[PLUG] The GIMP for Mechanical CAD

Elliott Mitchell ehem at m5p.com
Wed Jul 12 02:37:27 UTC 2006


>From: GLL <guy1656 at opusnet.com>
> I am too afraid to fiddle with this one, because if it breaks I know I'd never 
> be able to get it going myself, so I don't really do installs or maintenance 
> on it. I like Linux because it's secure and runs for 2 - 4 years between 
> upgrades

As already mentioned there are holes on Linux as well. They tend to be
comparatively minor, but add all the minor ones together and you get a
major one. This should be a factor in your choice of distribution, how
easy it is to get/install updates. They all make it pretty easy, but one
or the other method might be preferable.

Debian has been running 3-5 year release cycles. Their security
infrastructure is also pretty simple to deal with. Reasons I go with
Debian. (alas you would need assistance with pure Debian)

> New question: I am wondering about SuSE 10. If I plop a bunch of disks in and 
> run them, do Linux instll act nice and find other, older distros' suff like 
> all my emails, etc? Also, I have a firewall/router from my DSL company. Would 
> Suse 10 autodetect IP's and all that stuff from the inside? I can feed it 
> user/pw combo's all day, but that's all I'd know how to do.

My tendancy is to do a fairly thorough paving during upgrades, so I have
to know where this is stored to save it. Some of this, yes, some, no.
If you're talking about name->IP address resolution, that isn't too
likely to be preserved (though differing versions of the same distro
might). Mail is pretty likely to survive, if you've stored mail in files
in your home directory. You would need to be careful about the spool
files (save /var/mail!). Ensure your home directory isn't paved over, and
you should be pretty safe.

> Advice on SusE?

They're a commercial distribution, now owned by Novell. Quite a few
people use it. There are good things about SuSE, there are bad things
about SuSE.


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