RE: LINUX Workstations

> From: James Rich
> 
> For a
> single user who runs his own machine it will be easy and intuitive.

Okay, I'll take you up on this.  I have a RedHat 7.3 system running (in
character mode), and I am barely literate.  I can run "up2date -u", and
was recently able to scout through enough stuff to get the system
running after the SSL keys crapped out.  This involved FTP and RPM.

Other than that, I don't have a clue.  I can wander around a Linux
machine with the best of them; cd and ls are my friends.  I actually use
Cygwin on occasion to do heavy text manipulation on Windows.  But in
order to really use Linux, I'll need a desktop.

And herein lies the rub.  I don't know how to start or configure my
desktop.  I'm not really sure what hardware I have on the system; when I
bought it, it came with Windows installed.  I have messed with X in the
past and have managed to get it to work reasonably well.  I have also
entirely locked up my machine to the point of reinstall.  I'd prefer not
to do that again, since the Linux box is my mail server and is probably
the weakest link in my chain.

I also have a play machine and the RedHat 9.0 documentation, which I may
also choose to make into my guinea pig.  All it needs is a disk drive,
and I have a couple of those lying around.  Unfortunately the CD drive
on that machine is flaky; I may need to go get a new one.

So, given this, how do I get started?  What steps are required in order
for me to get a machine up and running wherein things are "intuitive"?
This s a real question, because I would like to get a CVS server up, and
not CVSNT.

Joe