Digital BW, The Print

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Justin Florentine [mailto:justin@...]
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 7:07 AM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Linux and QTR2
>
(snip earlier)
>
> A Linux system is not trivial to build or maintain.  I would not
> recommend it to the un-initiated.  The good news is that there is TONS
> of documentation out there on the net.  Sure, Linux is complicated, but
> there is a huge community of people using  and documenting it.   As far
> as flavor of Linux distribution, this is a religious issue.  I've used
> many, but I had RedHat 9 discs at work, so I just grabbed them.  :)
> Mandrake is quite good for beginners also.
>
> Most installation procedures are pretty straightforward nowadays, but
> you must be ready to tinker under the hood afterwards.  It helps to be
> comfortable using awkward command line interfaces and arcane text
> editors.  If you're not scared of big ugly config files and compiling
> your own software then you shouldn't have a problem maintaining a
> Linux box.

Justin,

It's been awhile but I spent may years working in DOS and while I know
UNIX/Linux is more complicated, the environment will not be completely
strange. Haven't compiled a program since Fortran on key punch cards but
maybe it will come back to me.<G> I will do some researching and see if I
want to fiddle with it. Like most new or small user based operating systems
I imagine device drivers are an issue but for a print server the demands
should not be very great.
>
> $500 will get you more than enough computer to start.  I haven't gotten
> QTR2 running yet, so I can't really asses how resource intensive it is.
> I can't imagine it'd be all that strenuous for a modern PC.  To give you
> an idea, I'm running RH9 on a P2 500mhz w/256MB ram, and a smallish
> harddrive.(10-20 gigs?).  I don't expect any problems.  I also tax this
> machine in other ways (web server and other stuff).

That's very good to know. I have and older 600MHz AMD system running Win 98
as a scanning server for my Howtek. Perhaps I can set it up as a dual boot
system to do double duty.

Thanks for the info,
Martin Wesley
http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html


(snip)