I have never used linux as a main OS before, but I have done scripting for it to run a server for a game called NWN, so it would check if it was running, and if it wasn't (crashed) it would start back up. Just simple things like that.
Anyhow, what is available to compile c/c++ on linux?
Are there any good distros if I'm going to be using it for techie things like mainly programming, not games (thats why i will still have windows).
Hi, I've got 70 GB of extra hard drive space (only 22 GB used) right now. So I've decided to set up a dual boot to [slackware]. We've got one linux box right now that is only used as a router and server, not as a normal-use computer. RedHat is installed on it.
On my normal-use computer, like I said, I want to dual boot with my current Windows XP and slackware. I do a lot of programming in c/c++, and am semi-familiar with linux so far.
I've done a LITTLE bit of scripting on linux before.
Whenever I used our linux box with redhat I telnetted into it from our windows box, so I am familiar with doing things from the command line.
Oh, and we run samba to share files over our windows and linux box. DSL comes in on our linux box out to all our other windows comps.
1) Do you think slackware will be too hard to install and use with what I've told you about myself?
2) Is it customizeable?
3) Will it meet my programming needs?
4) Can I get windows clone-programs on it? EX: on redhat there is a clone for AOL's AIM, things like that.
I just wanted to be a little more specific on this...
The first thing you need to worry about is partitioning. Is the whole 70GB Hard Drive partitioned as an NTFS/FAT32 partition? If so, you'll either need to find some software that can shrink your current partition and make room for ext2/ext3 partitions or you could just wipe the whole hard drive and create a partition for Windows and then partitions for Linux. I just want to give you fair warning before you accidently install Linux of the Windows install and completely lose your data from Windows.
Also Slackwares installation is not the best. If you are looking for ease of installation I suggest you look into Redhat (great development environment) or Mandrake (very newbie friendly). I like RH alot better but it is pure opinion. Also both have partitioning options to automatically partition for you. This is a great feature. Slackware (if I remember correctly) didn't have something like this, I think it did come with cfdisk but this wasn't as easy as using Mdk or RH.
>>1) Do you think slackware will be too hard to install and use with what I've told you about myself?
Just do some reading and prepare yourself. it'll probably work out fine.. if it doesnt you can just try again.
>>2) Is it customizeable?
Yes.
>>3) Will it meet my programming needs?
Yes.
>>4) Can I get windows clone-programs on it? EX: on redhat there is a clone for AOL's AIM, things like that.
check out centericq
err. there's cfdisk and fdisk. they are very easy to use...Also both have partitioning options to automatically partition for you. This is a great feature. Slackware (if I remember correctly) didn't have something like this, I think it did come with cfdisk but this wasn't as easy as using Mdk or RH.
Keyword: as
AOl makes a AIM program for linux, I am not totaly sure if it is compatable with Slackware but it should work-
http://www.aim.com/get_aim/linux/latest_linux.adp
if that doesnt work just look into GAIM
Bleh, Red Hat is NOT a great developing OS. They broke gcc beyond fixing. Say what you will about its "User friendly" installation, I would not suggest using it for anything beyond a newbie learning how to use linux.
As for AIM, Almost ALL linux apps run on each others distro. The divid between slackware and red hat is not like linux and windows. They use the same executable format and are the same envirnment, more or less. Anything you can do in 1 distro, you can basically do in another.
