*** Quoting Mike Roberts from a message to Darryl Perry ***

MR> What kind of a learning curve is there in learning Linux if you are ne
MR> and how different are the different flavors?

Mike, the learning curve is steep but not insurmountable.  Suggested best
is to ¨have a separate box and practice setups on it, leaving your main BBS
alone for ¨the time being.

If you are most familiar with a DOS type 'Command Line Interface' (CLI)
then ¨you'd like Redhat Linux for price and ease.  If you are used to WIN
GUI type ¨interfaces, you may want to check out SuSe as that one is
possibly the easiest ¨one to adapt to.

You can get RedHat shipped to you from the web (cheapbytes.com) for
something ¨around 5$ but SuSe will cost you about 70$.  The Redhat cheap
stuff doesnt have ¨a manual so you'll end up spending another 50$ or so for
a good manual.  SuSe ¨comes with a reasonably decent starter manual right
in the same box.

I've been working off and on with *nix varients (generally high end
mainframe ¨or security special types) from 1983-on but just as an operator
for the most ¨part. I can make it do what I want well enough, but have not
really ever setup ¨a BBS with it.  I use it mostly so the kid can get full
Neopets.com action as ¨the WIN security patches make some of it not work,
yet those 'vulnerabilities' ¨do not exist in *nix so need not be blocked. 
(Have an 11 year old named ¨Charlotte who's a big fan of neopets like all
the kids out here in Sasebo).

                                       xxcarol

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