Newbie help forum?

[radman]

hi guys
I am sick of windows and i wanna give linux a shot..which version is best for a newbie...i think red hat is the easiest?

what does installation include any hands on coding...?

can u guys help me out with some common linux terms....

[mrkeef]

Hi Radman,

I'm surptrised nobody's replied to your post.

I've been using linux for just over a year (I think). For linux newbies, this is probably the best place to get help that I've found. There is a separate forum devoted to making the leap from windows.

I'm using Red Hat 7.3 and it's fine.

Installation doesn't involve any hands on coding, but the nifty thing about the whole linux thing is that ir's infinitely configurable, you can write scripts for anything that takes your fancy- or not.

Hope that helps.

[babbing]

Sure give RH a try, but like anything, you don't know until you try. another thing you should keep in mind is how involved you want to become in linux. If you use redhat, it can do most anyting you need it to automatically, where as if you use slackware, you are gonna have to do it all by hand. but jsut try to make a decision and stick with it. it isn't easy to learn linux coming from windows, but it is rewarding.



-Babbing

[bentbike1]

for a newbie mandrake is suposed to be real freindly how ever do not give up windows just yet unless you want to do a lot of command line work plus you need to go to either and see if your hardware is compatable plus if your a serious gamer there are not alot of readly avialbe comercail games that you can go to the store and buy do a google search google.com/linux and hunt for software if all you do is write documnets and do office work or have a small bussiness and want to save money linux will do that but it is a diffrent learning curve there is no right click and droping and draging is not as easy plus you have to setup acount for every one who uses the computer another thing to consider is how are you conecting to the internet if your useing a software program like aol or msn you can get on line there are several dos based linux programs dragon linux and phat linux that live with in windows and you do not need to partion the hard drive so before you jump ship do some research take into consideration that if you know very littel about unix then your going to have to learn and that is going to take time

[babbing]

If you are a serious gamer, you will want to spend $5 to get wineX, with is a powerful windows emulator for gaming. they are very good and many many many games will work with it. Not to mention the fact that gaming companys are starting to notice the linux population and will start producing for us soon. i thought UT2K3 was a huge step. I can't speak for Mandrake, but if you install redhat, it is _entirely_ point and click, if you choose the GUI installation. you can do it on the command line if you like, but right now that probably isn't gonna get you far 8) ;D . it will take time to learn linux, but i have found that there is nothing that i could do in windows that i couldn't do now, and in fact, i can do a lot more since i don't have to keep dumping money on software.


Bentbike, what are you talking about?

do not give up windows just yet unless you want to do a lot of command line work

untrue. this is a stereotype that i would like to shove down the toilet once and for all. there is a GUI for almost EVERYTHING. i can't think of something that i can only do on the command line, that was absolutly vital to my system. Otherwise, you will be asked on occasion around here to enter a command in on the command line and post the output. That is simply for our own ease. it gives us a simple response that we can search for answers with. do not fret the command line, you don't have to use it, but down the road, you will notice it is faster than a gui.

no right click and droping and draging is not as easy

my right click is fine, and dragging an dropping in linux is the same as anywhere else.

you have to setup acount for every one who uses the computer

no you don't, if you want everyone to be able to use the same account, tell everyone the same username and pass. otherwise, you can set the account to no password.

another thing to consider is how are you conecting to the internet

don't worry about considering this. The plain fact is that no matter how you cut it, they are all just dialing a number. btw, there is a gui for it too. KPPP is a good one that i know of.

so before you jump ship

literally, this is how i landed on linux. I have no bounds now. besides the fact that there is a rediculous amount of help here



Bentbike1, please try to be clear and correct about what you are trying to tell people. it would be a shame if radman decided not to try linux simply because he didn't want to deal with lots of command line work and thought that he couldn't right click or drag and drop.

[paradox]

bentbike,

I do have to ask you that if you are going to give information around here that it be reasonably correct. Your post was very far off from the truth. My gf who barely even knows how to use windows just switched over to Linux with ease, and in fact likes it much better. I don't expect you to give answers to a technical question and it be absolutely correct or even remotely correct, but general information like this falls under a different situation.

Now I will say this. Sometimes linux can be much harder, I agree there. Babbing is right, there is almost always a gui, but many of the times cl(command line) is better. I still feel that way about windows, you look at a person who really knows about networking and watch them work on win2k, they go straight to the command prompt to issue commands. Linux is very newbie friendly when it comes to certain distros (i.e. Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE). All of these you will more than likely be able to take right out of the box and install and rock on. I don't suggest you do a LinuxFromScratch, a Gentoo, a Debian, a Slackware(Definitely not a slackware ;-) @ SkyNet). All of these are meant to be fully customizable by you. Now don't get me wrong, you can fully customize those other distros too, but they don't come out of the box that way, they come slightly bloated(IMHO) just to make sure they provide everything a newbie could possibly need.

Do I suggest you completely wipe out windows and go straight to Linux....no.....not unless you don't have anything pressing to do on your computer. You **WILL** need time to adapt. There are differences, even in the GUI, and yes in some aspects the right click does not work the same, but something you can do in Linux that you can't do in windows is you can customize how you want your right click to work, and I mean **REALLY** customize. You'll see what I mean when you switch. Give it a shot and see what you think, but I do have to say give it a real shot. You'll hear the most complaints about Linux from people who went straight to an advanced distro. My first distro was Slackware, I DO NOT SUGGEST THIS!!!! LOL. I would suggest RedHat if anything. Mandrake almost makes things too easy, but if that is what you want, then maybe that is the distro for you. Mandrake is not as easy to configure how you want, but you may not need that, it depends on the type of user that you are.

Anyways, enough of my rambling.

Aragorn

[gamfa]

I think Aragorn hit every nail on the head. I moved to linux 2 1/2 years ago and I have never regreted it. I started with MDK 8.0 after reading a lot of posts and articles on the net. There is a learning curve you will have to go through so I would say don't "ditch" your windows yet. I still have WinNt on my system but I have not used it for a year or so. I've used MDK 8.0, 8.2, and 9.0. I've also tried RH 7.0, 7.3, and 8.0. I really think MDK is best for the newbie. Their Mandrake Control Center is an excelent configuraion tool that covers everything you will want to do equipment or software wise.

I will give you a word of caution. Linux has a way of growing on you. As you learn and begin to see and be able to start making your desktop and the install in general what "you" want it to be, instead of what someone else wants you to have, it can become as much a hobby as an operating system.

If you need help, I have found more help on the net in forums for linux than I ever found for windows.

Make the jump and be patient. You won't regret it. ;D

[sujoki]

"I will give you a word of caution. Linux has a way of growing on you."

Wow such an understatement. , as you do small things in linux that seem huge you get a feeling, like you have done something huge, that feeling is soo great, thats why some many people love linux.