Re: Linux Workstations

On Thursday 02 October 2003 16:02, Bob Cagle wrote:
> I'm curious - how does the new Lindows OS stand-up to RedHat and the
> others?

Lindows OS is based on Debian <http://www.debian.org> which is a 
non-commercial distribution of Linux. As such it (Debian) doesn't get the 
marketing attention that the likes of Suse, RedHat et al, are able to put 
forward. That in turn means not as many commercial companies produce 
Debian installable packages or test them to run on Debian. Debian 
packages its applications in the .deb format, not the .rpm files that 
RedHat & SuSE use. That means you'll have a hard job installing any of 
IBM's Linux software that (often) only comes as .rpm format :(

In terms of free software/open source packages, Debian (and hence Lindows) 
has about the largest number of packages of any Linux distribution. It's 
very solid (a preferred distro for running on servers) and I've been 
using it at home & work for just over three years now (previously using 
Mandrake), with very few problems. 

In addition to the excellent tn5250 for iSeries access there are a number 
of applications that can lessen/remove the dependence on Windows from a 
desktop point of view. This list isn't complete by any means, but they 
are the ones that make my life easiest.

o  Samba. Windows file & print connectivity (including NetServer shares). 
o  NFS for IFS access (more reliable than NetServer's SMB/CIFS).
o  rdesktop for Terminal server (and XP's remote desktop) access. There is
   a Citrix Linux client that works well if you use Citrix.
o  OpenOffice (version 1.1 was released yesterday) for MS Office functions
o  Evolution for email, calendar, contacts etc.

Regards, Martin
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