tlug: Hello, I'm a newbie and help!

[gwalker@example.com (Gavin Walker)]

Hi guys,

First of all can I say that it's great to see such an active Linux user
community in Japan. I'll try to come to some of the meetings.

OK, brief introduction. My name's Gavin Walker and my job is writing
back end database systems for a commercial Internet site. Basically I
use VB running under (or inspite of) Windows NT. Anyway, I've decided
after six years to finally learn C and C++, and rather than learn yet
more about Windows programming, I want to try something completely new
and write for Unix/X.

So, I'm a complete Linux novice who's about to install my first Linux
system. My machine is an old Compaq Pentium 100 with 40Mb of RAM, 1Gb
hard disk and a CDROM. According to the stats I've read, it should be
fine for Linux. Currently it has nothing at all on it, mainly due to
the Windows 95 installation going belly up and me getting annoyed, so I
can start from scratch. I'm probably going to be using Redhat 4.2, as
it comes free with a book that I've been looking at.

Basic question: Am I in for a world of pain, or will the task be easy?
Any pre-install hints would be much appreciated.

After the installation I'll be wanting to write some code. I'm guessing
that the easy to use development environments like VB and VC++ aren't
going to be available for Linux. Am I back in my University days with a
text editor and command line, or are there less labour intensive
solutions? Also, any recommended books?

Ah, erm, sorry for sending a pile of questions as a first message...

Regards,


Gav
Yokohama
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