[WBEL-users] Considering White Box - Related Questions

[Kirby Bohling]

On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 10:07:23AM -0400, Clint Harshaw wrote:
> Hello all:
> 
> I'm new to the list, and have been a RH desktop-oriented user, and 
> currently a Fedora Core 1 user (FC2 is on a laptop that gets used 
> infrequently). My workload is about to increase significantly, as is the 
> size of my family :-), and I'm concerned that I won't have the time 

Congratulations..

<snip>

> 
> 
> NVidia Cards: I have a "routine" that I have to do anytime I upgrade the 
> kernel with FC1, and it looks like this ...
> 
> CC="gcc32" sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run --add-this-kernel
> CC="gcc32" sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1-custom.run
> 
> ... is this the proper routine for WBEL or is there an alternate method 
> that I should do?
> 

. NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run

worked just fine for me on my NVidia 5200 on Whitebox.  My only
problem, is that I can't get the automatic tools to recognize that
it can do a resolution higher then 800x600.  I had to hand edit
that in the config file.

> 
> Extras: I've installed via yum quite a few extras, such as tuxpaint, 
> frozen bubble, gkrellm*, ogle*, kaffeine, player. Are you all getting 
> these extras on WBEL via a particular repository using yum? (With FC 
> there are a handful of repo's that everybody seems to use for extras, 
> such as fedora.us and livna.org)
> 

DAG has RHEL packages, so you can use those if they are there.  I
don't know if it has all the things your looking for.  I've used
FreshRPMS on a fairly regular basis, and re-built the FC1 RPMS for
ogle (BTW, I find xine much nicer then Ogle).  I use FC1 SRPMS, as
it's the newer versions of the software, and hasn't drifted too far
from WBEL.

> 
> Java and Flash: I'm a nut about checking the NOAA.gov weather animations 
> and my family needs the Flash plug-in for Mozilla for things like Sesame 
> Street and Playhouse Disney. The instructions I always used were those 
> found at:
> http://www.fedorafaq.org/fc1/#Java
> http://www.fedorafaq.org/fc1/#Flash

Flash will install using the stock flash installer, just run the
goofy script.  In the end, all you have to do, is untar the file and
dump the .so plugin into the proper directory /usr/lib/mozilla being
a fine place.  I can't speak about Java.  I know several people who
do Eclipse on WBEL, but I'm not sure about Java plugins.

> 
> Will the same instructions work with WBEL?

I'm guessing yes.  Mozilla under Linux, is pretty much Mozilla under
Linux.  The biggest problems you'll run into are Flash and Java are
binary only, and you might have to put things into compatibility
modes (I've had this problem with installing Oracle regularly).

> 
> 
> Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), I understand that WBEL is 
> server-oriented. Would it be a good choice for me as a long-term (3-4 
> years) desktop for home desktop use, and at the office, where I 
> regularly use MySQL/PHP for my own small database work, some Perl, and a 
> lot of LaTeX? or would I be better served by maintaining my FC1 machines 
> by moving to fedoralegacy for updates?

I personally, think that WBEL is a better platform for the desktop.
It's what I use at home, because fedoralegacy really had no track
record at the time I had to make a decision.  To be fair WBEL didn't
either, but I could just use the SRPMS to keep up to date if need
by.  My problem wasn't the software rebuilding, it was the testing
and patching.

It's highly stable, it's got security fixes on a pretty timely
basis.  If you really want bleeding edge features, WBEL might not be
for you.  You probably won't see MySQL 4.x or PHP 5.x on WBEL as a
standard package.  You probably won't see new major versions of
PostGres on Whitebox.  LaTeX works find under it (woohoo, another
LaTeX user).  

My biggest problem with WBEL lately has been that I've had to
recompile from scratch a lot of third party RPMS, because other then
DAG, I can't find anyone who reliably releases a large number of
RPM's for RHEL or WBEL.  I really should pester the guy from
FreshRPM's to see if he'd do it.

	Good luck,
		Kirby

> 
> 
> Thanks very much for listening and offering your opinions,
> Clint
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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