audio hardware I know little about.

> Installation disks only have Windows drivers.

Aye. Those drivers are generally useless on Linux, which
provides its own.

>
> 3. While researching a video problem, I stumbled across this
> site
>
> http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42130#c4
>
>>From that site, it seems some applications in their repository
> have unclear copyright problems.
> Could we get into legal trouble if we install these two
> applications, "xserver", and "imake"?

I'd have to research the issue.

>
> 4. How fast is "linux gentoo" fixing security problems?

The main problem is remembering to synchronize one's tree on a regular
basis.

>
> 5. How smooth are upgrades from one version of their OS to the
> next, say "2006.2"?

I've had very few problems; the main issues are one has to occasionally
update one's profile, which is usually transparent. There are issues
regarding compiler upgrades; one usually has to rebuild the system.
But with Gentoo, that's fairly simple.

>
> Please advise.
>
> Thanks,
> -- Patty
>

--
#191, ewill3.RemoveThis@earthlink.net
Evil? Were I evil, I'd eat you *first*. Smile

Peter KÃ¶hlmann · External Since: Jun 27, 2005 Posts: 1500

yttrx wrote:

< snip flatfish list >

> You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
> evidence about the vast majority of these.
>
> Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
> style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
> for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
> just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?
>

No, I will not.
Not for flatfish, not for Hadron.
And especially not for you
--
No trees were destroyed in the sending of this message, however, a
significant number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

yttrx · External Since: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 1246

Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann RemoveThis @t-online.de> wrote:
> yttrx wrote:
>
> < snip flatfish list >
>
>> You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
>> evidence about the vast majority of these.
>>
>> Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
>> style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
>> for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
>> just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?
>>
>
> No, I will not.
> Not for flatfish, not for Hadron.
> And especially not for you

Ah, so everyone is just supposed to believe you because youre german?

Last time we did that, you invaded poland.

-----yttrx

--
http://www.yttrx.net

Hadron Quark · External Since: Sep 10, 2006 Posts: 1621

yttrx.TakeThisOut@yttrx.net (yttrx) writes:

> Peter K?hlmann <peter.koehlmann.TakeThisOut@t-online.de> wrote:
>> yttrx wrote:
>>
>> < snip flatfish list >
>>
>>> You know, you say this a lot, but you've not come up with any solid
>>> evidence about the vast majority of these.
>>>
>>> Really, you're just being a tool. I realize that "evidence" is out of
>>> style in today's day and age insofar as "supporting one's point", but
>>> for those of us old fashioned types that tend not to believe things
>>> just because someone says theyre true, could you pony some up?
>>>
>>
>> No, I will not.
>> Not for flatfish, not for Hadron.
>> And especially not for you
>
> Ah, so everyone is just supposed to believe you because youre german?
>
> Last time we did that, you invaded poland.
>

"We Germans are not all chocolate and Kindergartens you know"

Thank god for the Simpsons.

Linonut · External Since: Mar 31, 2006 Posts: 3492

After takin' a swig o' grog, flatfish+++ belched out this bit o' wisdom:

> The Linux nutsacks post these things from time to time in order to blame
> flatfish.
> They all follow the same pattern.
> And as usual, there is never any proof offered up.

But, admit it -- you love the attention.

--
Don't flip the Bozo Bit. -- Jim McCarthy, Microsoft

Hadron Quark · External Since: Sep 10, 2006 Posts: 1621

ray <ray DeleteThis @zianet.com> writes:

> On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:51:21 -0700, patty pippins wrote:
>
>> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
>> our servers and desktops to "linux".
>> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
>> "linux gentoo 2006.1".
>> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......
>>
>
>
> I have to second what another poster said. Gentoo is not good - it is
> great - assuming you know what you're doing. I run it on my mini-itx, and
> it is faster than any out of the box distro - but I'm running an
> underpowered 1ghz system, so I need all I can get. For a business
> scenario, you'd be much better off using one or more of the out of the box
> distros. BTW there is no particular reason I can think of why you'd need
> the same distro for servers and dekstops. I think you'd be a lot better
> off starting with something a little more 'newbie friendly'.
>

One very good reason to stick with the same distro is support value.

Something stable and "with it" like Ubuntu has desktop and server
installations.

Don't underestimate the value of consistency.

--
Cox's philosophy:
Life's a bitch, then you die.

user · External Since: Aug 14, 2005 Posts: 1197

patty pippins flatly wrote:

> Our company finally decided to ditch windows and to switch all
> our servers and desktops to "linux".
> For best customizability and maximum speed we decided to go with
> "linux gentoo 2006.1".
> But being relatively new to "linux" I have a few questions.......

> Please advise.
>
> Thanks,
> -- Patty

Well Patty, flatly, I'm pleased you are taking the leap.
You should understand a real company purchases only flat out approved
products, and approved software products usually means supported products
like RedHat, SuSE, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Linspire, and a whole
host of other supported Linux distributions.

If you want to install other types of Linux distributions,
then you should use a Linux consultancy or Linux solution provider
to manage the migration.

There are endless varieties of solution providers ranging from
international multi-billion dollar companies like IBM with
an international presense to manage and deploy Linux solutions
across the globe, to small (less than 10 employees)
consultancies specialising in kitting out and supporting
small and medium sized enterprises.

Its always worthwhile calling in a Linux rep from these
companies to give you advise, and explain how they
will systematically manage your migration.

Freeride · External Since: Jun 29, 2004 Posts: 54

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:25:23 -0500, Linonut wrote:

> But, admit it -- you love the attention.

Making up for all the attention it did not recieve as a child. Plus COLA
attention is much cheap than psych drugs. Smile