[Gloucs] Another Linux newcomer

[David Corking]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005, Steve Greig wrote:

> Is there any particular reason to think that Red Hat might not be a
> very good choice for a beginner like myself? 

Main reason is age - Red Hat 9 is an old product in terms of the Red
Hat lifecycle 'Last updates end April 2004'.  

See http://www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora/

Red Hat don't support Red Hat 9 any more (with security fixes.)  While
I think there is an open source project to keep RH9 running, the other
poster suggested you start with a recent release.

> I had chosen to go with Red Hat but only because that is the only
> distribution for which I could find a big book on the subject (The
> Red Hat Linux 9 Bible which I have just bought). 

Sadly, your bookshop sold you a book printed nearly 2 years ago.  The
author has updated it as 'Red Hat Fedora Linux 3 Bible'

(Link to amazon.co.uk http://tinyurl.com/5w8vy )

Your book should tell you a lot about Linux, but the DVD in the back
will be almost useless, as you will spend a lot of time downloading
security updates.

There are other good books - I personally like the printed books that
come in the box of SuSE Linux - they are great for explaining how to
use Linux to do ordinary things like watch video, record music and
print documents.

Sorry - I hope it doesn't sound like bad news - I hope you find Linux
fun and productive.

David