(Computer) Linux for Beginners

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 3rd, 2008, 11:47 pm

This thread is intended for those new to the Linux OS.

Basic Linux Information (Linux 101):
http://linux.about.com/od/linux101/Linux_101.htm
http://www.linux.org/lessons/

There are over 300 distributions of Linux, but only a handful are really popular. You can see the rankings here:
http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity

There are 2 Linux distributions that I use, Ubuntu and Puppy. Info here:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy

If your computer is a Pentium 4 or better with at least 512MBs of memory, I'd recommend Ubuntu. If your computer is older and has 256MBs of memory, I'd recommend Puppy. Both can be downloaded from the internet. But if you prefer to have the CD/DVD and printed manual, you could order the Ultimate Ubuntu 7.10 package ($48):
http://www.thelinuxstore.ca/index.php?m ... Path=41_47

Good on-line resource for Ubuntu Linux installation:
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/
http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com/2007 ... u-710.html

Momo's Q&A:

Q. Can I try Linux without installing it to my computer?
A. Yes. You can download the "Live CD" image, burn to CD-R (ISO to disc), then boot from the CD to try it out.

Q. Can I run both Windows and Linux on my computer?
A. Yes, but if this is your first time installing Linux, I recommend using an old or spare PC. Back-up all important data from the hard drive before installing. Most Linux distributions include a boot manager, which allows you to choose which OS you want to run at boot-up.

Q. Is Linux easy to use?
A. Yes and no. The "ease of use" of recent Linux distributions has reached somewhere between Win95 and Win2000 level, but it's not up to WinXP yet. There are still many customizations that require command-line input.

If you're looking to buy something for a person who's clueless about computers, take them to your local Apple store and get them a MacBook (Laptop) with AppleCare extended warranty. If they have any problems, have them bring the laptop in to the Apple Store's Genius Bar.

Q. Will Linux support my hardware?
A. Most commonly-found hardware are supported by modern Linux distributions. Rare or specialized hardware is sometimes not supported. For example, Ubuntu will probably support 99% of all video cards sold in 2007, but not the old Promise SX-4000 RAID controller (for RAID5 config) in my garage. You can research hardware compatibility issues here:
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html
http://hardware4linux.info/

Q. Is Linux virus-free?
A. No. Linux free, but not virus free. There are Linux anti-virus programs avail, please use it.

Q. Will I be able to find all the programs I use in Windows for Linux?
A. No. There is no Microsoft Office or MSN for Linux. However, Linux does have a large collection of freeware that allows you perform most of the tasks (word processing, web surfing, graphics editing) that you'd do on a computer. Free programs such as Open Office (openoffice.org) offers reasonable level of compatibility with MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Ubuntu also installs Pidgin by default, which is compatible with MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc. networks: http://www.pidgin.im

Q. How do I download and install programs in Linux?
A. Most modern Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, has software catalog where you can pick and choose (add/remove) free applications to download and install. There are also commercial applications avail.

Q. How do I get support for running Linux?
A. There are on-line documentation, forums, chat rooms, and mailing lists dedicated to various Linux distributions. For example:
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/communitysupport
http://puppylinux.com/forums.htm

Q. What is the advantage of using Linux over Windows?
A. From cost point of view, the retail price of Windows XP Pro + MS Office Pro is higher than what many computers are sold for today. You can skip these software expenses by installing Linux and Open Office, or AbiWord if you only need word processing. On the down side, there will be some time-consuming adjustments switching from Windows to Linux. Also, many games are only avail on Windows, so you may want to retain a Windows PC for your MMORPG addiction. There are ways to make games like WoW run under Linux, but it takes some work:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Linux/Wine

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » April 6th, 2008, 7:26 pm

Momopi Laoshi,

Your arguments for switching to Linux are compelling (especially from the cost standpoint). I used to be a happy windows user, but Vista really disrupted my computer life. Since I now have do all these fancy work-arounds to get my old software and games to work anyway, I might as well do the same thing on Linux while getting all the cost, performance, and security benefits of Linux (Vista is a resource hog).

I was initially very turned off by Linux due to frustrating experiences with at in college. I took some first year computer science major courses and I was just kind of thrown in the Unix world with little guidance doing C++ assignments. I think my college used Mandrake. My school's computer network had some weird stability issues where things would freeze up or crash, but I guess they weren't necessarily a problem with Linux.

Are there any visual programming environments for C++ on Linux that have all the friendly, visual features of Microsoft's Visual C++? (I know computer science professors laugh when I ask that but I'm not happy with only the command prompt or some bare bones text editor.)

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 6th, 2008, 10:08 pm

I'm not a programmer/developer... but could refer you to KDevelop:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDevelop
http://www.kdevelop.org/

This article is like 3 years old, so the info might not be up to date:
http://www.linux.com/articles/44193

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » April 6th, 2008, 11:41 pm

Hmm, Kdevelop looks interesting. I'll have to look further into it.

Do you use Linux at work or is it just a hobby of yours? Does the business community ever use Linux for anything besides internet servers? Somehow I'd find it funny if I saw new MBAs working on spreadsheets and slideshows on Linux computers (but they wouldn't laugh at the money they'd save).

But in general it's good to know that Linux is getting more user friendly and isn't just for crusty old computer science professors who have brains the size of two hormone-filled California grapefruits.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 7th, 2008, 3:02 pm

We don't use Linux at work outside of server environment. I run Ubuntu at home on my personal PC, dual boot Linux/Windows. I'm not an Unix/Linux admin and only a user.

Linux is important as an alternate to Windows, and to keep Windows pricing in check, much like AMD vs. Intel. For example, the Asus Eee PC use Xandros Linux, and Microsoft agreed to sell Windows XP licenses for $40 in a competitive bid.

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » April 7th, 2008, 8:09 pm

Momopi, I think you've successfully infected me with Linux fever, like one brain-sucking zombie turning a human being into another brain-sucking zombie. I'm not ready to disrupt my computer life so much right now, but I think I'll switch to Linux in the future. Maybe I'll even start programming again.

That's amazing that Puppy is so small that it can run on only RAM! What have your experiences with Ubuntu and Puppy been like? Did you run into any unexpected problems, or did things go smoothly right from installation? Have you tried any other Linux distributions? I remember always seeing Red Hat on the store shelves years ago.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 8th, 2008, 4:23 pm

Jackal wrote: That's amazing that Puppy is so small that it can run on only RAM! What have your experiences with Ubuntu and Puppy been like? Did you run into any unexpected problems, or did things go smoothly right from installation? Have you tried any other Linux distributions? I remember always seeing Red Hat on the store shelves years ago.

I highly recommend downloading the Ubuntu Linux live CD and play with it. You can boot off the CD and run the OS without installing. In most cases it'd auto-detect your NIC card.

The biggest pitfall with installing Linux is when people try to re-partition the hard drive. They assume the utilities will work 100% successfully in moving their existing data and making new Linux partitions. Then when they reboot and find their Windows OS inoperable, they freak out.

Best way to install Ubuntu Linux on a dual-boot machine is if you already have a 2nd partition on your HDD and can wipe it out for the auto-install.

Ubuntu Linux needs a reasonably fast (1 Ghz) machine with 512+ MB RAM to run well. If you have less than 512mb RAM, it'd run like a slug, even for the "lite" versions. i.e. Xubuntu claims that it'd run in 128 MB RAM, take it for grain of salt.

========

Puppy Linux is my favorite distribution of Linux lite. It'd run well on 500mhz machine with <256MB ram. The LiveCD works well too, but doesn't always auto-detect your NIC card, so you'd have to go to configuration and make some adjustments.

Puppy is not "fully featured" like Ubuntu, it's "lite" (even for chubby distributions). I set up several Puppy installs on old 450Mhz-700Mhz computers as web surfing terminals for businesses. Most users have at least seen Firefox now so it's not totally alien to them. But they don't know Linux and won't/can't screw up the system too badly.

If you're installing Linux to USB drive for the first time, consider unplugging the HDD first, just in case.

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » April 8th, 2008, 8:26 pm

Using a live install CD is a good idea to try things out.

Have you tried all of the standard Linux window managers: KDE, Gnome, and Xfce? If so, which do you like best and which is most similar to Windows.

Can you copy text from one open window and paste it into another open window in all these programs? When I was programming on a Linux system at school years ago, for some reason the system wouldn't let me copy and paste freely between windows and it drove me crazy (but then again my school's system had all kinds of other weird problems too).

Ubuntu (or one of its variants) definitely seems like the way to go. I think Xandros and Linspire (which are based on Ubuntu) look very user friendly as well, but they aren't as true to the Linux tradition of open source software. If pure Ubuntu is easy enough to use, I don't see a reason to use Xandros or Linspire.

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 9th, 2008, 10:50 am

Ubuntu has a very strong slant toward GNOME desktop environment. But honestly, a desktop interface is just that, they all get the job done regardless of cosmetic differences.

Cut & paste does work in Ubuntu. If you need clipboard manager, you could try this one:
http://glipper.sourceforge.net/

Lindows/Linspire was reputed to be like Windows, though the latest distributions have deviated away from it (probably due to lawsuit concerns). If you need something closer to WinXP look and feel, try LXP:
http://sourceforge.net/project/screensh ... ssid=39132
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxp/

The biggest challenge in switching from Windows to Linux is applications. There is no Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc. for Linux. You have to make do with OpenOffice/KOffice and GIMP/GIMPshop. But OpenOffice has a reasonable degree of compatibility with MS Word/Excel/PP, and GIMPshop does an OK job at emulating PS, and even supports PS plug-in's:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMPshop

Another example: if you bought a digital camera it often comes with photo management programs, but only in Windows and not for Linux. You'd have to use Linux alternatives like F-Spot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Spot
http://f-spot.org/Main_Page

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 10th, 2008, 10:16 am

Ubuntu Hardware Compatibility Guide:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport

Print support list:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport ... tsPrinters

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » April 12th, 2008, 12:22 pm

Momopi, may I ask you some very basic questions about partitioning a hard drive? A lot of guides tell how to do it, but they don't describe the details of the end result.

Simply partitioning a hard drive into two partitions only means assigning new labels to each part of the drive, right? There isn't inherently any restriction on data moving between the partitions, is there?

If I partition my hard drive into partitions X and W and have Linux on X and windows on W, will I still be able to access files from partition W when I'm running Linux on partition X and vice versa?

ErikHeaven · Post by **ErikHeaven** » April 11th, 2011, 9:29 pm

Any help with the wifi on linux? I downloaded wubi linux and i have windows 7 on my laptop too. It says i need something to configure the wifi that is currently not working.

odbo · Post by **odbo** » April 11th, 2011, 9:43 pm

Woah a linux thread by momopi. I thought the linux/bsd guys left this forum so I came to fill in the niche. -_-

wubi's just an installer for ubuntu i think. you're probably installing linux inside of windows 7, which is better than nothing but it will run faster if you just put linux on its own partition, and select which system to boot into at start-up using grub.

First go to System > Administration > Users, and select custom settings and toggle "connect to wireless networks" in case it's a permissions issue, which is common for first time users.

Then go to System > Administration > Add-Hardware Drivers
and activate the proprietary wi-fi drivers.

If there's nothing there or they don't work well, download ndisgtk (ndiswrapper) in software manager or synaptic (while being hooked up to the net with wired connection)

If wi-fi doesn't suddenly just work open up the program, probably under Administration, called "windows wireless drivers" (which is the program made available by downloading ndisgtk) and find the .inf file in your drivers folder on your windows7 partition.

windows wi-fi drivers often work much better because companies like atheros or broadcom don't give a shit about supporting linux drivers

If you dont know where the driver's are, download new ones. Find what your wi-fi card is made by, if it's Atheros go to their website, search drivers for that model, for windows 7 (32 or 64bit). After extracting, point the ndisgtk program in ubuntu to that folder, there will be an inf file

hope thats clear enough to understand

If Firefox is running slow, type in the url bar 'aboutconfig' then search ipv6, and if it says FALSE, toggle it to TRUE.

ErikHeaven · Post by **ErikHeaven** » April 11th, 2011, 10:32 pm

WOW a nice post from you. I thank you and i will try it.

ErikHeaven · Post by **ErikHeaven** » April 11th, 2011, 10:34 pm

Its not a bad thing to be happy its keeps you healthy. You have something in your life that you can feel happy about. Please dont follow TheLogicJunkie and stay miserable. I wish you happiness.