[TriLUG] More Installfest questions ...

[Tanner Lovelace]

On Fri, 2002-05-03 at 10:00, Lisa C. Boyd wrote:
> You guys have been holding out on me! 

What? Never? :-)

> I did a lot of reading yesterday from 
> the different distributions' web sites. The one that I was most impressed 
> with was Debian. I naively didn't realize all the software that comes with 
> these installs. I'm used to just installing an OS and then having to go 
> piece together software. 

Ah, I guess most people here have gotten used to this way of 
doing things.  It really beats the alternative...

> It's really cool that all this stuff comes 
> packaged together. I was also impressed with Mandrake although the 
> information about the software that comes with it didn't seem as 
> well-organized as the Debian site. 

Hmmm.. I would guess it's actually more organized/accessible
through the Mandrake Software Manager.  Unfortunately, to
use it, you already have to have Mandrake installed (oh well).

If you're considering Mandrake, though, you may also want to 
look at the files offered by the Penguin Liberation Front
(http://plf.zarb.org/). They add software that, for one reason or
another, Mandrake doesn't want to include (i.e. DVD playback 
software, fortunes files for various movies/tv shows, Divx 
movie codecs, playback plugins for various video game 
sound files, etc..).  In addition, they integrate directly 
into the Mandrake Software Manager. :-)

> Frankly I got frustrated trying to find 
> information on Red Hat's site - maybe it's just too over my head right now 
> or I wasn't looking in the right spots.

I don't run Redhat so I'll let someone else answer this one...

> So will there be a Debian guru at the Installfest? How many CDs do I need 
> to bring? I'm either going with Debian or Mandrake. I'm not afraid to read 
> up and learn and you guys have been a great source of information. Thanks :)

There should be someone there that can help you with Debian.  For
Mandrake, there will definitely be people there.
 
> Oh yeah, no one mentioned that Linux is good for 3d rendering and video 
> editing - does any one here do video editing with theirs? That's a secret 
> passion of mine.

Well, Mandrake includes Broadcast 2000 in its distribution. :-)
It's a very good video editing program which, unfortunately, isn't
offered by its creator anymore (but because it was released as
under an open source license mandrake can still keep it around).

For 3D rendering, there's quite a few programs available.  If you've
got lots of money, you can buy Maya for linux, but if you're
not that blessed :-) you could use povray or [....ack brain just
went blank!!!...].

I don't think you can go wrong choosing either Debian or Mandrake.
Both of them have quite a bit of software packaged for their
distribution and both have vibrant communities of developers/users
from which to draw on.

Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace at wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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