At this point, after Part 1 and Part 2, if you have experienced help on hand, or you are willing to study the issues for yourself, you really don't need any more help from me. What follows are simply my personal suggestions which should allow you to get from here to there the quickest way possible.
Some of us are old enough to remember it well. I barely remember it, but it was from a dangerous time anyway.
I'm going to out all you fellas trying to get your foot in the door with that girl. You know the one. I know your game – I've played it myself. Now, let me set you straight before you dig yourself into any deeper of a hole.
Just as soon as there’s even a hint that the last freeze has passed, out they come. There are swarms of them. They burrow into the ground. They descend upon plants, especially the biggest and healthiest specimens, until soon only the spindly, weak ones remain.
For most people, “easy” in computers means “familiar.” When I tell them and show them Linux is different — unfamiliar — that's usually the end of the discussion. If the price of change is too high, this is not for you. If the price of learning something new is just another of the costs of having a computer in your home, you'll accept the relatively small price you pay up front for something which gets a lot easier later. If you are still trying to find the “ANY” key, Linux is not for you, especially CentOS. If you have the time and inclination to learn enough to get by, you have come to the right place. The primary advantage of using CentOS in particular, among other types and brand of Linux, is you install it once, and it tends to work exceedingly well until the hardware breaks, as “stability and security” are the primary selling points.
Out here in the woods, people seldom stop by unannounced. Every so often a logger will knock on the door to ask if it would be okay if he were to cut down my cherry, maple, and walnut trees. It wouldn’t. And sometimes there’s a surprise CARE package, so the mailman or the UPS guy will knock. If I’m not here, he’ll put the package on the back porch, where it’s safe from the elements. But beyond that, unexpected company is rare.
You use PCs, but don't particularly love them. They are just a basic convenience, on a par with telephones, washer and dryer, refrigerator, etc. You are easily the majority of Americans who own a PC, and perhaps a big part of the rest of the world. Or perhaps you are a small business owner who has workstations for pretty much the same reasons — an asset which improves the profit margin, may even be critical to operations, but is not the primary nature of the business. Could Linux on the desktop be right for you?
There is a very unpleasant little bug going around. It’s like the flu or the bubonic plague or something. It causes fever, makes breathing a chore, and makes one abnormally stupid. And I’ve got it. Which means that this would be the perfect time to run the “evergreen” column in this space. What is an evergreen column? Well …
“He was crucified,” the Apostle’s Creed declares. As the Church has confessed these three words pointing back to a day that seemed anything but “good” two millennia ago, we recall the most unjust, horrid execution of all time.
Yeow! Why is it that hot coffee defies gravity and manages to escape the spout of the coffee pot and — sometimes actually flowing uphill — find its way onto the hand holding the cup, or the tablecloth, or the early morning bare feet?