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This document aims to explain the limitations on the support that we can offer for Linux.
Our experience is with RedHat and SuSE. Users are expected to keep their distributions up-to-date as far as possible; while we won't force you to upgrade your RedHat 3.0.3 system, we won't support it, and we'd like you to bear in mind that RedHat don't support 3.0.3 either. New installations should use the latest production release of RedHat or SuSE (so don't install beta releases) - earlier versions are only acceptable if you need to set up a system as similarly as possible to an existing one.
We only support the core functionality of the distribution. Please don't contact us with questions about individual applications. Linux distributions typically include an awful lot more software than an out-of-the-box NT system; just as you wouldn't expect Information Services to answer a WordPerfect or StarOffice for Windows question, neither should you expect us to support the Linux versions of those packages.
Initial installation of a supported distribution, including advice on disk partitioning and co-existence with Windows NT; configuration of TCP/IP networking and network services; network security, including configuration of TCP wrappers and IP firewalling; configuration of the X Window System on supported graphics hardware.
While we are happy to attempt to install Linux onto laptops, users should be aware that the hardware can be sufficiently different from that of desktop PCs to cause problems with the installation of the X Windows System and PCMCIA devices. In particular, it may be necessary for a laptop to have an internal CD-ROM drive to make a Linux install feasible without excessive fiddling.
Administrators of Linux systems are strongly advised to join the bris-linux mailing list by mailing sympa@sympa.bristol.ac.uk, and entering 'subscribe bris-linux' in the body of the text. This will be our primary route for advising Linux system administrators with news and security information. Computer support staff in departments where Linux systems are in use, even if they do not administer them themselves, are also invited to monitor the mailing list. Administrators should also subscribe to the security and/or announce mailing lists run by the producer of the distribution they use.