As promised last week, here's my report on installing 9.1 from
CDs (from http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com) on an IBM A30
laptop (933 MHz P3, 256 MB).

Actually, I had failed to get X running under Debian, despite
some effort, so I turned to Slackware next as an alternative to
RedHat. In the meantime, I've decided to obtain Fedora and
Icepack as well -- since I'm trying things, might as well try
those too. One result is that I haven't bothered to bring up my
full production system, though I've little doubt that could be
done with ease.

I'm just doing basic installs, creating one user and trying out
a few common packages like Netscape to see it doing
*something*.

The short report on Slackware 9.1: no serious problems. I used
the existing partitions. The network (private net behind a
firewall) came up as soon as I put in the static IP info for
the node.

I could suggest small improvements in the installer, though:

(a) The package installation process ends with the second CD in
the drive at the point one is asked which kernel to
install. The instructions suggest it's wisest to use the
same kernel one booted to. What *isn't* clear is that if
you choose that option without putting the first CD back in
the drive, it tries to copy the kernel from a floppy drive.
The A30 has no floppy drive. This is not a disaster, since
you can get back to the decision point and choose cdrom as
the source and the default kernel is on that disc too. If
this isn't clear, it's the wording of the instructions
that's a bit confusing or misleading.

(b) Nobody uses just one DNS server these days, but the
installer only lets you specify one and requires you to
edit /etc/resolv.conf to add more. This is no trick, but
the installer *could* be changed to accept two or three IP
numbers with no great effort on Slackware's part. Debian
does this, for example.

I was a little surprised that the installer said it might be
risky to install LILO in the MBR. Never had a problem with that
on any other Linux, whether using LILO or GRUB.

The default XF86Config worked fine, though it may need a tweak
since when startx starts, there's some garbage on the screen
for a couple seconds. I'll certainly look into that if I end up
using Slackware on my whole net when support for RH 7.2 dies at
the end of next month.

One reason all this is of interest is that it doesn't involve
just me. I'm a retired network engineer, but that allows me to
participate in site licenses and pricing deals obtained by my
former employer, the University of Wisconsin. They are, like so
many others, the captives of Microsoft. But there are quite a
number of departments there running servers under Linux, and
almost all of them are RedHat. The new line of RH products
(Enterprise Servers/Workstation) is by any measure pricey, even
compared to MS alternatives. The alternatives being considered
seem to be Debian, SUSE and Fedora. Just today there was news
that educational discounts for the RH Enterprise products *may*
become available.

Based on my experience of this afternoon, I see no reason why
Slackware should not be in the mix. I understand from many
people that Debian is a fine product, and I'm sure it could
be got running on this laptop with some work, possibly with
a custom kernel. And laptops are notoriously likely to have
little problems in hardware.

Be that as it may, fans of Slackware will be glad to hear, no
doubt, that it was duck soup.

I expect icepack next. It seems to be a one-man show, but to
judge from the screenshots, the tools look to be very well
designed. We shall see if they actually work, though.

--
[] In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments --
[] there are consequences.
[] -- Robert G. Ingersoll, 1833-1899
--
* Copyright 2003 Jess Anderson (anderson@wisc.edu)
* Window Maker themes: www.jessanderson.org/wmthemes