[Coco] Rainbow IDE on Linux (was: Re: Linux box needs ethernet connection to router/web/LAN)

[Andrew]

Roger,

Glad to hear you have it up and running. I second (third? nth?) the 
sentiment to "upgrade" to a more recent version of Linux, mainly for all 
the features and upgrades done since RH9.

Just be aware that some distributions are more "cutting edge" than 
others - that is, they tend to roll in fairly recent versions of the 
kernel and other applications before they have been "shaken down". I 
won't name names. Let it suffice to say that if you want "hard core" 
stability, Debian is where you want to go (conversely, they seem to take 
FOREVER between releases - so don't use it if you are expecting to use 
very recent hardware - support may be sketchy). If you don't mind 
playing a little more "fast and loose", but still want to stick with 
Debian's huge library of software (huge doesn't begin to describe what 
is available), go with Ubuntu or one of the derivitives (like kubuntu, 
which is ubuntu with KDE, instead of the standard IceWM - IIRC).

I would soooo love to see the Rainbow IDE running on my Mandrake 10.1 
box (yeah, I know I need to upgrade, too) under KDE. Be aware, though, 
that setting up a *proper* dev environment under any *nix can be a small 
pain (though not as bad as it used to be). It really depends on the 
language you choose to code in (myself, I am mainly a PHP developer, 
with some Perl and Python thrown in - so development isn't a hassle). 
With C/C++ (ie, gcc) - once you have the compiler, you then need to 
decide on the rest of your tool path (maker, linker, etc), and there are 
a ton to choose from. I have no idea what is the best way to go here. 
There is a ton of info on the internet, though, so go slow, and have 
fun. It won't be quick to learn, but you will find that things do make 
sense after a while (I started back in 1995 or thereabouts with 
TurboLinux 2.0 on a 486 laptop - yes, I did get it running, amazingly 
enough! I haven't looked back since).

I hope it works out for you, and you enjoy it. Just remember that in 
many situations, "man" and google are your friends to figuring things 
out. Very rarely have I stumbled on a problem that I couldn't find the 
answer for, even for some obscure things. Yes, there will be times you 
will have troubles (mainly hardware configuration). Your best bet there 
is to research the hardware and whatever chipset(s) it uses *before* 
buying it, to determine if there is some (or any) Linux support. Stay 
away if it doesn't have any (or if the support seems very sketchy), 
unless it is something you are willing to "hack on" yourself (lots of 
hardware got support in Linux that way).

Good luck!

-- Andrew L. Ayers
    Glendale, Arizona