[TriLUG] Linux on Compaq Alpha

[Ed Hill]

On Sun, 2002-05-26 at 20:34, Roberto J Dohnert wrote:
> 
> Hey guys I was wondering what would be a good version of Linux for the
> Compaq Alpha i just aquired one at a Computer Auction last friday.  I
> was going to try Red Hats Distro for Alpha but others have told me its
> not really stable does anyone have any experience with the Alpha
> platform..


Hi Roberto,

I don't know where you're getting your information about Red Hat being
unstable on Alphas.  In fact, the TriLUG web server has been run for
more than a year on a Compaq Alpha DS10 loaded with Red Hat v6.2. 
AFAIK, its been quite stable and theres nothing unusual about that.  I
know of many x86 boxes that have been *much* flakier.

On the other hand, I believe that Red Hat has discontinued development
of its distribution for the Alpha architecture.  With Compaq (now HPQ)
essentially handing over all Alpha technology to Intel, the architecture
is probably dying.  I believe that Compaq was subsidizing the Red Hat
Alpha distro (since it wasn't worth Red Hat's time/effort given the
number of copies sold) and thats also ending.

So my point?  Don't be afraid to install Red Hat 6.2 or 7.1:

  http://www.apac.redhat.com/products/linux/alpha.php3

on your Alpha.  With all the updates, RH 6.2 a *very* solid distro and
will serve you well for just about anything you'd like to do.

hth,
Ed

ps - RH 6.2 was the last RH distro to ship with the "good" gcc v2.95 
     compiler.  The RH 7.x series includes the pain-in-the-###, RH- 
     specific gcc "v2.96" that many folks, including myself, have had 
     problems with...


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD    |  Email:       ed at eh3.com, ehill at mines.edu
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  URLs:        http://www.eh3.com
Division of ESE            |   http://wasser.mines.edu/people/edhill.php
Colorado School of Mines   |  Phone:       303-273-3483
Golden, CO  80401          |  Fax:         303-273-3311
Key fingerprint = 5BDE 4DA1 66BE 4F7B BC17  3A0C 932B 7266 1E76 F123