[genlee]

Ok lemme explain this.
the /etc/hostname file is the equivilant as the HOSTNAME setting in /etc/sysconfig/network on redhat. With that set, create an ailas with the hostname in /etc/hosts like 127.0.0.1 localhost hostname.alias

[Dolda2000]

Then I get you. I though the /etc/hostname was supposed to be a replacement for the {get,set}hostname syscalls. Don't ask me why, I just got that idea. Maybe you should have been a little more descriptive in your post. It doesn't hurt to let the original poster know what he/she will be doing to their system.

[genlee]

I forgot how redhat sets its hostname. I only use redhat when forced to at work

[Dolda2000]

One of my weakest spots is actually that I've only used redhat. It all began when a guy gave me a redhat 6.1 disk some two and a half years ago, and since then I just haven't seen any reason to switch. I mean, sure, I reconfigure my newly installed systems a lot, but I kind of like the configuration database that they have in /etc/sysconfig. A lot is automated from the beginning.
Unfortunately, I'm very much unable to help people who don't use redhat with distribution-specific issues, and I don't get to see the advantages of other distros. That's really a bad thing, but I don't have any computer left to install another distro on anyway, so there's really not much to do.

[genlee]

I started way back with slackware 3.0. After slackware developers were "slackers" at using the new glibc(for some reason they liked libc5) I switched to debian which I used for quite some time. This summer I tried out gentoo and like it a lot. Its linux wih BSD's portage system which makes it really nice.

[Dolda2000]

I've heard very nice things said of debian. If I were to try out a new distro, debian would be the one. I'm not sure what you mean with "portage", though?

[genlee]

Basicly the port system is a bunch of Makefiles, patches, and descriptions of software. On bsd, you would type say make dhcpcd and that would download the source, apply anny patches needed, compile, then install it. Gentoo copied this system. So to install software on gentoo, you just do emerge <app> and it will do the same. Very nice because you can pass optimizations to gcc when compiling for increased performance. Gentoo has some nice gre security patches to the kernel. Another thing I like about gentoo is its not bloated like most distros. You start with a very basic system and only "emerge" what you want. A bit difficult to setup for a newbie but very customizable which is what I like. www.gentoo.org

[Dolda2000]

Yes, I've heard of that system, now that you mention it. I believe that GARNOME uses something similar, if not the exact same one. It does, of course, seem quite useful, but if I've understood it right, it requires that the system is preshipped with at the very least an URL of some software descriptor file, if not more, of every single component that can be installed that way. I'm not sure if I like the idea of that, but it sure doesn't seem too bad.

[genlee]

when are you installing you will run "emerge sync" which downloads the portage system from gentoo. Its nice since there are quite a few servers I believe using a dns round-robin to act as a cluster. it will d/l about 4000 text files which contain a bunch of urls in them for the software, how to apply any patches, and how to compile it. I run "emerge sync" daily to keep it updated and have never had a problem of installing software because a url was inaccessible.

[Dolda2000]

I'm pretty excited on trying out debian anyway, since they have a Hurd distribution, too. I can hardly wait to try the Hurd, it's just that I don't want to overwrite any of my existing systems.