Linux. Going to take a serious look at it.

[Vic C.]

When I clicked the "Install works", I was just testing it to make sure it didn't install the Whole Works :-D You know, click and test now, read later

Read? :o I don't read...usually. I am a "click" from the hip sort of guy. My favorite word sometimes is...OOPS!" :-D

Maybe I should have read a bit before attempting to install unsupported Nvidia drivers. :

 

[Vic C.]

Mr. "Click from the hip" tried a dual boot installation at work today. I picked the wrong boot manager option for GRUP and wiped out my Win 2000 MBR. LOL! I had to get out the ol' trusty ERD floppy and perform a repair. :

Got it right the second time and now I have a 2000/Ubuntu dual boot PC. :-D Man, that OS flies on a dual core and 2GB RAM. 8-)


Rick, I don't know if SUSE uses gparted as it's partition utility, but if it does, choose the manual option. It will leave your unallocated space untouched. Also, it turns our that my FAT32 "mistake" was a blessing in disguise. I can use it as a "shared" drive between Linux and Windows, since both can read the FAT32. So, things I download or whatever in either OS can be put there and be available to both OSs. Cool...

 

[Rick W]

Yep, I have gparted and THANKS for the tip! :smt023
Found out about that fat32 thing also. 8-)

 

[stovebolts]

Kubuntu hasn't come up to Firefox 3, and I havn't tried to "Make" it yet. But here's my question. Can either of you view video's on Godtube? I can't get them to play... Rick, since your running Firefox 3, can you let me know?

Thx

Hey, Nice save Vic!

 

[Vic C.]

Jeff, Firefox 3.x should be available to you via Synaptic Package Manager or whatever manager you use. You shouldn't have to build it yourself.

Anyway, Godtube works fine if the proper plug-in is installed. FF will let you know what's missing and get it for you, upon approval. You already know all this already, probably. :

It seems Ubuntu is seeing all my NTFS disks also! :-D

 

[Vic C.]

Re: Linux.been there, done that!

All quotes are from here: http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-postinstall.html

The Linux Installation and Getting Started Guide (you should have read this by now; if not it's available on-line thanks to The Linux Documentation Project) will tell you to run several commands at the command line to create a new account, shutdown the computer, etc.

There is a user guide? LOL! I don't need no stinkin' user guide. :smt028

Don't listen. We are coming from the world of Windows, and we need to leverage the knowledge we already have to get some work done. That means we need to get off this barren command line and back into a GUI where we feel comfortable.

There ya go! :-D

On Linux, this means the X Window System.

I guess that's the x-server. I know all about breaking that! :

Don't type win, it won't work. The first time I installed Linux it took me four hours to figure out how to start X, and I'm about to save you that trouble.

:smt044

[root]# startx

That's it. That's how we get into our GUI, the X Window System. The first thing you should type at the command prompt is startx. Note that this assumes the X Window System is already configured on your system. This is done during installation on some distributions, but requires extra work on others. If startx doesn't work for you, see Introduction to The X Window System for instructions to get it working.

...and that's assuming you are booting up to a command prompt. No need to worry about that. 8-)

Linux puts a lot of power at your fingertips. That's the best reason to switch to Linux; it's also the most dangerous thing about the system. Linux controls how much power you can use on the computer based on your Login ID. It keeps a database of all users, and it keeps track of which user owns which files, and which users have permission to view, edit, and execute each file, folder or program. An ordinary user will not be able to do really dangerous things, like editing the user database, or deleting every file on the system.

Makes one thank Microsoft for that annoying prompt when you delete files... unless you hold down the [shift] key. :-D Also, Windows usually won't let you delete system files anyway. :

But right now you are logged in as root. You are not just an ordinary user, you are SuperUser. (SuperUser is a real Unix term, synonymous with root.) There are no restrictions on your power. You have the ability to crash the system and make it otherwise unusable in more ways than you can imagine.

Hehehe, haven't done that yet. ;-)

As a novice it is very easy to make your system completely unusable with a single erroneous command. Believe me. I speak from experience. The first weekend after I installed Linux, I had to reinstall it FOUR times before I finally got smart and quit destroying it. And I'm a pretty savvy guy around computers, so don't think you're immune just because you know your way around a PC.

That's for you, kenan. :

Now, if you aren't a Superuser...

Becoming SuperUser

No phone booth needed. The obvious way is to login as root. That's the best way to do it if you plan on doing a bunch of system maintenance type stuff, but it can be a pain if you're logged in as User with an X session and 14 programs open and connected to the Internet and you just need to copy one file into /usr/lib so you can run this program you just downloaded. Fear not, there is a better way. Type this:

[user]$ su
Password:*****
[root]#

Bang! Just like that, you are SuperUser! A few cautions: Although you are now SuperUser, this is not a "login" shell, so your environment hasn't changed. The biggest way this will effect you is that some programs you normally run as root may appear to be missing. That's because your PATH environment variable, the list of places Linux looks for executables, does not contain /sbin or /usr/sbin. If you try to run a command like shutdown (see below) and it complains, try typing /sbin/shutdown instead. That should do it.

When you are finished with your maintenance tasks you should immediately change back to normal user mode:

[root]# exit
[user]$

Notice that while you are SuperUser, your command prompt looks different. An ordinary user is prompted with the dollar sign ($) while SuperUser gets a pound sign (#). This makes it easy to tell which mode you are in. (This is true on most distributions, but the prompts may be different on different distributions, and they can be customized.)

Happy clicking!

 

[Vic C.]

Jeff!

Check this out:

http://www.bordeauxgroup.com/

 

[Lewis]

Going to give Linux a shot.
Never laid eyes on it but hey, what the heck. Besides, I'm thinking there just might be something better for me out there somewhere. I'm a techie sort of fella and used to doing things to my computer I know nothing about. :-D
I have 4 HD's so one I'll dedicate to Linux. I can multiboot to any of the 4 drives so that's no problem.
Oh, I've selected Ubuntu for no reason at all except I've read that's it's the most popular of the distros. Gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Ok, download completed.

I was using Ubuntu a few months ago, great system, you have to get use to it though. But hey no viruses and no spies,and it's stable. I will dedicate one of my rigs to it when get back home. I removed it from my rig up here in Philly, and did a fresh install of pain in the rear XP.

 

[Vic C.]

I'm loving it Lewis. I switch between it and Windows at work. Here at home, I haven't booted up tp Windows in weeks. 8-) I got real used to it very quickly. I only crashed it once, trying to force install an unsupported video driver. :-D A quick repair of the X server and I was back up in no time.

 

[stovebolts]

Re: Jeff!

Check this out:

http://www.bordeauxgroup.com/

Thanks! I did a quick try with Wine and Office 2007 and it wuoldn't install. Havn't played with it much.

As far as plugins for Godtube etc, they wouldn't install. Again, I havn't spent much time dinking with it. Maybe later in the week, not sure as I'm kinda playing ketchup from my excursion. I'm wondering if I'm having the software issues with KUbuntu because I'm running their 64bit version...Not sure, again, I havn't spent much time in it. Anyway, I'll get to tinker more this week but over all, I think Ubuntu runs smoother than XP or Vista. I'd like to install it at home for the kids (I get tired of fixing their pc's) but before I do that, I need to make sure that all the apps work properly.

It's funny, I was taking some things down from the closet yesterday and ran into my old programming material. We used to program C and C++ in Unix and used the vi editor. Goodness, reading all those vi and Unix commands brought back some nightmares lol!

 

[stovebolts]

Well Vic, you were right : Went to Snaptic packager and was able to update Firefox and add the flash plugin so now I can watch video's on GodTube 8-) Too cool! Ya gotta keep in mind that I spent a lot of time in YAST back in the days of Suse and I wasn't too keen on Snaptic. Tell you what though, they've made it much easier!

Well, back to work!

 

[Lewis]

I'm loving it Lewis. I switch between it and Windows at work. Here at home, I haven't booted up tp Windows in weeks. 8-) I got real used to it very quickly. I only crashed it once, trying to force install an unsupported video driver. :-D A quick repair of the X server and I was back up in no time.

I will love it too Vic.

 

[Photosmith]

Not that it's breaking news or anything, but all this linux talk got me excited and I reloaded my mini-ITX system running Fedora Core 4 with Ubuntu 8.04.1 a couple days ago. I use it as a file server, web server, and hope to use it as a print server too. My linux machine is so old that it won't detect my graphics chip correctly (it's a 2001 VIA C3 Eden chipset) but it's not a big deal since it spends 99.9% of its time hidden away in the closet anyway with no monitor or keyboard hooked up to it in the first place. The old VIA mini-ITX system tries its hardest to be a stubborn, incompatible piece of obsolete hardware, but ultimately I got everything working on it. Praise God for everyday miracles!

 

[Vic C.]

Ha! I had a VIA MB with a C3 667 cpu. I out grew it when I came to needing more cpu speed. The drawback on my particular mb was... the cpu was built onto the board, No 370 socket, so I couldn't upgrade the processor. :crazyeyes:

 

[Photosmith]

Yeah same here. C5 533mhz, soldered to the board. Good news is it's totally silent, since it runs with no internal fans and just a 92mm Nexus fan undervolted to 5v. Well that and it only draws 10 watts at idle, which is nice for a system I leave running 24x7. The only thing in it that makes any sound at all is the 2.5" laptop HD when it seeks, and I'm thinking of replacing that with an SSD for a truly silent system. That may even drop the power consumption to 9 watts.

 

[Pogo]

OK guys, I'm considering the leap to Linux.

I've read this whole thread, and it seems like pretty deep stuff! Kinda like my old DOS days.

I'm not really into doing music/video on a computer other than surfing the web, and looking at something on YouTube, maybe.

An Office Suite that includes PowerPoint capabilities, like Sun's Open Office will scratch 95% of my itches.

I'm about to start sifting through the software (best versions) and hardware options.

Any recommendations as to Make and Model of motherboards and chipsets, and does Intel offer an advantage over AMD?

Also, peripherial equipment suggestions would be appreciated. Easily recognizable, high performance hardware would be wonderful, of course!

If most everything out there is pretty much good to go, then suggestions on what to definitely avoid, would be appreciated, too!

Maybe a laptop would be the way to go. Is there such a thing as an out of the box laptop that will do a simple install and be ready to go?

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Pogo

 

[Vic C.]

OK guys, I'm considering the leap to Linux.

I've read this whole thread, and it seems like pretty deep stuff! Kinda like my old DOS days.

Heh, DOS 3.1 is where I started. Google IBM convertible; that was me. 8-)

I'm not really into doing music/video on a computer other than surfing the web, and looking at something on YouTube, maybe.

Install Firefox for your Linux distro of choice (if it isn't bundled already) and install the Flash plugin. It's very easy.

An Office Suite that includes PowerPoint capabilities, like Sun's Open Office will scratch 95% of my itches.

That also comes with most distros. You can easily add the MS Access equivalent if you need a database tool.

I'm about to start sifting through the software (best versions) and hardware options.

As you see, we have members using Knoppix, openSUSE, KUnbuntu and Ubuntu. We can all be of help. I use Ubuntu and found my comfort zone.

Any recommendations as to Make and Model of motherboards and chipsets, and does Intel offer an advantage over AMD?

Not to my knowledge. Chose your distro and visit their forums. The Forums are a great source for good info.

Also, peripherial equipment suggestions would be appreciated. Easily recognizable, high performance hardware would be wonderful, of course!

Just make sure you download the latest version of your OS. I am running Ubuntu on a 5 year old PC and a two month old PC and both installed fine and run without a hitch.

If most everything out there is pretty much good to go, then suggestions on what to definitely avoid, would be appreciated, too!

The various forums out there are as good place to start.

Maybe a laptop would be the way to go. Is there such a thing as an out of the box laptop that will do a simple install and be ready to go?

Some PC makers are selling pre-installed Linux systems, including laptops if buying a new system is your choice. If you have a free hard drive header available or a free USB port, you can add a drive to your existing system and install Linux to do dual or multiple boot. That's what I did at work and it will save you some $$$.

 

[Vic C.]

Hey, I think we lost Pogo in the nether regions of conversionland.

 

[Timothy]

I'm new here but am an Linux fan for many years now, I'm glad to see people discussing this. For being new to Linux, I would totally suggest Ubuntu. It's easy to use and install, easy to configure and there is a ton of help specific to Ubuntu on the Ubuntu forums for almost every make and model of hardware and for that odd piece of hardware, like WIFI cards, that tend to be problems.

It is very easy to move from the beginner stuff with Linux to advanced stuff and shell scripting with a distro like Ubuntu.

 

[jackwarr]

I agree with Timothy. Ubuntu is the way to go -- especially for someone who doesn't want to spend a whole lot of time with documentation or in the forums. Either Ubuntu (or one of its variants) or OpenSuse will work very nicely out of the box. The difference is that Ubuntu is much leaner -- add things as you need them.

There are a couple of caveats here if you're thinking of making the leap. Consider hardware -- got a Lexmark (for instance) printer or all-in-one device? This, and many other printers and hardware devices just don't have the needed drivers to function properly. This is primarily because the manufactures don't want to supply the needed specs to driver developers. Secondly, the availablility of software (mostly open source and free!) to Linux is amazing in its quantity and quality. However, if you use something very specific to Windows, don't count on being able to use it in Wine. It's sometimes not that simple.

All that said, when Windows XP went nuts on one of my old systems a few months back, I took this as the perfect time to "upgrade" to Ubuntu. I must say, I don't regret it for a minute.