If you run a flavour of Linux as your Operating System. Chances are you’ll appreciate the number of little tweaks you have to make, to get it ‘just how you want it’ (I wonder if someone has TM’d those words yet?).

I have recently moved from `Ubuntu 7.04′ to `Fedora 7′ and it’s taken a couple of weeks to get it how I like it.

I’ve noticed a cycle to how I configure my Linux boxes.

• Define Problem
• Google search on words I think will get answers
• Implement Fix from Google
• Test it
• Figure out why it did/didn’t work
• Undo useless changes
• Read man page and/or join mailing list
• Discover program has changed between versions or whatever the cause is
• Google again for correct fix
• Implement Fix – Write a howto and dump it in my /faqs/mine/ dir
• Repeat for next problem

This process may be tedious, but lets face it. How much would you expect to pay for a version control/email server/dns/dhcp/samba/http/https/antivirus/antispam/vpn/firewall etc etc solution in the Microsoft world? Thousands.

Linux just asks for time and applied intelligence (admittedly alot or both sometimes).