Choosing an Operating System

I'm biased. I like CentOS - I already use it for my Asterisk installations. So, a simple choice for me.

This means wiping out my Ubuntu box. Heh. That's no real loss. I *hate* sudo :)

Package choices. Hmm. I'll start with the standard development set, and add what I need when I find I don't have the right ones ;)

Ok.

Machine: Check
CentosDVD: Bugger. Only have a 5.2. Never mind - install 5.2, upgrade to 5.4. *Must* be quicker than downloading the 5.4 DVD, right ?

where the hell is that USB cable for the dvd drive ?. I mean, really. One day you've got thousands of the little buggers clogging up drawers, boxes and cupboards, and the next - none. *gone*. Crap. hope the wife hasn't thrown 'em all away ....

Stolen one from the study PC ...

Right. Here we go.

A) UK installation

Problem #1: Centos does not find the installation media. Although it booted from it. Gotta love linux. Gets more like windows every day ;)
Solution #1: Select the usb-storage driver

B) Selected "remove all partitions". Bye Bye Ubuntu. We're going to miss you when you're gone. Not.

C) I want to compile FS from source. Call me a masochist, but I think that you only truly understand a system when you lovingly coax it into life by building it from scratch. That doesn't include Linux. Sod that. Install from dvd every time ;)

So, customize the package selection. No desktop packages. Want this to be a CLI server only. I've chosen

Editors
Text Based Internet
Development Libraries, Tools and Java Development.
Server config tools. [No db tools or servers - I'm going to use curl / xml to get data from my external DB]
System tools

that's it. Installation on it's way. Time to tell the wife I'm going to be busy for the next 30 minutes or so :(