Sunday, January 8, 2012

SLF-6.1-Scientific Linux Fermi-Update

SLF-6.1-Scientific Linux Fermi
After weeks of waiting SLF-Scientific Linux Fermi finished downloading.
I am currently installing it on my old IBM computer.
It looks like it will take the entire Sunday to install it since I asked for security FERMI repository to download the needed patches.

It can be installed as a desktop or a server which is very convenient.

Contrary to the popular belief the Scientific Linux does not have any scientific packages by default.
Not even a statistic package.

That is why opted for the Fermi derivative, the only distribution claims to include some scientific packages.
It is 3.5 GiB and took almost six weeks to download.
Partly due to server not been able to provide service and partly due to our SLOW Telecoms.

Anyway good thing about SLF is that it keeps on connecting even the link is bad unlike other point to point downloads which terminate downloads without completing the image.
To my knowledge this is the only server I have used that does some intelligent downloading and monitoring.
Its handshake method is pretty good.
In real sense it has a scientific nose to realize that something is amiss in the Internet connectivity and does not prematurely terminate downloading.
I hope it will also do some intelligent installing and is currently stuck at package 493.
My advice is if you are installing only use what is given in the DVD and nothing more.
I will be back with you when it is up and running in my old computer.

Well after 14 hours of installing SLF finally finshed installing and filled up my hard disk.
It looks better and gives the feel that it is Redhat derivative from which I learned Linux in yearly days.
It is sleek and KDE and well organized like any Redhat distribution but still I could not fined a single scientific package.
I will try scientific packages if there are any as software additions to this distribution and report back sometime later.installing few later.
I do not advice anybody to try installing with internet connected even if it is superfast.
This goes in my record book as the longest duration I have spent on an installation.
The longest i have was Mint with network connected.
Only Debian does a good job with network connected (even it takes hell of lot of time) installation.
This is why I will never try Gentoo installation.
Even the latest gentoo does not have installation script.
Anyway this message comes with SLF installed and booted with firefox as the browser.
It is a neat distribution.

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