Any Fool Can Sysadmin

I have Windows XP on my laptop, but I needed a Linux environment for client work. The last time I played around with dual booting was in 2000 when I had just bought my self-builder home computer. I installed Windows 2000 then RedHat 6, but the whole thing failed (I suspect my then very new motherboard didn't have drivers, or something) and I had to wipe everything (using my home sysadmin skills: if anything goes wrong, wipe and reinstall!).

So, it is fair to say I am a non-sysadmin, and maybe that's why I am sometimes accused of being a girly drinker. But with VMware I am suddenly sucessful and confident - in fact I am so confident I might just run as root - it is a vm after all, what could go wrong?

I found this guide extremely helpful. VMware Player is free and easy, the guide helps to hook things up, Ubuntu is quite user friendly. Why was I so scared of sysadmining for so long?

Well, these are early days, and I might just revert to my old self if I get a problem with Linux - wipe and reinstall. But since it is a vm, that is actually a painless solution...

Actually I forget; I first tried installing Damn Small Linux using a VMware Appliance, since it was only a 50MB download. However, I didn't manage to get the network working. And my colleagues and I didn't have a clue how to fix it. So I ended up with Ubuntu. Morale of the story though, sysadmining is no fun if you can't easily wipe and reinstall.