Nix!

[athelind]

I'm planning to turn the Spare Computer that's currently gathering dust into a *NIX Box. I'm looking for a flavor of *NIX that is easy to install, and has a wide range of hardware support. I want to get more familiar with the care and feeding of Open Source software such as The GIMP and GRASS -- right now, I can't even decipher the installation in structions for the Windows version of GRASS.

I am, with no little trepidation, opening the floor to input. What flavor of *NIX would be best for a relative newbie?

Comments

[foofers.livejournal.com]

What flavor of *NIX would be best for a relative newbie?

Mac OS X. *fans flames* :)

But seriously...I'll second that "stay away from Debian" suggestion. Even on a fairly vanilla box that one had me screaming and wanting to throw it out the window, and never could get X11 running. I used to run and was sufficiently pleased with RedHat, but that was many, many years ago...dunno how recent versions hold up against other distributions out there, but might still be worth a look.

[richardf8]

Mac OS X?

Cool OS, but I don't think it will run on the box Athelind's considering. Unles there's an Intel port?

Yes, but....

[yasha-taur.livejournal.com]

Actually, there is a port of the BSD part of OS-X that does run on an x86 box. It's called Darwin, it is Open Source, and you can download it from Apple and install it on a PC. It has NO GUI or any of the other stuff that makes it 'a Mac', it's just the BSD Unix part. It is actually a pretty nice flavor of BSD, I have been told. I believe it's meant mostly for developers. It also makes it nice for people that need complete compatability at the command line level between their Macs and a few PCs.

Obviously it wouldn't be the best choice for Athelind, but it is there....