> On 30 jul 2003 Krishnakant Ramesh Mane wrote: > where there was another mis understanding about > my mail. First of all I am sorry if I sounded > like advocating some thing. But the fact is > that if I was advocating some brand I would have > never asked on the list. No misunderstanding. But your request was an invitation to advocacy on our part, if taken in a broad sense. It is indeed appropriate to ask on this list about the suitability of distros, but only as it applies to blind users, and I think that has been pretty well answered, in that context. > properly. I was just thinking that as all agree > that the server should be consisting of the bare > minimum required to run the enterprise and leave > the other stuff to the clients, I thought > slackware will be good. Slackware is a general purpose distribution oriented to the experienced techie type, not new users (well liked by many old timers that got into linux in the beginning). It is not really more or less server oriented than other major distros. There are special, narrowly focused server distros, for specific purposes. > Some one rightly pointed out that redhat needs a > lot of dependancies for working. This, I think, is a misunderstanding. All distros, including slackware, have these dependencies: some have installation and package managers that are better at managing dependencies, and Red Hat is one of these. > I have heard that slackware can be installed > with just a single cd and does take one gb or > so. if that is true then I may go with it. Likely much less than that, with a bare bones base install, but that is also true of other distros. > but with a blind person's perspective will it be > easy to install ViaVoice on the slackware 9? That depends on the dependencies, and with slackware, you have to figure those out yourself, with no help from the install/package manager (maybe that has changed, or is slackware still behind there?). That is one of the big reasons slackware is not for the bulk of the new ordinary desktop users that are moving to linux (or busy server admins, for that matter). Don't get me wrong: there is certainly a place for distros like slackware, gentoo, rock linux, and the like. But blind users often like slackware due to text based admin stuff, I guess? Note that all distros can be administered by editing text config files. > another point is that I am going to be the part > of the training team from my organisation to > train the administration part to the staf at the > client's end. the person in charge is aware of > linux and knows how to operate. so I also have > to consider the ease of use due to the fact that > he is no expert in technicalities. So you can see from the previous comments that slackware might be a poor choice for these people. > that's the reason I bought mandrek linux cds. > again ViaVoice must work on it or else I may not > be able to do the configuration part. The best way to solve that problem might be to install an older version of a distro that is known to run ViaVoice, as discussed before, on a single machine you intend to use, perhaps using that machine as a terminal to admin others, with a later version (this works fine). With linux, you don't have to run the latest thing, and it's often counterproductive to do so. I take it that you have tried the latest version of flite, with better voices, and found it still unsuitable? > I have to also look in the GUI issue because I > think the guy out there was previously a M$ > freek and knows things like control panel etc > and seams to like it. hence I am thinking about > mandrek. does slackware have that rich gui like > redhat (because I have used it). All major distros have the GUI, as well as many minor ones. The specific administration front ends vary somewhat, and there are front ends that can be added to remotely admin small or large networks, perhaps through the browser. The specifics of ANSWERING that really do get into advocacy, and, with the GUI orientation of the question, are especially inappropriate for this list, but would be perfectly appropriate for the advocacy group I mentioned before, which is a high volume, noisy, flame bait ridden group most of wish to avoid (and we didn't sign up for it). <grin> > Further more a few so called experts have told > me that mandrek is much stable and the easiest > to install is that true (from a blind person's > point of view?) I mean if I were to make some > sited person sit with me to instruct him to > install the thing. how easy will it be for me > to communicate with him to direct him. I have > heard that in this perspective mandrek is the > easiest and slackware will be most technical. > Please comment on this. Well, it's starting to sound like you are talking about a sizeable network? But that is not a hard question anyway. Installation of linux has matured for all the major distros, to where any of them should be ok, if you are willing to do it interactively by hand, on each machine individually. But for a network, it could be desirable to automate (script) the install for many machines, as with Red Hat's "kickstart". And Red Hat now has a GUI front end for creating the kickstart config file, for those who prefer that to creating it with a text editor. Kickstart can install many machines from a server, over a network (with no CD drive necessary in the local machine), or just about any other way you like. That should work for both you and your sighted peers. BTW, for client desktop machines, if your organization wants to save a bundle of money and hassle (who doesn't, these days), you might want to look at the LTSP distro, a thin client scheme for linux: no local install at all necessary -- boots from server, using normal (but usually dated) client PC hardware. LCR -- L. C. Robinson reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list