[GRLUG] Taking A Deep Breath

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> Thanks for all of your feedback regarding my query on upgrading
> Firefox. In reviewing the responses, it seems that it might help if I
> define my goals in further exploring the Linux platform. I have been
> developing apps in the Windows world for 10 years... mostly Visual
> Basic & SQL server (I hear the moans going up from the crowd :-)

I've never used VB;  I use almost exclusively Python and C# [on LINUX].
Recent versions of SQL-server are actually pretty impressive

> . I'm currently studying Java & I want to set up several PCs, network
> them, use one as a Tomcat server & work toward using open source tools
> for developing scalable applications (web based). I took a couple of C
> ++ courses & have been working on getting my head around object
> oriented languages.
> Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty frustrated with my inability to
> update a program. I'm willing to study what I need to in order to have

The concept of versions is quite different between Windows and
UNIX/LINUX;  the UNIX/LINUX land being vastly more decentralized [for
better or worse - and honesty requires admitting it is occasionally for
the worse].  The components for FF3.x would be quite an effort to
install on a distribution as old as the one you mentioned.  Distribution
versions are unfortunately nearly meaningless - higher number are newer,
and that is about.  And some of them [distributions] insist on in the
idiotic [extremely unhelpful] policy of assigning each release a cutsy
name [even UNIX geeks succumb to marketing-dept-ness sometimes].

The simplest route for you would be to acquire a DVD/CD for the
distribution already installed and perform an upgrade.  You could even
go conservative and upgrade your SuSE 10.1 to 10.3 which is a much
smaller leap than going all the way to 11.1. There are current Mozilla
repositories for 10.3 still available.  Once you get to that point you
can evaluate further - small incremental steps are always better than
sweeping change.

> a solid understanding of the Linux platform, but I'm not sure where to
> start. Any links, books, sources & suggestions will be VERY much
> appreciated.

Whew, that is a tough one.  Intro/101 materials are abundant - and most
aren't very good. Anything published by O'Reilly is a good choice.

Since you already have a box running SuSE checking out
<http://en.opensuse.org/Documentation> wouldn't be a bad idea. 

Your version 10.1 was released 2006-05-11
10.2 was released 2006-12-07
10.3 was released 2007-10-04
11.0 was released 2008-06-19
11.1 was released 2008-12-18