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Subject: Re: Linux for Comp. Chess. Help!

Author: Jon Dart

Date: 10:05:58 05/30/02

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On May 30, 2002 at 12:24:31, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote:


>So, the question is: What kind of Linux distribution would you recommend taking
>into account that it would be mainly for computer chess and experimentation?
>That is, xboard, xboard compatible engines, GCC, programming tools etc.
>The cheapest one I can find? If in the future I decide to build a dual, would it
>support SMP? I heard that Bob Hyatt had problems with Red Hat.

Red Hat's compiler is a little different than what the other distros are
shipping, but I didn't have trouble with it. They've made a lot of improvements
in the last few versions. Installation is a lot smoother than it used to be. The
ext3 filesystem is standard now, which is nice.

Mandrake (http://www.mandrakesoft.com) is even easier to install and setup is
also a good distro for home use.

>
>Should I download Linux instead? (I have access at work to a T1 connection and a
>CD burner) or it is too much trouble? $40 for a linux distribution might be
>fine.

Try http://www.cheapbytes.com.

--Jon

>
>How to do it dual boot? Is that easy to do? Is that supposed to come in the
>distribution I buy? Is something safe? I partitioned my HD 20MB + 20 MB already
>with the application that came with the HD (Maxtor 40 MB, I have no idea whether
>it is good or it sucks but I did not want to wait to do research).
>
>The good thing is that I can experiment now since my HD is empty (with Windows
>98, which came with the machine, I know people do not like it but I'll try not
>to buy another version and it worked "reasonably" well for me).

While you can dual-boot pretty easily, I'd recommend you invest in a copy of
Partition Magic - it's around $50. It will easily let you organize, format,
resize and move both Windows and Linux disk partitions.

--Jon



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