[kwlug-disc] Newbie... Playing with Linux etc...

[Insurance Squared Inc.]

Michael,

As the resident non-techie, business user and village idiot around here, 
I'd like to welcome you to linux :).

Feel welcome to lean on the list for help.  I do so routinely, people 
are happy to help, particularly for newbs and non-techs.

In terms of distro, there's no right answer.  But I believe Ubuntu is 
what most folks use these days who are newbs.  It's probably not the 
best long term for a tech, but in the end it doesn't matter.  If you get 
the hang of ubuntu, moving to another distro isn't a big deal.  In other 
words, don't sweat it - whatever everyone else is using is fine.  You 
can figure out the intricacies later.

Same with dbase stuff. 'Everyone' uses mysql.  Purists and others use 
postgres or other db's, due to technical concerns about mysql.  But that 
being said, mysql is what most on the ground use and what you should 
expect to see in just about every consumer/business level app out there 
so that's the place to start.  Just like your choice of distribution, if 
you want to branch out later once you 'know better' that won't be a big 
deal.  FWIW, you'll hear about 'LAMP' on linux which stands for  Linux, 
Apache, Mysql, PHP.  It doesn't stand for  Linux, Apache, Postgres, PHP 
:). 

In general terms, I think you'll now find that linux on a desktop is 
better than most MS desktop distros (that wasn't the case 3-5 years 
ago).  And you're going to love linux at the server level. Just put up 
with the learning curve.

Again, welcome aboard!

g.



Michael Savage wrote:
> Well what would you suggest then? I was looking at what's happenig in the world of the web, and it seems to be mostly MySQL. I a gree this might not be the best solution.
>
> I've played with Postgres in Windows and had a little success with it, in transalting my old app into this platform, however I never did get the time to devote to it.
>
> Thanks again,
> Mike
>
> --- On Mon, 4/12/10, Terrence Enger <tenger at iseries-guru.com> wrote:
>
>