From the Editor by Jason Wallwork, PLUG President   Everybody has their favorite distribution. Just look at how many are listed on our CDs page! And often, people will get pretty emotional about how great their distro is and how everybody should be using it. And really it's great that geeks, who are usually portrayed in movies as being brainy and without emotion, have strong feelings about Linux. Our distros are as different as the people using them. What ties us together as a community is that we all use Linux and that it is a worthy alternative to the monopoly's OS. An OS, which I might add, that is over-priced and under-featured. I'm not ashamed to admit (okay, maybe just a little) that I use Windows XP Pro. But, I wouldn't use it if I had to pay the $300 upgrade price and not received it free for review. It's just not worth it, especially when a Linux distro does more for much, much less. In that same vain, PLUG Member Trevor Merritt writes: Today I had a friend who was looking to put Linux on a system to learn with. He wanted to be able to install software without worrying about dependencies, or security updates, or any of that scary stuff he has heard so much about. In two hours, we installed Debian 3.0 on a P166MMX with 96MB Ram and an 8GB hard drive. We installed Apache, the X11 Window system, Samba, and KDE with one command. After the base install, we ran one command, had a beer, and after said beer and half of The Screen Savers, it was all installed and ready to go. He can now install more software with one command, he can run X11 and have his web server on his box. Over 137 packages installed. Thanks for writing, Trevor! Who would've thought that you could run an webserver on an original Pentium with so little RAM? Try doing that with Windows 2000 IIS. Maybe we'll see Trevor's friend at a future PLUG meeting. We have an exciting issue lined up. Clint Gilders previews the recently-released Mandrake 9.1 while Harry Ellis compares two installs of SuSE 8.1 -- one via FTP, the other with the discs. We also have a listing of the major security updates and some cool links. Just follow the arrow below to the first article. Enjoy! Keep sending me your comments and submissions. Thanks.           ©2003 Peterborough Linux User Group, All Rights Reserved. Logos and buttons are used by permission of their respective owners. PLUG can not be held liable for damages resulting from the use or misuse of the information at this website or from its members. Don't run with scissors.   Comments can be sent to Jason Wallwork, Webmaster.