Re: Linux interest group

[David Emigh <emigh@commnet.edu>]

Tim Wilson wrote:

> At the risk of sounding defensive, I'd like to respectfully (and light heartedly) disagree withChuck. Yes, the Linux/Unix learning curve is steeper than that of the Mac. This complexity is offset by the flexibility and power of the system. The average computer user with some sense of adventure will be able to get a linux system running quite quickly. The technical support available from the linux community on the internet is unequaled anywhere. Give it a try and take your piece out of the Redmond Wall.

> I'm not really a Microsoft hater, but I saw a great email signature the other day. It said, "In a world without fences, who needs Gates." And now...back to the physics

I am a firm believer in having serveral platforms available for
students.  For one thing, there is some great software out there written
for just one platform (Mac only, Unix only, etc).  Unix with a good
X-Windows is an easy environment to work in.  For linux all you need is
a manual with the distribution and a simple book on the shell you will
use (I use tcsh and O'Reilly & Assoc.'s "Using csh & tcsh").  Some
(many?) of the high schools in Maryland have Linux labs.  If nothing
else, use the linux to download "stuff" from the internet.  It is much
faster.  We timed several hugh downloads at my college and found that
linux is usually 2 to 3 times faster than Win95 (and my Unix workstation
pulls things across as much as 20x faster).

Anyway, I really recommend that during this summer some of you ought to
find some cranky old machine (486 or even a 386) with 8meg or more of
ram and a 0.5 Gig hardrive try out linux.

David Emigh