Linux ... for dummies!

Anyone know of any sites with information on Linux that would be helpful for a Linux newbie like me?
I'm considering kissing goodbye to system errors and crashes (yes, Windows!) and saying hello to the penguin but I need more persuasion!

 

hmmmm, ive never had any problems with windows before, linux is good because its open source, meaning that you can fiddle with the programming code, but you could severely fuck something up if you dont know what you're doing, linux is also very stable

 

Slackware Linux is a good Linux build to get started on, or SuSE is also supposedly somewhat easy to learn. Both have full on-line documentation to help you get started. I recommend steering clear of Lindows, as it won't allow you to get familiar with the Linux system and will cause it to be harder to move on to more advanced builds.

 

Get Knoppix! This way, you'd be able to get a taste of Linux without having to get rid of Windows. Or, you could try FreeBSD: it's a really neat and secure *nix that's growing quite fast and is not too difficult to use (that's what I'm using).

 

Spuff, I'm going through exactly the same thing. Been looking into it for a while. Here's what I can tell you so far:

1. Definitely dual boot. That way if the install is unsuccessful, you aren't stuffed. Plus, there is going to be a learning curve where you use windows less and less and linux more and more. So partition your drive and dual boot. The biggest problem is graphics cards - if it isn't recognised, you're stuck in BASH, the command line interface. Ugly. I would do some searching to see if your graphics card is known to have problems with Linux (NVidia are notorious). At least make sure you know what card you have so you can select it in the install if it isn't recognised automatically.

2. Find your LUG - Linux User Groups are everywhere, often universities, but also other places. Find the one nearest you. They are usually willing to help either at a regular meeting, in an online forum, or best of all may even host "install fests" where you bring your machine in and they help you set it up.

4. http://distrowatch.com/ - Great website that tracks the popularity of all the (100+) distributions. Includes links to websites that offer ISO downloads, and reviews of the distribution. If you can't download and burn your own, there's a couple of places in the UK where you can buy CDs or DVDs of the "free" versions of the more popular linux distributions for nominal prices, e.g. £3.50 including postage.

3. I have heard that Mandrake 10.1 is the easiest install and the easiest to use. Its a newbie Linux. Unfortunately it didn't install for me (haven't given up yet, still trying) but I read so many good reviews I'm just going to assume I had bad luck.

4. Get to know GNU. Linux is just a kernel, not an operating system. Maybe it is an irrelevant point to all but the purists, but if you want to understand what Linux is all about you need to know www.gnu.org and www.fsf.org. And all these Linux distributions are a bit like a "Dell" computer. Is it really a Dell if 90% of the components are manufactured by someone else and just assemled with a Dell tag stuck on the outside? Not really, and this is also true for Linux distributions. Most of the components of the operating system are from somewhere else, the distributors just assemble pieces, do some patching together, and call it Bob's Linux. There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the basic idea.

5. Why not go local? BLAG is a linux distribution created by some guys in Brixton. It is relatively small (installs from one CD) but has a decent feature set. http://www.blagblagblag.org/ I'm definitely going to give it a try.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

 

I found it pretty easy, just get an extra hard drive, and just put linux on it and screw around, any modern distro should be pretty self explanatory during installation, and with a second hard drive, there's no fucking around with partitioning and such.

 

I tried a little bit with Knoppix so far. But seeing as how I was weened on Windows, it's a LOT different to what I'm used to!

I'm not sure about being able to install things using Knoppix but I couldn't install my modem so was unable to get online (although I did download the Linux drivers for the SpeedTouch website). That was a bummer! But I bought a bargain computer from eBay (£40 for a P-III PC with XP, 256mb RAM, 30gb HDD and a 17" monitor!) so I'm going to partition that and set it up for dual-boot.
I'm unsure which distro to get to grips with first. I may try Mandrake but I've heard good things about RedHat. Anyone wanna clarify this?

 

I'd suggest to devote this new bargain computer 100% to Linux. I mean, do you really need a PIII Windows machine (btw, great deal)? I'd still suggest FreeBSD. It's more complete, more integrated than most Linux distributions.

Otherwise, both Mandrake and RedHat are good choices.

 

Well, I got another computer off eBay recently (an older P-II thing but for a mere £15) but it is was pretty much DOA! But the company is replacing that so when I get it back, I'm setting that up to run IPCop and have it as a dedicated firewall. But my main concern is networking ... mainly because it touches two things I've little experience in ... networking and Linux! Can you network Linux and Windows machines together? If I do use that other P-III machine with Linux, I would have that, my IPCop machine, a Win XP machine and a Win 98 machine all on the same network ... is it possible, you think?

 

Sure..networking is not dependant on the operating systems, just on the network type chosen on each machine (e.g. all of them can handle TCP/IP over ethernet just fine). "Networking" just means making them talk to each other...the hard part comes in making them say anything interesting e.g. you won't be easily playing your newest FPS on all those machines on a network, but you will be able to share files and printers.

 

Basically, as long as I can access the net, share the connection and share files, I'm happy!

 

As I understand it, Red Hat is not free. Their free version is called "Fedora Core" and while it is hugely popular, some people say it is a perpetual beta, i.e. a testing ground for what's going into Red Hat.

I haven't tried FreeBSD, but I don't think a good case can be made for it being more user friendly than Linux, either on the install or in the running. A lot more command line work is required. Interestingly, Mac OS X includes a lot of FreeBSD.

I still think Mandrake is a good bet (got my CDs from http://www.mpwmedia.co.uk). The only other consideration is speed. All Linux distributions should be faster than Windows, but some are faster than others. Mandrake should be pretty good on a PIII but if you wanted it on your PII you might consider a lighter, faster distro.

 

Hey, I never said FreeBSD was friendly, it just rules

Mac OSX doesn't just "include a lot of FreeBSD", it's built completly on a FreeBSD core. They just made it user friendly, stuck a pretty GUI on it, and made it work only on macs.

 

I failed to install BLAG. Arggh! Then I tried Fedora. Installed with no problems although I couldn´t get it to dual partition and leave XP on there. Well at this point I was happy to get anything. But then I realised my flatmate burned Fedora Core 1 instead of 3. ARGHH! So its an old distribution. So it took me three distributions before I got one to work, even then it didn´t install properly and its the wrong one. But still...

...it works. I am posting this in Linux. This computer is now a M$ free zone.

 

Congrats. With each new Linux user, the Empire comes closer to falling apart. May the force be with you.

 

Right on, but FC1 can't be too bad either, I'm still on Redhat 9... I need to go burn the FC3 cds...

 

Tried again with BLAG. This time it installed flawlessly. I think it just got freaked out by NTFS, whereas Fedora was able to overwrite that.

I have to say it is one super stylin distribution of Fedora/Linux. One CD but then again download what you want, start with what you need. I definitely recommend anyone check it out.

So far I'll admit Linux is a lot more difficult, and a lot more different, than I thought it would be. Not always intuitive. But its so cool.

 

You'll get used to it though, and it works so much better. Sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle getting stuff to work, but once it does, it stays working.
Main thing to gave me trouble at first is the way the file system is set up, I couldn't figure out where stuff went and all, but I eventually got to understanding it.

 

The file system leaves me totally lost - all the file names are so cryptic and abbreviated - and i don't know where to look for anything.

Are you using GNOME? I want to try the various desktops (KDE, Blackbox, IceWm, XFCE) although i am having technical problems with that (and technical problems with installing drivers and any software!). GNOME is cool but some of these faster, smaller desktops seem worth a try in order to squeeze more speed out of this old notebook.

Also, do you use aMule? And which browser? I can hardly tell them apart.

 

I will be joining in w/Linux soon too. Winblows xp proff crashed on my 150gig hd and I been stuck on my old lil 20gig (hate it!) I don't like having to watch how much I'm d/l'ing but I'm waiting till after I visit my friend this weekend. He is totally winblows free and can help walk me thru some of it hopefully, and I will get to play on his puters too~!
p.s. ((((((xao)))))))) hehe, yer warned by this idgit~! get ready fer stupid questions....should I start sucking up now?