[WBEL-users] Best Distro for a Developer / SysAdmin-wannabe Desktop?

[Jan-Albert van Ree]

On Wednesday 04 May 2005 17:49, Andrew Vong wrote:

> What distribution would you recommend for use on the Desktop for a
> Developer / SysAdmin-wannabe? Preferably, I would like to have the
> environment to be exactly like WBEL's.

Then go with WBEL or perhaps Fedora.

> Is KDE or GNOME recommended for an ex-XP user?

Hard to say, comes down to preference mostly. They're both mature enough and 
have roughly the same features. I prefer KDE for it's consistant user 
interface and, but I haven't touched a recent GNOME version so I can't do a 
100% fair comparison. I know my family has no problems using KDE, even 
though they're used to Win98/Win2k/WinXP 

> Summary of my requirements:-
> - Would like easy transition from XP

What apps/data are important? If it's MS Office you've got a problem... MS 
Office files never open up 100% in OpenOffice or any other package 
unfortunately :( Almost always the layout is ruined, sometimes it's just 
totally unusable.

> - Would like to be in a WBEL-like environment
> - Would like to spend much time exploring Linux to further familiarize
> myself with Linux

DON'T do this with anything production then... you'll kick yourself all the 
time for not being able to do what you want as easy as it was. It took me a 
year to fully transition all data and re-learn routines and habits for 
normal day-to-day stuff.

> - Have day-to-day applications that one would need for work and play
> (e.g. Instant Messenging, GIMP, Editor, Office, create PDF files, etc...)

Instant messaging : Kopete on KDE, GAIM for GNOME I'd think
GIMP : nothing KDE specialized I'd recommend, but GIMP runs fine in KDE
Editor : for ASCII I'd recommend Kate on KDE, or vi in a terminal
Office : OpenOffice, perhaps KDE's KOffice although that takes getting used 
to. GNOME has GNumeric and Abiword.
Creating PDF's : ANYTHING you can print you automatically can convert to a 
PDF. So a document, spreadsheet etc etc all can be PDF'ed like you print 
them

I make manuals for LEGO kits in KWord... images scaled in the GIMP get 
imported, headers, footers and comments get added, KSpread tables and 
charts where needed and the final file goes through KPrint which gives me a 
PDF that works on pretty much any platform (no Adobe-only "features" as I 
once had with Acrobat, making the thing impossible to open without Acrobat 
Reader)

> - Be able to be plugged into a predominantly Windows environment and be
> still interact with them

With interact you mean file&printer sharing? Samba, CUPS and for KDE smb4k 
are your friends. IM see above.
-- 
Jan-Albert van Ree  | http://www.vanree.net/brickpiles/
VanRee IT Solutions | http://www.vanree.net