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<h2>
<font color="#000000">Linux as a Replacement for Windows 2000 </font></h2>
<div CLASS="header"><font color="#000000">A Review by <a href="http://www.robval.com/" STYLE="COLOR: white" ONMOUSEOVER="this.style.color='white'; this.style.background='blue'" ONMOUSEOUT="this.style.color='white'; this.style.background=''">Rob
Valliere</a> | <a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/" STYLE="COLOR: white" ONMOUSEOVER="this.style.color='white'; this.style.background='blue'" ONMOUSEOUT="this.style.color='white'; this.style.background=''">Other
Linux Reviews</a></font></div>
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<h3>
<font color="#000000">The Bottom Line </font></h3>
<font color="#000000">This review focused on Red Hat Linux 7.1 from a business
user's view and attempted to answer my client's question <b>"Can Linux
be used as a replacement for Windows 2000".</b> After an intensive hands-on
Linux project lasting several months, I was able to provide my client with
a pertinent answer to this question. </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Based on a solid Linux business plan, my client decided
that Linux was a good investment for most of the company's employees, but
will retain a few key Windows computers in the office for specific applications.
<b>Connecting Linux and Windows computers on the same network, and sharing
Office 97/2000 files between the different OSs, is easy and works well,</b>
thanks to Red Hat Linux and Star Office. The primary reason for this decision
was a $10,000 saving on his IT budget! For support reasons, he decided
to use a local Linux supplier for installation and configuration work.
View the <a href="#summary">Summary</a> and the <a href="#details">Details</a>. </font></li>
</ul>
<font color="#000000">For other business users, here is my advice: </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">For whatever reason, if you want to get started with
Linux, or implement an office network of Linux and Windows clients, Red
Hat Linux 7.1 is very much the way to go. <b>Red Hat Linux 7.1 can be used
as an alternative to Windows 2000!</b> You will be stunned by the bang
for the buck that Linux bundled free "open source" software offers. Red
Hat Linux is a complete server (LAN, Web, SQL) and offers excellent desktop
applications for corporate users. Each business user will need to look
at the benefits of using Linux (no software licensing fees, fewer hardware
upgrades, many good applications) and the costs (installation, configuration,
upgrades, training, support). If the benefits outweigh the costs, then
you have an affordable viable desktop alternative to Windows.</font></li>
</ul>
<font color="#000000"><b>Red Hat Linux 7.1 is a great package: it provides
a smooth installation, has many good applications and is an especially
attractive option for small to medium-size offices.</b> However, many business
users will want to purchase a computer with Linux pre-installed, or at
least use a Linux support professional for post-installation configurations,
maintenance and upgrades, just as you currently do for Windows.</font>
<br>
<hr>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Linux as a Replacement for Windows 2000 </font></h3>
<a NAME="top"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Table of Contents </font></h4>
<div STYLE="MARGIN-LEFT: 2em">
<ul CLASS="toc">
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#background">The Background</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#summary">Linux on the Desktop - A Summary</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#details">Linux on the Desktop - The Details</a></font></li>
<ul CLASS="toc">
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#budget">Trimming $10,000 off the IT Budget</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#distribution">Selecting a Distribution</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#hardware">Selecting the Hardware</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#requirements">Linux Hardware Requirements</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#compatibility">Red Hat Hardware Compatibility</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#install">Red Hat Installation</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#config">Red Hat Configuration</a></font></li>
</ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#good">Red Hat - the Good, the Bad and the
Ugly</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#applications">Desktop Applications</a></font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="#links">Useful Linux Links</a></font></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<hr>
<ul class="toc">
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/comment/comments.asp" target="_blank">Reader
Comments</a></b> View and search reader comments, or post your own. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/amend.html">Amendment</a></b>
(22-Sep) Corrections and background on the Red Hat review. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/reinstall.html">Red
Hat Re-Install</a></b> (3-Oct) Reader solutions to Red Hat problems. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/recommend.html">Reader
Recommendations</a></b> (3-Oct) The Best Linux Desktop applications.</font></li>
</ul>
<hr><a NAME="background"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">The Background </font></h3>
<font color="#000000">A client asked me whether Linux could be installed
on existing office hardware, and whether it was an alternative to Windows
2000. Considering the absence of software licensing fees with Linux and
the ability to run Linux on limited hardware resources, the answer to this
question may be of interest to other Windows 2000 business users. I was
certainly interested.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">He wanted to reduce his IT investments, from the
expensive and 'never-ending' software and hardware upgrade cycles with
Microsoft products, to a more practical and cost-effective strategy. He
stated that reducing his IT budget, without compromising the applications,
would be the deciding issue. My client stressed that if Linux was selected
as the alternative OS, he "was not prepared to waste his time fighting
IT fires; he wanted applications that worked with minimal fuss".</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">There were several factors relevant to this question,
such as what applications were used in Windows, what older hardware was
available and what kind of installation would be required (automatic or
some what manual). My client provided the following list of requirements:</font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Install on existing office hardware</b> that is
too slow for Windows 2000 </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Offer an easy installation</b>, similar to Windows
2000 </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Provide office file and printer sharing</b> between
Linux and Windows computers </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Obtain technical support</b> for Linux if and
when needed </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Availability of good office applications</b>,
similar to the following Windows programs: </font></li>
</ul>
<dl><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="534" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="138"><COL WIDTH="378"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><b><font color="#000000">Application Type</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><b><font color="#000000">Windows 2000 Application</font></b></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Office 97</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access,
Outlook</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Internet</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">Internet Explorer 5, WS_FTP Pro 6</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Security</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">ZoneAlarm Pro, Norton Anti-virus
2001</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Publishing</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">Acrobat Writer 4, Adaptec Easy CD
Creator 4</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Web Graphics</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">ACDSee 3, Fireworks 4</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="138"><font color="#000000">Utilities</font></td>
<td WIDTH="378"><font color="#000000">Acrobat Reader 5, WinZip 8, WinAmp
2.7</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font></dl>
<font color="#000000">While the above software is "off-the-shelf", the
office staff was dependant on a custom MS Access database application.
We needed to find an alternative that provided the database backend and
administrative tools required to maintain the application.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Other business users may have different requirements,
for example, some would be willing to purchase new computers with Linux
pre-installed. This would ensure there were no installation and configuration
hassles. And many users may want different applications suited to their
business needs.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><b><font color="#000000">My Background.</font></b>
<br><font color="#000000">It is important that readers of this review understand
my biases, which are in the MS DOS/Windows world. Further, my attitude
on using computer technology comes very much from a practical, business
view. I have read many times that Linux advocate's only use the Gnome GUI
(KDE is never considered as an option), and believe that "Linux is not
for everyone, blah, blah, blah". My attitude is that <b>if Linux is user-friendly
and works, then savvy business users will adopt it</b>. And as most businesses
use Windows, users will want a familiar desktop and will find KDE as good
as, or even better than, Windows.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font>
<br>
<hr><a NAME="summary"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Linux on the Desktop - A Summary </font></h3>
<font color="#000000">The following is a summary of my review of Red Hat
Linux 7.1, based on my client's requirements, and on my own experiences
after using Linux daily for over 3 months. The Linux project included 6
installations, hardware, software and network configurations, testing,
upgrading, problem solving and usage.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Install on existing office hardware </font></h4>
<font color="#000000"><b>Yes.</b> The Linux GUI environment can run on
aging Pentium computers with 64 MB or more of RAM, but do your homework
first to reduce some potential hardware configuration challenges.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Offer an easy installation </font></h4>
<font color="#000000"><b>Yes</b>. Excellent installation wizard facility,
including on-screen help, 'Plug-n-Play' and Package Group selections. But
all is not perfect. The biggest hurtle may be the configuration of your
graphic hardware. Purchasing new computers with Linux pre-installed solves
this headache.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Provide office file and printer sharing </font></h4>
<font color="#000000"><b>Yes</b>. Very good network file and printer sharing
using Samba. Its best to get a professional to implement so server set-up,
security, disaster prevention, and disaster recovery are guaranteed.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Obtain technical support </font></h4>
<font color="#000000"><b>Yes</b>. There is very good documentation and
Web support forums available, but all this takes your time and effort.
If you do not have in-house resources, you will need to find a local Linux
supplier. If you want support from Red Hat directly, you will have to pay.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Availability of good office applications </font></h4>
<font color="#000000"><b>Yes, with a few compromises</b>. The KDE graphical
desktop in Linux is excellent and functions like Windows 2000. Further,
the vast majority of Linux applications included with Red Hat, for example
Star Office, are available free of charge to end users. Here is a summary
of the applications with my rating on how they compare: [<a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/altupdate.html">Updated
Application Summary</a> (3-Oct-01)]</font>
<dl><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="400" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="175"><COL WIDTH="75"><COL WIDTH="75"><COL WIDTH="75"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="175">
<div CLASS="top"><b><font color="#000000">Alternative Rating:</font></b></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="75" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99">
<div CLASS="top"><b><font color="#000000">Excellent</font></b></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="75" BGCOLOR="#99CCFF">
<div CLASS="top"><b><font color="#000000">Capable</font></b></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="75" BGCOLOR="#C0C0C0">
<div CLASS="top"><b><font color="#000000">Limited</font></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font></dl>
<font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="652" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="106"><COL WIDTH="130"><COL WIDTH="390"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Application</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><b><font color="#000000">Windows 2000</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="390"><b><font color="#000000">Free Red Hat Linux 7.1 Alternative</font></b></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Word Processor</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Word 2000</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">StarWriter: excellent
Word Processor.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Spreadsheet</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Excel 2000</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">StarCalc: very
capable Spreadsheet.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Presentation</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">PowerPoint 2000</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">StarImpress: impressive
presentation program.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Database</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Access 2000</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">LAMP intranet using
a PHP/MySQL application.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td ROWSPAN="2" WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">PIM with E-mail</font></b></td>
<td ROWSPAN="2" WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Outlook 2000</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#99CCFF"><font color="#000000">StarSchedule: reasonable
PIM.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#C0C0C0"><font color="#000000">StarMail:
separate E-mail/Address book. Not recommended</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Browser</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Internet Explorer 5</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">Opera 5.0 (not
included, a separate 1.6MB download)</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">FTP</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">WS_FPT 6</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">gFTP 2.0.7: good
ftp program with similar interface.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Firewall</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">ZoneAlarm Pro</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#99CCFF"><font color="#000000">Basic firewall
included in the Red Hat Linux installation.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Anti-Virus</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Norton Anti-virus</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390"><font color="#000000">Not required with Linux, according
to the experts.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">PDF Writer</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Acrobat Writer</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#99CCFF"><font color="#000000">StarWriter: print
as PS file, then use ps2pdf. It works.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">CD-R Recorder</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Easy CD Creator</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#99CCFF"><font color="#000000">Xcdroast 0.98alpha9:
Fast! Not as easy as CD Creator.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Image Viewer</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">ACDSee 3</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">Konqueror's built-in
viewer, or Pixie KDE Image Manager.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Image Editor</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Fireworks 4</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">Gimp 1.2: like
PhotoShop! Great for Web graphics.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">PDF Viewer</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">Acrobat Reader 4</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">Acrobat Reader
4 or xpdf 0.92: take your pick, both work.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">Archive Utility</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">WinZip 8</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">Archiver (ark 1.9):
excellent archiving program.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="106"><b><font color="#000000">MP3 player</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="130"><font color="#000000">WinAmp 2.7</font></td>
<td WIDTH="390" BGCOLOR="#FFFF99"><font color="#000000">XMMS 1.2.4: like
WinAmp, or KDE MultiMedia Player.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">To find an alternative to the MS Access database
application, we decided to develop a prototype of an intranet application
using Apache Web server, MySQL database and the PHP scripting facility.
This Linux solution was not only faster and more powerful than the Access
application, the software was available at no charge. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font>
<br>
<hr><a NAME="details"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Linux on the Desktop - The Details </font></h3>
<font color="#000000">While the summary was primarily aimed at providing
my client with a concise answer to the question "Can Linux be used as a
replacement for Windows 2000", the details present some fine points of
the business plan and on how my client made his decision to use Linux and
Star Office as alternatives to Microsoft products.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Further, my recent Red Hat Linux experiences are
outlined and where appropriate, my opinions provided. With 20 years in
the MS DOS/Windows world but new to Linux, I was very keen to evaluate
the LAMP Web development facility and if feasible, 'resurrect' my favorite
3 year old notebook. </font>
<br><a NAME="budget"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Trimming $10,000 off the IT Budget </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">My client's LAN consisted of 25 computers: a Windows
NT server and 24 Windows NT workstations using Office 97. The workstations
had 128MB of RAM, okay for NT but not recommended for Windows 2000. The
costs to upgrade this office to use Windows 2000 and Office 2000 were significant.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">When it become clear that Linux could provide
most of my clients requirements, especially the intranet database application
and almost US$10,000 could be trimmed off the IT budget, <b>it was an easy
business decision</b> to implement Red Hat Linux as a replacement for Windows
2000. Linux would be deployed on the server for file, print, database and
Web services, and on 20 workstations, it would replace Windows NT as the
desktop OS. Here are the Windows 2000 Upgrade and Red Hat Linux Alternative
IT budgets comparisons:</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><img SRC="sv1241243.gif" NAME="Object1" BORDER=0 height=405 width=465 align=LEFT>
<br><font color="#000000"></font> <font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Note: this budget comparison only included Microsoft
upgrade fees, and not the software licensing fees for other programs used
on Windows: for example, Acrobat Writer and Fireworks. </font>
<br><a NAME="distribution"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Selecting a Distribution </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">Not being an experienced Linux user, my first task
was to select a Linux distribution. The top providers are: Mandrake, Red
Hat, TurboLinux, VA Linux, SuSE, Debian and Caldera. <i>[Thanks to several
readers, Mandrake is now included.]</i> I have not included Corel Linux,
as its future will likely be influenced by one of its shareholders - Microsoft,
who regards "open source" software as "a cancer".</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Each distribution has its own setup program and
range of applications. I selected <b>Red Hat Linux</b> as its distribution
is aimed at business users and includes an excellent installation program
and a full array of useful Linux tools, including both workstation and
server applications. The latest release is 7.1 and their top of the line
product includes 9 CDs full of software and documentation. </font>
<br><a NAME="hardware"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Selecting the Hardware </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">I selected 2 older systems from my office for testing.
The Red Hat Linux 7.1 Professional Server package was installed, configured
and tested on the following hardware:</font>
<ul TYPE="DISC">
<li>
<font color="#000000">2 year-old <b>Asus P2B-F desktop</b> (Pentium III
500MHz with 256 MB). Windows 2000 operates well on this hardware. There
were 4 NTFS partitions: I left Windows on the NTFS drive C:, but converted
the other 3 data drives to FAT32 using PartitionMagic 6.0. Linux was installed
on the remaining free 6 GB. I used Linux's Lilo boot software to handle
the multi-booting. Linux could access the 3 FAT32 data partitions, but
not the NTFS partition. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">3 year-old <b>Gateway Solo 9100 notebook</b> (Pentium
II 300MHz with 96 MB). The RAM on this notebook was insufficient to run
Windows 2000. Linux was installed on this notebook as the only OS. </font></li>
</ul>
<font color="#000000">All computers were connected to any existing Windows
2000 SP1 TCP/IP network. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><b><font color="#000000">Notes on Windows 2000.</font></b>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Why compare Linux with Windows 2000 and not Windows
98/Me?</b> Linux and Windows 2000 can be compared as both offer business
users the security and reliability needed with office LANs. Both can be
used as workstations or servers. Windows 98/Me, on the other hand, is much
less secure, much less reliable and was never designed as a server. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>What are the Windows 2000 Hardware Requirements?</b>
Window 2000 demands a fast CPU (ideally starting with Pentium III) and
a minimum of 256 MB of RAM. While Windows 2000 can run in 128 MB of RAM,
when Office 2000 applications are loaded, it slows considerably. </font></li>
</ul>
<a NAME="requirements"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Linux Hardware Requirements </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">These observations were based on a Pentium III 500
MHz desktop computer with dual OSs installed. Both Windows 2000 and Red
Hat Linux 7.1 ran multiple services: web server, SQL database server, firewall,
etc. The table clearly shows the significant differences in how memory
is used in Windows and in Linux.</font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="658" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="132"><COL WIDTH="115"><COL WIDTH="97"><COL WIDTH="106"><COL WIDTH="166"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="132"><font color="#000000"></font></td>
<td COLSPAN="2" WIDTH="220"><b><font color="#000000">RAM used after boot-up</font></b></td>
<td COLSPAN="2" WIDTH="280"><font color="#000000"><b>RAM used after Star
Office 5.2 or Office 2000</b> (Word, Excel, Outlook) <b>loaded</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="132"><font color="#000000"></font></td>
<td WIDTH="115">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">Initial RAM Used</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="97">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">Swap file Used</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="106">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">RAM Used</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="166">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">Swap file Used</font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="132"><b><font color="#000000">Red Hat Linux 7.1</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="115">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">45 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="97">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">0 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="106">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">70 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="166">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">0 MB</font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="132"><b><font color="#000000">Windows 2000 SP1</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="115">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">140 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="97">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">35 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="106">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">170 MB</font></div>
</td>
<td WIDTH="166">
<div STYLE="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><font color="#000000">35 MB</font></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Linux can use existing office hardware as it requires
considerably less hardware resources than Windows 2000! Linux is very efficient
at memory usage and can run many programs, including Star Office, in 128MB
without using a swap file. Without Star Office, runs well using a Pentium
II with 96 MB of RAM. The conclusion: <b>Linux runs fine in less than half
the RAM that Windows 2000 requires,</b> and does not require the fastest
CPU on the market. </font>
<br><a NAME="compatibility"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat Hardware Compatibility </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">This applies specifically to Red Hat 7.1's ability
to automatically detect hardware. <a href="#bad">Hardware configuration</a>
was another matter, especially with the video cards. <b>All of the following
hardware was correctly detected by Red Hat 7.1,</b> except for the 3 year
old notebook's sound card and CompactFlash adapter:</font>
<dl>
<dt>
<font color="#000000"><b>Asus P2B-F Desktop</b> </font></dt>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Pentium III 500 MHz with 256 MB RAM </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Dual 13 GB Hard drives </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Drives: LS-120 and HP CDWriter+ 8100 </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">15 " ADi ProVista monitor (1024x768 at 16-bit color) </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Asus AGP-V3100 graphics card (S3 Savage3D with 8MB
RAM) </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Creative Sound Blaster Live! sound card </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">D-Link DFE-530TX PCI network card </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Standard built-in facilities: Multi-I/O ports including
USB </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000"><b>Additional hardware</b> </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Diamond SupraExpress 56e-PC V.90 PnP modem </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Epson USB Stylus Color 740 printer </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">MS USB IntelliPoint Optical Wheel Mouse </font></dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt>
<font color="#000000"><b>Gateway Solo 9100 Notebook</b> </font></dt>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Pentium II 300 MHz with 96 MB RAM </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">6.4 GB Hard drive </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Combo Drive: Matsushita SR-8171 CD/DVD and LS-120 </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">14 " LCD display (1024x768 at 16-bit color) </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Trident Cyber 9397 video chipset (4MB RAM) </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000"><i>Yamaha OPL3sa sound chipset</i> </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">2 Type II PCMCIA (Cirus Logic PD6832 CardBus chip
set) </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Standard built-in facilities: Multi-I/O ports including
USB and Touchpad </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000"><b>Additional hardware</b> </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">Xircom Credit Card Ethernet 10/100 + Modem 56 (CEM56-100)
Adapter Card </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000"><i>Kingston CompactFlash Adapter Card with CASIO
8 MB CompactFlash Card</i> </font></dd>
<dd>
<font color="#000000">MS PS/2 IntelliMouse </font></dd>
</dl>
<font color="#000000"><b>Red Hat's support for hardware is very good, but
not as good as Windows 2000.</b> Hardware support is not an issue if you
purchase a computer with pre-installed Linux.</font>
<br><a NAME="install"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat Installation </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">The Red Hat 7.1 installation was easy and almost
as automated as Windows 2000. You simply boot the computer using the first
Red Hat CD-ROM disk. There are good help screens, hardware is automatically
detected, automatic partitioning is available, and you can choose from
several Package Groups. However, and based on my experiences, <b>its best
to do some homework first if you plan any Linux installations on older
hardware.</b> In addition to the hardware details, an understanding of
Linux partitions is highly recommended. </font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Type of Installation </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">There are several options to choose from so its best
to review before starting. The <b>Workstation and Laptop</b> options provide
manual or automatic partitioning but will write a boot record (MBR). Anyone
wanting to multi-boot should not select these options. The <b>Server</b>
option will format all partitions and does not include the X Window system.
So I selected the <b>Custom</b> option as it allowed the most flexibility
(I wanted LILO booting and manual partitioning). In addition, there is
an <b>Upgrade</b> option. The default installation uses a graphical interface.
If video problems occur, you will want to choose the text mode installation. </font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Partitioning Linux </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">I learned this one the hard way. After an initial
installation, I found out some recommended partitioning schemes and then
the Red Hat 7.1 particulars, so decided to re-install. Red Hat's <b>Disk
Druid program is very good</b>. The following table shows my partitioning
on the Notebook's 6GB drive:</font>
<div style="margin-left: 2em">
<pre><font color="#000000">Device Partition Size (MB) Comments on storage usage
/dev/hda1 /boot 40
/dev/hda5 /home 1,000 User data
/dev/hda6 /usr/local 1,000 Programs and data
/dev/hda7 /usr 2,400 Programs and data
/dev/hda8 /opt 400 Star Office installation
/dev/hda9 / 300
/dev/hda10 /var 400 Web and SQL server data
/dev/hda11 [swap] 200
/dev/hda12 /tmp 100</font></pre>
</div>
<font color="#000000">The /usr partition is where most programs are installed.
I still have 1 GB free after installing the programs I use. </font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Booting with Lilo </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">Linux provides a very good and easy to use booting
facility using Lilo. On the dual OS desktop unit that had an existing Windows
2000 installation, the desktop boots to Linux and a menu appears: I can
select Linux (now my default) or Windows. </font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Selecting Packages </font></h5>
<font color="#000000"><b>The Red Hat package installation was outstanding
- you basically push a button and 500 or so rpms are installed and ready
to use.</b> I choose Individual rather than Group package selection. The
list of software to select from is very extensive. And when you select
a package, RPM checks what other packages are needed and installs them.
Since
the installation, I have installed other packages using Red Hat's Package
Manager (RPM) facility - one of the best features of Red Hat.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">In addition to the installation options outlined
above, you will need to select your language (18 included), keyboard, mouse
and graphic facilities, then configure network, firewall, timezone, account
and authentication (by default, all passwords are encrypted in Linux).
To give you an idea of how easy this can be, the firewall security options
are High, Medium or No firewall.</font>
<br><a NAME="config"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat Configuration </font></h4>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Hardware Configuration </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">This was one of the biggest challenges with installing
Red Hat Linux on older hardware. Red Hat's Xconfigurator program frequently
does not work on computers 2 - 3 years old! To get some hardware to work,
manual editing of configuration files was needed. Red Hat Linux is years
behind Windows in this area.</font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Package Configuration </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">The Red Hat installation facility provided packages
that worked correctly the first time. However, many services required configuration,
either using a GUI front end, or modifying the configuration files manually.
For example: network, Samba, Apache and MySQL all needed some basic set-up
work. Reasonable documentation on how to set-up these services were usually
available and easy to find.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font>
<br>
<hr><a NAME="good"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly </font></h3>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">The good... </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">There are a host of reasons why Linux is a feasible
replacement for Windows 2000, but the primary feature is that the "open
source" applications are free! Here is a summary of the best Linux has
to offer, based on my personal experiences:</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="117"><COL WIDTH="524"><THEAD></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">Software License Fees</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000"><b>Free Open Source Software</b>.
Free Red Hat downloads are available but obtaining Red Hat on CD-ROM is
recommended; the downloads could exceed 400 MB of files.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">Service and Support Fees</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000">Different packages are available
in USA. Prices range from US$40 - $180. To obtain in Thailand, add at least
US$100 for shipping and custom fees: </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Standard Workstation: 30 days support for 1 system.
Includes 2 CDs and 1 manual. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Deluxe Workstation: 60 days support for 5 systems.
Includes 3 CDs and 2 manuals. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Professional Server: 90 Days support for 10 systems.
Includes 9 CDs and 4 manuals. </font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">The best of Red Hat 7.1</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000"><b>Red Hat 7.1 was very stable by
default</b>, fast and configurable, using Linux 2.4.2-2 kernel. As with
Windows 2000, you may crash an application, but not the OS! </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Many great GUI applications available that provide
similar functionality to Windows, in particular, KDE desktop and Star Office.
But a few Windows application are missing. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Excellent Web server, SQL server and server scripting
environment (Apache, MySQL, PostGreSQL, PHP, Perl) for developing dynamic
web pages. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat's Installation Program - very polished. Plug-n-Play
detection very good, but not perfect. And all the applications installed
worked, once any required configuration steps were completed. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">RPM - Red Hat Package Manager. Both command line
and GUI versions. When installing a package, RPM checks what other packages
are needed and provides a warning. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Lilo - Linux boot program with multi-boot options.</font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">Linux Documentation</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000">Some Linux documentation (from the
Web or off the CDs) is excellent, especially the HOWTOs and Guides. MAN
pages are sometimes quite helpful. The 4 Red Hat manuals, both printed
and electronic formats, are useful. And there are many great books available.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">Linux File Compatibility</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000">Excellent. Linux can read and write
Windows FAT and FAT32 files, whether stored on hard drives, network drives
or floppy, ZIP and LS-120 disks. Some of the Linux image applications will
read and write virtually any graphic file. Archive files (ZIP and tar.gz)
are fully compatible on both OSs. And Star Office provides compatibility
with Office 97/2000 files.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">XFree86 4.0.3 and KDE 2.1.1</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000"><b>K Desktop Environment</b>: Much
more than just a window manager for XFree86, KDE is a complete GUI Desktop
Environment. Similar to Windows 2000, its highly functional and configurable.
<a href="#kde">More details</a>.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="117"><b><font color="#000000">Star Office 5.2</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="524"><font color="#000000">Thanks to Sun MicroSystems, Star
Office is free, runs on Linux and Windows 9x/NT/2000, and reads/writes
Office 97/2000 documents! So files can be easily shared in the office even
if there are different OSs and/or different Office suites. <a href="#staroffice">More
Details</a>.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="118"><b><font color="#000000">Samba</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="523"><font color="#000000">Great file and printer sharing facility
for mixed Windows and Linux networks using SMB protocol. Includes SWAT:
a browser-based interface for administering Samba.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="118"><b><font color="#000000">Non-Red Hat Downloads</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="523"><font color="#000000">You can find many excellent applications
for Red Hat on the Web. Its best to look for binary RPMs for Red Hat 7.x.
I use and recommend the following: </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.opera.com">Opera 5.0</a>. An
excellent browser. A 1.6 MB download. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.webmin.com">Webmin 0.87</a>.
A comprehensive browser-based interface for administering Linux. A 4 MB
download. </font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a NAME="bad"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">The bad... </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">Some of these problems would only be applicable when
Linux is installed on existing office computers. Therefore, this section
is divided into Installation and Configuration problems (not relevant to
new computers with pre-installed Linux) and Operational issues: </font>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Installation and Configuration Problems </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">Refer to <a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/reinstall.html">Red
Hat Re-Install</a> (3-Oct-01) for updates to these problems.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="105"><COL WIDTH="536"><THEAD></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="105"><b><font color="#000000">Hardware Configuration</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="536"><font color="#000000">Most hardware was detected automatically.
However, to get some hardware to work, additional configuration is required
that frequently requires the manual editing of config files. If you know
what to do, its easy. But finding out how to complete these configurations
can be difficult and time consuming. <a href="#ugly">More Details</a>.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="105"><b><font color="#000000">XFree86 4.0.3</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="536"><font color="#000000">Graphic configuration problems may
occur during installation, especially with notebooks, and certain graphic
chipsets and/or monitors. Despite repeated attempts to improve the desktop's
display, XFree86's graphical display (1024x768 @ 16M colors) was not as
good as Windows 2000 using the same desktop hardware. Windows uses 96dpi
fonts while Linux uses 75dpi fonts. I tried every tweak and troubleshooting
tip I could find, but none worked. While this is a common complaint, some
users report improved displays. </font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Operational Issues </font></h5>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="119"><COL WIDTH="522"><THEAD></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">KDE Applications</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Many of the KDE applications, including
Konqueror, are great, but I found Konqueror and K Package Manager to be
unstable at times. Some of the main problem or missing feature issues include: </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">File Manager does not sort files correctly - folders
always come first. Windows Explorer correctly sorts my files by date when
requested, either in ascending or descending order. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Tools - File Find: cannot return to Search Results,
and crashes all too often. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Buggy file selection using Ctrl key - frequently
selects first directory. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">No auto-complete or history of what you entered in
forms. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">No Thumbnail views. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">No "Select All" files option. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">No "Snap To" mouse pointer option (Automatically
move pointer to default button in dialog boxes). </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">JavaScript support poor. </font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Numeric Keypad</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">The following keys on the numeric
keypad of industry standard PC keyboards do not always work as they do
in Windows: </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Enter and Del keys only work sometimes </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">For selecting text, Shift + RightArrow or LeftArrow,
never work </font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Star Office 5.2</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Windows 2000 or Linux KDE provide
great GUI desktops. Star Office has yet another desktop with its own fonts,
mouse buttons and pointer, etc. Requires a minimum 35 MB of physical memory
to run - no option to run StarWriter only, even if the only package installed
is StarWriter.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Red Hat Linux</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Could not get CD-ROM or LS-120 drives
to auto-mount. The mount/umount commands needed to be executed to mount
and un-mount these drives.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Red Hat's RPM</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">The RPM databases get corrupted sometimes
with "segmentation fault" crashes. The rebuild database facility corrects
this problem sometimes; on one system, I was forced to restore from a backup.
RPMs from non-Red Hat distributions or from older versions - they frequently
do not work. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">The Red Hat installation was fully automated once
the packages have been selected. However, after the installation, if you
want to install a package that is dependant on other programs, nothing
is automatic. You need to identify what packages are needed, hunt them
down and install them before you can install your program. Windows is much
easier. And be careful using non-Red Hat RPMs - <a href="#kde">More Details</a></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Red Hat Support</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">If you do not purchase a Red Hat
package and a support program, Red Hat will not answer Email questions.
The only free support available is from user-supported web forums, and
many of these requests never get answered.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Inconsistencies</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Using Console programs, very little
consistency with file naming or commands, eg. </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">To get help, here are the possibilities: -help, --help,
-h, -? </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Configuration files: no suffix, or one of these:
cfg, cnf, conf, ini, config. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Gzipped Tar files: tar.gz, tar.z , tar.Z, tgz </font></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<a NAME="ugly"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">The ugly... </font></h4>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Installation and Configuration Problems </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">This is the dark side of attempting to install Linux
on existing hardware. Not relevant to new computers that come with Linux
pre-installed. Refer to <a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/reinstall.html">Red
Hat Re-Install</a> (3-Oct-01) for updates to these problems.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="119"><COL WIDTH="522"><THEAD></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Xconfigurator</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">This XFree86 configuration program
frequently does not work on older computers! When problems arise, you need
to edit the configuration files manually. <b>Until Linux provides an automated
and reliable graphical configuration facility, most business users will
not even consider Linux as a viable alternative to Windows 2000</b>, even
though Linux offers many advantages, like being able to utilize older hardware.
<b>This is the worst of Linux!</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">hwclock</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Red Hat Linux 7.1 had failed miserably
at understanding the hardware or BIOS clock, the system clock and the local
timezone on the desktop unit. After several frustrating weeks, multiple
Internet searches of HOWTOs, TIPs and guides, about 144 dozen reboots,
it works and then it does not work! <b>Unbelievably buggy software!</b></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h5>
<font color="#000000">Operational Issues </font></h5>
<font color="#000000">These problems may not be issues with many business
users. However, for programmers, Web developers or IT professionals, these
can be critical areas of concern.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="119"><COL WIDTH="522"><THEAD></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">File timestamps</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">When copying files under Linux, original
timestamps are replaced with the current date. So the "date last modified"
file attribute becomes "date last copied". This becomes a nightmare for
anyone dealing with many files - how can you keep track of when a file
was last modified. You can force the original timestamps using cp -p.,
but this means not using the GUI file manager. <b>Very poor Linux design
feature!</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td><a NAME="kde"></a></td>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Upgrading KDE</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">KDE 2.2 was released in late August,
so to evaluate a major upgrade using binary RPMs for Red Hat 7.x, I downloaded
the files from SourceForge (37 separate rpm files in 3 different locations
totaling 69 MB). The downloads took 10 hours over 2 days. But after
the upgrade, KDE refused to run. I spend many frustrating hours trying
to recover from this upgrade failure, but in the end, I decided to scrap
it, and re-installed Red Hat. Note that Red Hat did not provide the RPMs
used. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><b><i>And here lies one of the biggest challenges
in the Linux world.</i></b> The Red Hat installation is outstanding - you
basically push a button and 500 or so rpms are installed and configured
correctly. But upgrading individual applications, especially for a large
package like KDE, is far from pushing a button. <b>Upgrades in Linux have
a long way before they will be as easy as upgrading Windows applications.</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="119"><b><font color="#000000">Documentation</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="522"><font color="#000000">Some of the Linux documentation is
inaccurate, incomplete or missing. Many authors simply say "I do not have
the time to write documentation", or "The program is self-explanatory".
<b>Give us a break!</b></font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font>
<br>
<hr><a NAME="applications"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Desktop Applications </font></h3>
<font color="#000000">This section provides further details of my software
reviews and comparison with Windows 2000. Some of these programs were used
for testing only, while others were used daily. I have grouped the mostly
desktop applications by Red Hat Linux, KDE, Non-KDE, Star Office and Non-GUI.</font>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Red Hat Linux </font></h4>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="147"><COL WIDTH="494"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">OS & GUI</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">It's difficult to compare Operating
Systems when the GUI desktop in Windows 2000 is the OS, while in Linux,
the OS is a robust, powerful and compact text-based operating system. Linux
uses the X Window system for graphical displays, provided by XFree86.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Linux Administration Tools</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Linuxconfig comes with Red Hat, but
is quite buggy. There are separate GUI fronts-ends for most administration
tasks, but the best I found was <b><a href="http://www.webmin.com">Webmin
0.87</a></b> - a very powerful browser-based interface for doing all your
Linux administration. Not included with Red Hat, you will need to download
(4 MB). </font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">LAMP development</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">This Web development facility is
based on "open source" software and is the without a question the best
in Linux! </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>Apache</b> Web server. The majority of Web servers
use this software. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>MySQL</b> database server. Fast and reliable.
A high-end SQL server, PostGreSQL, is also included with Red Hat. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b>PHP</b> scripting. Similar to ASP, but easier
to learn, this is an excellent server scripting facility. </font></li>
</ul>
<font color="#000000">The above PHP server environment can be run on Windows.
I downloaded <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad/">PHP Triad
2.11</a> from Source Forge.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<a NAME="kde"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">KDE Applications </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">KDE's GUI desktop environment and applications are
excellent.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
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<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">KDE 2.1.1</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">While there are various GUI window
managers for XFree86 available in Red Hat, I selected KDE - a complete
and highly customizable desktop environment with many applications. It
includes file management, easily configured menus, utilities galore, and
a familiar desktop feel, <b>which is equal to or improves on Windows' look
and feel</b>. </font>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Konqueror (KDE's version of Windows Explorer/Internet
Explorer). Some very nice features not found in Windows! And very easy
to customize. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Excellent mouse select and paste. Whatever text is
selected from anywhere (except Star Office), it can be easily pasted anywhere
with a single mouse click! </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">KDE <b>Control Center</b> is very useful: it has
a Windows-like 'device manager' and a Look & Feel section to configure
KDE the way you want it. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000">I use <b>KWrite 2.0</b> for editing both text and
html files; its a very good editor. And for accessing the Web, I use and
like <b>KPPP and KMail</b> for dialing my ISP and checking/sending POP
Email. I also like <b>Konsole</b> (the Linux Console). </font></li>
</ul>
<b><font color="#000000">My customized KDE desktop is better than Windows
2000!</font></b></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Browsers (File and Web)</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">I like <b>Konqueror</b>. Its fast
and very handy for file management and browsing local files. But it is
not a good Internet Browser - it crashes all too frequently and provides
limited JavaScript support. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><b>Mozilla 0.7</b> and <b>Netscape 4.7</b> are
included with Red Hat, but I prefer <b>Opera 5.</b> This is a commercial
program available as a free ad-supported version. Download is only 1.6
MB. If you pay to register (US$40), the advertising disappears. <b>Highly
recommended browser!</b></font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Archive Utilities</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000"><b>WinZip 8</b> on Windows and <b>Archiver</b>
on Linux are fully compatible with both ZIP and tar.gz files. These archives
can be copied and used on both Windows and Linux. One feature of WinZip
that I use regularly is selecting a folder and right-clicking - I get an
option: "Add to folder.zip". I can do this with several steps under Linux,
but the Windows / WinZip integration is far better.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Non-KDE Applications </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">The applications use the inferior Gnome-style GUI.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
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<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="147"><COL WIDTH="494"></caption>
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<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Gnome Window Manager</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">I have tried <b>Gnome</b>, but did
not like it. The graphical interface is poor compared to Windows or KDE:
the windows frequently do not scale, the buttons are difficult to understand
and the File Manager is quite inferior when compared to KDE's Konqueror. </font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">CD-R/RW Recorder</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Adaptec's <b>Easy CD Creator</b>
is the industry standard for burning CD-Rs in the Windows world. It's a
highly intuitive program that works very well. It would be difficult to
match this great program. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">On Linux, I selected the GUI <b>Xcdroast</b> and
downloaded the latest RPMs. The program detected my HP CD-Writer, and created
a 600MB CD-R in record time. Not as easy-to-use or intuitive as Easy CD
Creator, but it sure works!</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Image Editor</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000"><b>GIMP 1.2</b> is a highly rated,
robust and full-featured image-editing program for Web graphics and is
frequently compared to PhotoShop. It works with all image files. I quickly
made changes to files created in FireWorks 4. However, in the FireWorks
file, I had 3 text layers and a bitmap layer, in addition to the background.
With GIMP, the file loaded as a single layer.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<a NAME="staroffice"></a>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Star Office Applications </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">Star Office provides yet another GUI desktop that
I do not like - it has its own fonts, mouse buttons and pointer, etc. But
it works.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
<table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=4 WIDTH="659" BORDERCOLOR="#cccccc" >
<caption><COLGROUP><COL WIDTH="147"><COL WIDTH="494"></caption>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Star Office 5.2</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">A complete office productivity suite.
It's not as sophisticated as Microsoft Office 2000, but anyone looking
for a complete set of free office tools for Linux, <b>Star Office is the
best choice.</b> Fully compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
97/2000 file formats.</font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">No help facility on the desktop unit! The help
system failed to work despite repeated re-installs, although the help screens
did appear on 2 occasions, only to disappear the next time! Possibly a
font configuration issue.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarWriter</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000"><b>Excellent Word Processor.</b>
I like Word 2000. There are differences between Word and StarWriter, but
even without any help files, I quickly created, edited and formatted documents.
This is one Linux program that business users can quickly use productivity. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Nice formatting menu available using right mouse
button. Produces clean HTML files. And includes a good 'WYSIWYG' html editor.
StarWriter's spelling is not as good as Windows, but its Thesaurus is excellent
- for each word, it offers a descriptive phrase of what it means. </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000">Three Word 97 files, ranging from 75 to 460 KB,
were loaded into StarWriter. Formatting, including tables and graphics,
worked great.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarSchedule</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Reasonable PIM. It looks much like
Outlook, can be customized and includes an adequate address book. Generally
impressed. But I could not import information from Outlook: my contacts
or events. If you decided to use it, be prepared to manually enter your
contacts, events and tasks! </font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><b>My biggest disappointment with Red Hat was
the missing "Outlook" application.</b> A good PIM with integrated E-Mail.
As I use Outlook daily, I am still looking for a Linux alternative.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarMail</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Industry standard E-mail programs
have 3 basic folders: Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items. <b>But not with StarMail</b>.
It has none - you have to create an Outbox (and I never did find out about
the other 2 required folders). This is one program I do not need. I use
Kmail, an adequate E-Mail client included with KDE.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarImage</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Very capable Image editor, although
I could not find a text tool. It will write GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP and TIF
formats and in addition, read PSD, PCX, EPS and PCD.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarImpress</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Two PowerPoint 97 files, both under
100 KB, were loaded into StarImpress. One file was a slide show and displayed
identical to PowerPoint. The other was a fancy diploma that displayed fine,
except for the different fonts.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">StarCalc</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Three Excel 97 files, ranging from
45 to 300 KB, were loaded into StarCalc. Formatting and calculations worked
fine. This is a very powerful and compatible SpreadSheet.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h4>
<font color="#000000">Non-GUI Applications </font></h4>
<font color="#000000">These applications are frequently executed using
the Linux command line (console). In some cases, GUI front-ends to these
programs are available.</font>
<br><font color="#000000"></font>
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<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Red Hat Package Manager</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">One of the real benefits of the Red
Had distribution is RPM, a powerful console program to manager program
installs, upgrades and un-installs. Developed by Red Hat, RPM is used by
several Linux distributors. In addition, there are GUI front-ends: both
Gnome-RPM and KDE's Package Manager are good.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Archive</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">The <b>tar</b> program is ideal for
backups as it not only backs up Linux filesystem folders, but will compress
them using Gzip. Very efficient. And WinZip reads these archives. KDE produces
a GUI backup program called Kdat, but I could not find it with this Red
Hat version.</font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">PDF Writer</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">Using StarWriter , I imported a complex
Word 2000 file, then printed it as a PS (PostScript) file. Then using the
Linux console, I entered this command:</font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">ps2pdf resume.ps resume.pdf</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000">The resume.pdf file displays fine, but is 100K
larger than the Acrobat Writer 5.0 version produced in Windows. Not as
integrated as Acrobat Writer in Windows and not as efficient, but it works! </font></td>
</tr>
<tr VALIGN=TOP>
<td WIDTH="147"><b><font color="#000000">Faxing</font></b></td>
<td WIDTH="494"><font color="#000000">I used a command-line program with
this syntax:</font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">fax send -v number file.txt</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000">And off went a fax. Files can be text or PS.
You can also receive faxes with this tool. KDE's Kfax is a GUI that will
view and print fax files.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
<font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font>
<br>
<hr><a NAME="links"></a>
<h3>
<font color="#000000">Useful Linux Links </font></h3>
<ul>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Help for new Business Users</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.linuxnewbie.org" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
for Newbies</a> | <a href="http://www.redhat.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Red
Hat</a> | <a href="http://www.staroffice.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Star
Office</a> | <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
on Laptops</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux for Business Professionals</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Today</a> | <a href="http://www.linux-mag.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Magazine</a> | <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Journal</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux Portals and Guides</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.linuxstart.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Start</a> | <a href="http://www.linuxhelp.org" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Help Online</a> | <a href="http://www.justlinux.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Just
Linux</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux Applications and More</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://linux.cnet.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">CNET
Linux Center</a> | <a href="http://sourceforge.net" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Source
Forge</a> | <a href="http://www.linuxapps.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Apps</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux Documentation and More</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.linuxdoc.org" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
Documentation Project</a> | <a href="http://www.linux.org" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Linux
On-line</a> | <a href="http://www.xmission.com/~howardm/index.html" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Xmission</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux Support Forums</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linux" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Yahoo
Groups</a> | <a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=comp.os.linux" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Google
Groups</a> | <a href="http://www.redhat.com/support/forums" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Red
Hat</a> | <a href="http://www.staroffice.com" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Star
Office</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux and Windows</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://shearer.org/en/writing/replacemicrosoft/replace-windows2000-howto.html" STYLE="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">How
to Replace Windows NT with Linux</a> | <a href="http://www.computeruser.com/articles/2009,5,36,1,0901,01.html">Desktop
Linux serves up big savings</a></font>
<li>
<font color="#000000">Linux Software Reviews</font></li>
<br><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.thedukeofurl.org/reviews/misc/distroroundup/">Duke
of URLs</a> | <a href="http://www.linuxlookup.com/html/main/distro.html">LinuxLookup</a>
| <a href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/">LinuxPlanet</a>
| <a href="http://linux.cnet.com/linux/0-2136876.html?tag=stbc.gp_">CNET
Linux Center</a> | <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/products/filter/guide/0,7267,1500110,00.html">ZDNet
Reviews</a> | <a href="http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialOfficeSuites.html">Office
Suites</a></font></ul>
<hr>
<ul class="toc">
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/comment/comments.asp" target="_blank">Reader
Comments</a></b> View and search reader comments, or post your own. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/amend.html">Amendment</a></b>
(22-Sep) Corrections and background on the Red Hat review. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/reinstall.html">Red
Hat Re-Install</a></b> (3-Oct) Reader solutions to Red Hat problems. </font></li>
<li>
<font color="#000000"><b><a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/recommend.html">Reader
Recommendations</a></b> (3-Oct) The Best Linux Desktop applications.</font></li>
</ul>
<hr><font color="#000000"></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><b>Reproduction for non-commercial purposes of
this Review</b> is welcomed provided the author grants permission, the
source is acknowledged and the web site address is quoted. Several non-profit
Linux organizations have requested permission to translate to another language,
re-print or post this Review: <a href="http://www.linuks.org">Linuks.org</a>
| <a href="http://www.penguin.cz/~vanous">Czech Linux</a> | <a href="http://www.linux-outaouais.org">Linux-Outaouais</a></font><font color="#000000"></font>
<p CLASS="top"><font color="#000000"><a href="#top">Top of Page</a></font></td>
<td WIDTH="2%"><font color="#000000"></font></td>
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<div CLASS="header"><font color="#000000">Copyright © 2001 <a href="mailto:rob@robval.com" ONMOUSEOVER="this.style.color = 'white'; this.style.background='blue'" STYLE="COLOR: white" ONMOUSEOUT="this.style.color='white'; this.style.background=''">Rob
Valliere</a> | September 2001 </font></div>
</td>
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