• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Newbie Linux Questions

LeCynthia

Thinker
LeCynthia
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
143
I ended up with a desktop that's identical to my current desktop (a Compaq Evo that's about a year old) and I thought I would try this Linux that everyone is going on about. I've never, ever used anything like this before so can anyone recommend a version that's easy to install and try out? It's all supposed to be free, right? Is there a GUI so I don't have to learn too many line commands? I would just want to be able to surf the internet, write some documents (compatible with Word, hopefully), and maybe be able to work with graphics (just simple cropping and resizing and such).

I'm not computer illiterate, I do some fairly advanced things with Microsoft and owned some Apples before but like I said I've never even seen a *nix computer being used anywhere. My old boss switched some machines over after I left to Red Hat but I was surprised to find a big price tag on that. I thought the big deal was that it was supposed to be freeware.

Anyway, I see it touted in this forum a lot so I thought I'd ask where to get it and what version may suit me. I can keep everyone updated as to how it works for a newbie in case anyone else wants to try it, too.

Thanks.
 
I big distribution right now is ubuntu at http://www.ubuntu.com/
You can download an ISO CD image and burn it to disk. Just follow the prompts.
Once you download it you will probably want to get Automatix to automatically install some extras that you may want.
You might also want to try a live distro like knoppix. It is a version that runs from the cd drive without installing. It lets you try linux without installing.
 
LeCynthia said:
Is there a GUI so I don't have to learn too many line commands?
Click to expand...

More GUIs then you could shake a stick at.

I would just want to be able to surf the internet, write some documents (compatible with Word, hopefully), and maybe be able to work with graphics (just simple cropping and resizing and such).
Click to expand...

Seek and ye shall find. There's a wealth of applications that will run on a Linux platform. You will find most distros will include all such applications: Mozilla, Open Office, GIMP - that covers the basics you identified.

My old boss switched some machines over after I left to Red Hat but I was surprised to find a big price tag on that. I thought the big deal was that it was supposed to be freeware.
Click to expand...

Freeware means free as in beer.

Linux is free as in speech.

Windows could be free as in beer, and indeed I have the opportunity to get legal copies of Windows for free so it is not an issue for me. What it will never be is free as in speech. I am limited in the control of my system by Windows by design and by obfuscation. The basic difference in that Linux does not seek to limit the control of the end user either by design or obfuscation. That is what makes it free, not the price tag.

It is not uncommon for Enterprise distros to charge business for specific features not found in the free distros for support etc...

Anyway, I see it touted in this forum a lot so I thought I'd ask where to get it and what version may suit me.
Click to expand...

Any Live DVD/CD would be a suitable starting point. As such you may find it most convenient to find a Linux magazine since they generally give them away on their covers - along with full distros. It is a lot more convenient than spending the time downloading.
 
I'd probably go with Ubuntu as recommended above. My dad likes SUSE, but he also likes OS/2 so go figure.

The no-cost version of Red Hat is called Fedora.

http://fedora.redhat.com/

It's not identical to Red Hat, but it's probably the closest around.
 
cyborg said:
Yes that is helpful. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Indeed. In fact anyone that can muck through an XP or Win2K install can get through a ubuntu/kubuntu/xubuntu or fedora core 6 install. Not to mention there are plenty of how-to's and guides on the intarwebz to google.

LeCynthia, if all you are used to is windows, I would reccommend Kubuntu. You will be more comfortable with the KDE default layout they give in that than the gnome desktop in Ubuntu, however they are all fairly easy to poke through and understand.

Once you have it installed, I would reccommend picking up an O'Reilly manual on linux, or perhaps a Linux for Dummies and walking through the ideas touched on in your new machine to learn more about what linux is about.
 
strathmeyer said:
You're not ready for Linux. Come back when you're willing to learn to do something new in order to do something new.
Click to expand...

The whole point of this trial is that so many times people tout how linux is free (or at least cheap) and it's just as easy to use as Windows. If I have to learn six thousand line commands to use Linux then everything I've heard about it is false. Yes, I'm not affraid of line commands, I use them on a daily basis, but I'm not trying to run a network file server or anything like that, I want a simple machine to use at home. If I wasn't willing to learn something new I wouldn't be trying this at all.

Pompus a-holes can simply stay out of this thread if you have nothing useful to add. Whenever a "how-to" in Windows question is asked all the Linux users are quick to say "use linux and you don't have that worry" but then when someone asks about a solution to switch an answer like this comes back. I'll bet I could run circles around any Windows users in here and if a linux user has a question about Windows I would never say, "you're not ready for Windows". With people like you it's no wonder more people don't try it.
 
LeCynthia said:
The whole point of this trial is that so many times people tout how linux is free (or at least cheap) and it's just as easy to use as Windows. If I have to learn six thousand line commands to use Linux then everything I've heard about it is false.
Click to expand...

Faulty reasoning.

GUIs do not guarantee ease of use.

CLIs do not guarantee difficulty of use.

That is all.
 
cyborg said:
Faulty reasoning.

GUIs do not guarantee ease of use.

CLIs do not guarantee difficulty of use.

That is all.
Click to expand...

True, but the point is he could have said something like this without trying to insult my intelligence. Strathmeyer's comment was just a pompus remark without knowing all the facts and stuff like that just isn't welcomed when someone is trying to learn something new.

I'm glad there are helpful people in here who have steered me in the right direction and thanks for that.
 
LeCynthia said:
Strathmeyer's comment was just a pompus remark without knowing all the facts and stuff like that just isn't welcomed when someone is trying to learn something new.
Click to expand...

No doubt - like I said, hardly helpful.
 
What file system does linux use? I have a second drive formatted in NTFS with thousands of pics and files on it, will linux see this okay? I was hoping to just put this drive in the linux machine as a secondary as a quick way to transfer all my files over and if it doesn't work out I can just put it back in a Windows machine. Or if I run it from a CD like some have suggested will it see both hard drives as-is?
 
LeCynthia said:
What file system does linux use?
Click to expand...

There are several popular file systems.

Neither FAT, FAT32 or NTFS are native ones though.

I have a second drive formatted in NTFS with thousands of pics and files on it, will linux see this okay?
Click to expand...

If it is unencrypted there is a good chance. Unfortunately NTFS ain't exactly well documented and MS aren't exactly bothered about other OSes being able to read it. Writing to it isn't going to happen.

Or if I run it from a CD like some have suggested will it see both hard drives as-is?
Click to expand...

Running from CD should be done to test this - avoid the hassle of installing until you are comfortable with doing so.
 
I sent a PM about this, but there are NTFS read drivers available in the FC6 and Ubuntu distros. Like Cyborg said, you could probably read from it if it wasn't encrypted (doubt it is, but I am not at your machine to know.)

You should use your friend google for specifics. There are TONS of resources out there. Just google "ntfs" and "ubuntu" or "fedora core" and sift through for a few minutes. The answer will be there.
 
If I understand your requirements and concerns correctly, in my opinion virtually any of the linux distributions should suffice.

Try kubuntu. Like most linux distributions, it's free. You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubuntu

There are links on that page to the official site, and other relevant sites.

Installation is a snap (usually!) and you'll be able to do all the common tasks from within a relatively nice GUI. You'll never need go near a command line if you don't you.

You'll be able to work with documents using OpenOffice, browse the web with Firefox, edit and create image files with Gimp, email with Thunderbird, and, well, do pretty much anything else you want, all with free software.
 
Thanks guys. Just so you know I pick up this machine on Monday and it has a blank drive in it so I'm not worried about loading it and losing anything. This was just a starting point as doing a Google search turned up hundreds of thousands of pages so I just wanted a starting point. Now that my search is narrowed down I should be ready to go on Monday.

Thanks.
 
Captive NTFS can read/write NTFS from Linux. It requires using an ntfs.sys file from Windows to do it.

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

BTW, it sounds like your existing machine has the photos and you're getting a new computer for Linux? If so, then you can share the drive from Windows and Linux can read/write it via SAMBA even if it is on an NTFS partition.

Linux is much more visibily layered than Windows is. The Linux kernel is the lowest level and many add-ons are available for the kernel, including many filesystem options.

I use EXT3 for my boot drives and XFS for my data drives.

When you install from a CD most likely you'll be offered the option of EXT2 or EXT3. Perhaps Reiser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReiserFS

I also use LVM2 to combine all my drives into a single terabyte partition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LVM2
 
I've played around with a lot of the more newbie-friendly distros over the years, and I've come to prefer a distro called PCLInuxOS. They are in the process of working on a new version, however, and have unfortunately removed all links to the older versions. I imagine the final version of .94/2007 will come out in the next few weeks. You can still download the test release for it and have a look around on the LiveCD, and even install it if you wish. You'll be able to upgrade it through the repositories when the final version is released.

Admittedly, as much as I like it, it's not practical for me to use it right now. One of my PCs is used for recording TV and the other for playing games. I have it on my laptop, though. One of the things that has impressed me about Linux in general is that it seems to be quick to install. I was absolutely amazed when I tried Mepis long ago and it took only 12 minutes to install before I had to reboot to remove the liveCD.

A word of warning. You're going to need to be comfortable with creating and formatting partitions. A lot of distros can do this automatically for various situations, ranging from "clear off my entire hard drive and format for linux" to "keep windows, just find a little space for linux somewhere" or you can do it all yourself. Since you're getting a pc with a fresh hard drive, I imagine you're not too worried, but it's still nice to have that.

Have fun, and hopefully you won't run into any odd problems. If you do, I'm sure someone here or on the forum for your chosen distribution can answer it for you.
 
kevin said:
BTW, it sounds like your existing machine has the photos and you're getting a new computer for Linux? If so, then you can share the drive from Windows and Linux can read/write it via SAMBA even if it is on an NTFS partition.
Click to expand...

Yes, the new machine is clean and the old one has about 12 gigs of pics and 1 gig of documents and since we are in them alot I didn't want to slow anything down by accessing them over a network share. We can, however, install a new drive and copy them all over some night. But that's getting ahead of myself, I just want to get the OS up and running and try some of the programs out there that's available for it. Once/if I get comfortable with it then I'll worry about the second drive. I just wondered if it could simply be moved over and it looks like yes and no, so I'll hold off on that for now.

Microsoft pissed me off after I installed Office 2007 and the new Internet Explorer. I cheerfully spent hours working on documents only to discover that when I transferred them to my laptop nothing would open with 2003 and I had download add-ons and spend a lot of time reformatting everything. 2007 just seems like it takes more work to do the same thing. Security on the browser keeps resetting to medium after I get everything to where I want it and to where all my web pages work. Both slowed my machine down noticably. I would have been okay if I hadn't upgraded anything but if this is the direction they are heading I can no longer be on board 100% with Microsoft. So I thought I'd try Linux just see if the rumors are true that it will work smoother and be a bit quicker.

I don't think I'll have any problem working with pictures but I can only hope my documents will look normal. Anyway, I've nothing but time on my hands so it may be fun to at least try it. (Fun? Trying a new OS? I must have turned geeky at some point.)
 
When you go to install whatever distribution you choose, if possible when going through the prompts setup the Home folder as its own partition. This way if you decide to upgrade or try a different distribution you can keep all your old data.
As for the command line, on a day to day basis I do not use it. From time to time, you will use the command line to install software. There are a lot of helpful websites and when it comes to installing additional software they usually give you the commands that you can copy and paste into the command line. As I mentioned before Automatix will let you install several applications by just checking the boxes. And since you mentioned photos, try F-Spot photo manager. It is pretty slick. Also just like windows, right click is your friend. I don't know how much time I spent trying to figure out what application I needed to run so that I could burn an ISO of Project Gutenburg when all I had to do was right click the file and select burn. Sometimes they make things too easy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom