Linux for freebsd admins

[Bill Moran]

In response to "Ian Lord" <mailing-lists at msdi.ca>:
> 
> I have to install a linux machine and don't know which distribution to take.

I highly recommend CentOS for the following reasons:
1) It's free.
2) It's kept up to date.
3) It's 100% Red Hat compatible, which means:
 a) 99% of the howtos on the internet will work
 b) 99% of the Linux packages you find will work
 c) You can lie to vendors and tell them you're running Red Hat to get
    support.

As for the packages thing: 300 seems to be about the minimum # of
packages to make a working Linux install.  Keep in mind that
_everything_ is a package in Linux, even the kernel, so just installing
typical stuff like ls and ps and top adds packages to the system.

The CentOS installer does have an option for an X-less install.

The Red Hat mentality doesn't go much for rolling your own packages,
so you might not like CentOS for that reason, but it's a compromise.

They have a # of upgrade managers similar to portupgrade, such as
up2date and yum.

-- 
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com