[Cialug] incomplete installation

[D. Joe Anderson]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2005 at 02:37:16PM -0500, David Courard-Hauri wrote:
> 
> Second, when I have problems like this, my response after wasting a day 
> is to just say "screw it, if I installed clean I wouldn't have these 
> problems" and go out and pay $80 for some new distribution. This just 
> tends to make my problems worse, but it is a function of my inability 
> to really spend as much time as I should understanding what is going 
> wrong. I must admit, it is a very tempting solution at this point. So, 
> is there an off-the-shelf distribution that I can just go buy, install, 
> and then go on my merry way with g++ and emacs both running nicely, so 
> that I can shoot this paper off and pad my research CV for when I apply 
> for tenure later in the month?
> 
> g++ is really all that I want right now in the world. That, and maybe a 
> firewall so I don't damage other computers. After that, maybe I'll be 
> done with questions, since I don't use this computer for much else 
> anymore.

Maybe KNOPPIX and a keychain drive would get you far enough.  I
don't do a lot of programming (which is to say, hardly any at
all) but it's worth a shot, and less of a waste to try IMO than
going out and buying a distro every time.  Download, burn it,
see if it'll build some little test program of yours.  If it
does, figure out how to save your home directory onto a keychain
drive between reboots and off you go.  If not, you're out the
download and burn time (but you've got a fast connection,
right?) but you have a handy boot disk for when a hard drive
fails on one of your machines.  

-- 
D. Joe Anderson         http://www.etrumeus.com/~deejoe
"DRM [...] is to copyright law as a machine gun on                                          
a motion detector is to real estate law"  -- Don Marti