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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Rebuilding the new server
The weekend has been quietly busy. I've bounced
between editing the masters paper (more), trying to contact committee members,
going to the gym (the pain in my hands is getting worse), and rebuilding my
server.
Sorry I haven't written an entry in a while. The
weekend has been quietly busy. I've bounced between editing the masters paper
(more), trying to contact committee members, going to the gym (the pain in my
hands is getting worse), and rebuilding my
server.
After the news about Red Hat abandoning it's public Linux distribution I decided it was time to move to a different distribution. I considered Debian but looking on the web it just didn't look like it was current enough. The last stable release being almost a year ago. The choice was between SuSE (recently acquired by Novell) and Mandrake. I chose the latter, buying their 9.2 distro on DVD.
Damn I wish more people would publish on DVD rather than CD. I think the last Red Hat distribution took up four CDs. It almost reminds me of the old days of "floppy swapping" when you had to go through ten disks to install a major package. I remember getting my first CD-ROM drive and marveling at how suddenly painless the installation was.
Since I've spent the last three years being pretty much dedicated to OS X, I find that I'm a little out of touch with the Linux world. Specifically, I haven't been looking at all the software packages that are now available for Linux (or FreeBSD, etc.). Granted, a lot of the core applications have been ported to OS X via the Fink project, but still I was blown away by the number of Multimedia and "Office" applications now exist. Who said Linux wasn't ready for the desktop?
So my plan is to build a "backup server" with all new software that can switch-over and handle all my current server's tasks. I might just keep the two running while I'm in Colorado defending the masters degree so I have a failover system. Then I'll retire the old machine (216 days of continual uptime so far!) and install the new image onto it.
I can't help but wonder how many of "my readers" (ie. you) who aren't computer geeks and whose eyes glaze over at the mention of all of this. Truth is I really quite enjoy doing computer administrative work, especially when it gets to be simply a "side job". I'm sure I would hate doing it full-time, but this allows me to get that male "tinkering under the hood" need satisfied.
After the news about Red Hat abandoning it's public Linux distribution I decided it was time to move to a different distribution. I considered Debian but looking on the web it just didn't look like it was current enough. The last stable release being almost a year ago. The choice was between SuSE (recently acquired by Novell) and Mandrake. I chose the latter, buying their 9.2 distro on DVD.
Damn I wish more people would publish on DVD rather than CD. I think the last Red Hat distribution took up four CDs. It almost reminds me of the old days of "floppy swapping" when you had to go through ten disks to install a major package. I remember getting my first CD-ROM drive and marveling at how suddenly painless the installation was.
Since I've spent the last three years being pretty much dedicated to OS X, I find that I'm a little out of touch with the Linux world. Specifically, I haven't been looking at all the software packages that are now available for Linux (or FreeBSD, etc.). Granted, a lot of the core applications have been ported to OS X via the Fink project, but still I was blown away by the number of Multimedia and "Office" applications now exist. Who said Linux wasn't ready for the desktop?
So my plan is to build a "backup server" with all new software that can switch-over and handle all my current server's tasks. I might just keep the two running while I'm in Colorado defending the masters degree so I have a failover system. Then I'll retire the old machine (216 days of continual uptime so far!) and install the new image onto it.
I can't help but wonder how many of "my readers" (ie. you) who aren't computer geeks and whose eyes glaze over at the mention of all of this. Truth is I really quite enjoy doing computer administrative work, especially when it gets to be simply a "side job". I'm sure I would hate doing it full-time, but this allows me to get that male "tinkering under the hood" need satisfied.
Posted: Mon - November 24, 2003 at 05:46 PM