steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

    I learned an important lesson this week: using software (that goes for OS's, too), that just works is less frustrating than trying something new... I know the internal database we are using in our purchasing department runs on FreeBSD - and best on a PII 300+ machine -- which = a machine collecting dust in my basement. But, I wanted to do better. I tried 14 different installations of RedHat 8.0 (and the apache 2.0/php 4.x combo) on 3 different machines and it only worked once - and even then, veerrrryyyy sloooowwwwwllllllyyyy. My fault? Probably. But, I knew that it would work on FreeBSD and wasn't satisfied.
    Something in the RH 8.0 installation and subsequent updates is fudging the php/mySQL tandem team. I don't have time to figure it out (because it may even be something relating to apache 2.x), though. I am writing this post because I want to say that better isn't always better. I am not saying that I don't like RH anymore. I am saying that I know my database runs (and runs well) on FreeBSD w/ old-school apache 1.3.x, mySQL, and php 4.x. I dislike FreeBSD as a workstation - i.e. something I need a gui on and would like to work with regularly. I liked RedHat a lot. But, with my Mac hanging around, I have no need for both... so, I say goodbye to RH for the time being. It was fun knowing thee.