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List:       gentoo-user
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-user] maybe I am not ready for Gentoo
From:       "Bruce J.A. Nourish" <kode187 () kode187 ! net>
Date:       2002-12-13 15:53:12
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On Friday 13 December 2002 08:20 am, sds@webpipe.net wrote:
> I have studied Gentoo, Slackware, and Debian because I want to try
> something besides Red Hat.  I am trying to learn more of the "lingo" here
> by reading forums and lists, and I subscribed to this list, but after
> reading the messages for a couple of days, I have found that I understood
> very, very little of what you all are talking about!

The list is partly a forum for people to discuss things they don't understand. 
If it was simple, they wouldn't post.

> If I can survive the initial install, should Gentoo be downhill from there?

Yes. Gentoo warns you before you do something *too* awful, and on a fast 
machine, undoing your mistakes is not too hard. 

> It seems that the install is everyone's crisis, but I am curious if there
> are more troubles to come afterward that I may not be ready for.  I know I
> have to jump in and experience these things to learn them, but I am maybe
> being a little TOO careful about choosing my next distro.

Breaking stuff is by far the best way to learn. I broke more installations 
than I can number, back when I was learning the ropes. I was 15 at the time, 
living in a country where you paid per minute for 2.5kb/s internet access. My 
first distro was Slackware 7 on a P75 laptop, installed from about 20 floppy 
disks. So relax, you have it relatively easy - guardian angels are standing 
over you, to make sure you have fun :-)

Anyway. Two questions: do you have a spare machine with enough juice to run 
Gentoo? For your purposes, this means: 1.2GB hd, 64MB RAM, P233 or 
equivalent, CDROM drive, Ethernet card. If you have, then put Gentoo on that, 
and use this machine to talk to the world. 

Failing that, do you have a spare machine (even a Windows machine) that you 
can use to talk to the list if you have problems? This is almost as good. As 
long as you can access the install docs, and follow instructions, you'll 
probably be okay. If something goes wrong, there's probably somebody on the 
list who had the same problem.

In terms of preparing yourself for Gentoo, the best thing is to read the 
install docs, and get used to using a text terminal, if you're not already. 
If you do decide against Gentoo, go with slackware - it's the next best 
thing. 

-- 
Bruce J.A. Nourish <kode187@kode187.net>

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