Technical FAQ for New Linux Users 176
Jay writes: "This article is really helpful if you're new to Linux, or even if you're not-so-new. It helps Windows users transition to Linux, but those converting from other operating systems will find useful information here as well." Personally, I'd think that learning a new OS would be worth the cost of a book (which I note is out of print - does that mean a new edition is on the way?), but if you're too cheap to buy a book, well, here's a pretty decent guide to getting started with GNU/Linux.
Re:Cool beans (Score:1)
Re:Cheap (Score:1)
Good thing you stopped.. (Score:1)
Until I read this gem:
What a complete load of bullshit. Has this guy ever use Linux? Nothing about that claim is even remotely true..
And then the part about drive letters and
This document needs to be buried. The author has zero clue about Linux, and his writing will do more harm than good.
Re: Inaccuracies (Score:2)
BTW, I am also @us.ibm.com, and I use the document to educate the few remaining WinXX users around me. It works fine with engineering types, but some of the stuff in there would be too complicated for Joan Doe in marketing.
WARNING: Not a goatse.cx link!!! (Score:4)
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:1)
The effect of doing such things, for those who don't know is: /dev/fd0/pcmcia.tar /
scitus:~# cp
cp: cannot stat `/dev/fd0/pcmcia.tar': Not a directory
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:1)
Inaccuracies (Score:4)
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:1)
it takes one freaking command. if i'm on somebody elses linux box, i don't have to see if they use automounter, if they mounted the floppy, etc, etc. mtools happen to be part of most standard distros, and it's just easier. doh.
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
Re:I have a question (Score:1)
domc
Nah, we're all noobs. (Score:1)
Those are the guys who weren't even born when Linus got fed up with Minix. I'd bet that the overwhelming majority of
The one or two people who say, "Back when we used to DL the v0.91 sources onto floppies,
Re:Why pay for a book? (Score:2)
Re:Linux Directory Layout (Score:2)
See the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard [pathname.com]
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Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:4)
I can't fathom the common notion that you can put an "Intuitive UI" on a Turing complete device.
The presupposition is that people are born with an intuition about what is computationally possible, along with an intuition about some "right way" for every possible computation should be expressed. Neither is remotely near the truth.
In practice, "Intuitive UI" tends to be a euphemism for "straitjacket". You could build a computer with nothing but a single toggle switch for its UI, but you would find it inconvenient if you had more than two things you wanted the computer to do.
The nice thing about UNIX and its clones--along with MVS and VMS and almost every operating system that came along before the Mac--is that it's a full-featured OS that lets you do almost anything a computer can do, and do lots of it pretty easily if you can be bothered to learn the arcana of expressing exotic computational requirements.
However, those OSes will also let you cover them with an optional straitjacket if you do want to limit their operations, say for a net kiosk or a POS system. But not everyone wants a POS system (pardon the pun!).
Simply put, Windows and Mac have traditionally been designed to make life easy for Joe User by filtering out the complexity of general-purpose computing, i.e., Joe User runs a handful of apps, and that's "computing" for him. But lots of people need computers that are general-purpose computers rather than expensive limited-purpose appliances, and for us the "hide the complexity" strategy makes life more difficult rather than more comfortable. No one can make a menu that lists every operation I want my computer to undertake, because even I don't know today what I might ask of it tomorrow.
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IBM Thinkpad Trackpoint Drivers (Score:2)
Re:Why Unix Drives Me UP the wall. (Score:2)
Learning Debian GNU/Linux (Score:5)
Actually, the link to the ORA debian gnu/linux book is one link away from the full text [oreilly.com] of that book, online & free, courtesy of O'Reilly.
--sean
Re:I have a question (Score:2)
Files in /sbin are system binaries. These files are usually run by the administrator to configure or control the system. Different Unix operating systems have different commands here.
Re:What about the apps? (Score:2)
"Desktop" market?
Because people are free to persue whatever goal they desire with Linux. Its Free and you can't stop them.
You'll notice it's also pretty actively developed in the embedded, distributed, super computer and server sectors too.
The reason for the continual "Linux on the desktop" drive is becuase more and more people are doing it. Trends; where do you see them stopping?
I can only see them leading to lots of corporate IT managers seeing tidy savings (and larger bonuses) to be made without Windows and Office licenses - especially monthly. These same people are already using Linux in their servers more and more.
"Linux isn't a desktop OS" means nothing tomorrow. It means nothing to many of us already. Its about Apps, as you no doubt know, and 99% of the windows using world will find everything they need on most recent distributions. In fact, there is probably more than they need.
As for those who can't stand Linux, well I dare say their legacy will die along with their OS choices. At least our work can be incorporated into the next best Free OS.
Re:What about the apps? (Score:2)
They're _trying_ to play ours now.
Re:What about the apps? (Score:2)
I'm not really a games player but Wine is solving that problem. It ran Windows Half Life when I last tried it (about a year ago). I'd wager it will run most of the above. If not and you know Windows, why not get involved - its the nearest you'll get to hacking windows code under the currently license terms MS offers.
The package systems solve dependecies well enough. In 6 months most dists with use an APT-like layer making this problem redundant. Debian already does.
Its much better than downloading 6mb VB apps just because the author had to bundle umpteen ocx files you already have.
What is root? What is a user? How about Why did my Outlook just send 30 emails to other people without my asking. What is Lovebug? What is
Why do I want to use AOL
XFree86 4 lets you do the resolution changing (as long as the driver supports the feature). In time all will. They all seemed to offer the RENDER extension quick enough.
Yes people really use it. More and more in increasing increments. Why else do you think MS are making so much noise about it?
Linux has lots of killer apps, remember you're talking about "most users". They'll be happy enough with Blender, Gimp, gPhoto and BCast2000. In a years time, Koffice, Gnome Office and Star Office 6 will no doubt cause quite a buzz on the corporate desktop. The developer world already has its fair share of killer apps (between gcc, emacs, python and glade I'm happy enough - to much to consider windows again for that purpose).
Where there is a lack, it will be solved in time, that pattern is clear. I think its less about "if" and more about "when".
Take into account that lots of new computer users will see Linux in the future, not Windows (the Chinese for example). The western market is already saturated - which is why MS is trying to charge you repeatedly now, and diverging into a games company.
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
hmmm
Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes follow. (Score:5)
This is what I learned, in a nutshell of course:
1) Teach them to use the console method first, then, when they've done it a while, show them the GUI way, that way they'll learn how it works.
2) The multi-user thing coming from windows is kind of hard to get over. "Why do I have to be root to install this?"
3) Guy calls it all linux, not GNOME, KDE, Red Hat, Ximian, mozilla
4) He needs to know his hardware, regardless of distro - everyone knows this, I hope.
5) After he got a hold of it, he found linux easy to use and maintain (I used Ximian GNOME in this case). Because it's different doesn't make it hard. Once you get them to 'think outside the box' (hate to use that phrase), learning linux can be easy and fun.
6) Nothing will help you learn linux faster than teaching someone. I consider myself an average linux guy, this experience taught me alot, and in the end, we all want to learn something, right?
7) The most important IMHO: The simple things are hard, the hard things are easy. Yes, you don't need to defrag, virus scan, worry about privacy issues, 'registration', or worry about BSODs, but yes, it will take us 2 hours to get yout ghetto ass CD burner working right
ASPI (Score:2)
I didn't have ASPI installed, so I go searching for it. Turns out you get an ASPI driver with some products, like Adaptec's stuff. I eventually found a FAQ that linked to two versions of Adaptec's drivers, an old one that would install, and then a new one you could upgrade to. Without that, they look for an Adaptec product and exit if they don't find one.
If you don't get Adaptec's, you need to find AspiMe.exe, which I think was written by Steve Gibson, except it's violating some copyright and thus it's fairly hard to find. Not to mention it's a few years old.
Without ASPI, my CD burner was just a reader. Really useful.
I actually find Linux easier in this regard.
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:1)
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Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:1)
Personally, I'd think that making the OS easier to use would be a good idea.
Well, I don't know. Sometimes I think that the "ease of use" thing is idiotizing everyone.
I mean, did you know one of them ladies of, say, 20 years ago, working in offices with no word processor, email or the likes? They could pretty much record a conversation word for word in shorthand, and they could type amazingly fast on mechanical typewriters. I suppose it was hard to learn to write in shorthand or type fast, but they were incredibly efficient and productive once they did. Today, our average employee needs like 15 minutes to type a single letter, because he uses backspace as often as the space bar --and is completely hopeless without a spell checker.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night shivering at the vision of people complaining about having to learn to read because it is too hard. Now I'm exaggerating , of course (I hope so). I guess my point is that ease of use isn't everything, and that people can use a "non-intuitive" operating system or whatever, sometimes being far more productive than the easy way would allow them to be. I mean, geez, how hard is to learn to type "ls" instead of clicking on the picture of a folder? And I think it is much faster to type "ifconfigeth0192.168.1.32up" than browsing through the intuitive GUI to the appropriate dialog to change your IP address.
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:2)
Note: The diskette drive may already be "mounted" as
Linux distribution. If so, use that mount location instead of
which means they already thought of the mounting issue. (they should, technically, point you to the section of the FAQ that talks about mounting)
Re:too cheap to buy book (Score:1)
Thank you. You quite nicely fleshed out and extended my rather sparse comment.
Quite frankly, I was rather shocked to see such a sentiment expressed on /. as well. Especially since it was /. that introduced me to Linux. I know that one of the facts that impressed me about Linux in the first place was the incredible community support in learning the OS through the numerous how-to's and other documents available online, and, as with yourself, it has led me to purchasing many Linux books.
too cheap to buy book (Score:4)
There are many different people who are drawn to Linux and not all of them have the financial resources to lay down $30-$40 on a book. Think kids in not-so-wealthy school districts for one, or even adults who are currently stuck in low paying jobs who are trying to improve their situation.
This is one of the benefits of free software. People are able to bootstrap theirselves in a way that conservatives claim the great American capitalist meritocratic system makes possible. In reality, increasing your earning power often has a steep price tag. Free software helps allevitate some of that cost.
So while there are plenty of people who are too 'cheap' to buy a book, so what? Although those people start off as leaches, and may remain leaches forever, just the very basic fact that they are running Linux almost insures that in some small way they will return something to the community... Even if it is nothing other than just once showing a newbie how to mount a drive.
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:1)
Re:TROLL (Score:2)
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:1)
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:1)
Don't confuse "easy to use" with "similar to Microsoft".
Re:Why pay for a book? (Score:1)
Re:BSD (Score:1)
The link text? (Score:2)
"View the PDF"
Whoops.
Heh heh.
Re:enough with the whining (Score:1)
You know why Microsoft has around 95% of all computer users running their software? I'll tell you. It's because microsoft, being run by professionals, realises that the best way to acquire and keep customers is not to suggest that if you are experiencing problems with their product then you must be "a techno moron incapable of counting above ten without taking off your shoes", to quote Restiff the Amazing Talking Rectum up there.
Meanwhile, the Honorable Elitist Opposition here and on sites like this seems to think one acquires allies by making blanket insulting statements. Here's a clue for you: if the man page authors for some utilities label the syntax "needlessly obscure", then the system in general is not quite easy enough for J. Random User to work with. Microsoft understands this, and hence rules the consumer world and is making major inroads in the server market. Your ilk prefers to spend its time alternately whining about how nobody uses Linux or having a circle-jerk over the fact that you're all 1337 because you do, and vehemently resisting any attempts to make the system friendlier because that'd rob you of your hard-earned bragging rights. People like you make me glad to be running win2K and BeOS.
Re:TROLL (Score:1)
Re:.pdf is bad um k... (Score:1)
And why do you say you have to use Adobe programs?
You don't. I have the pdf loaded in to xpdf on Redhat 7.1 right now. Works fine.
Re:What about the apps? (Score:1)
Well, the problem is that commercial tech support is absolutely worthless. I did IT for 10 years on dozens of platforms and the support we got from commercial vendors was complete shit. Hold times over an hour were normal sometimes even with a support contract. Callbacks often came days later. Even when you did manage to talk to a human, it usually turned out to be someone without any sort of clue. If it was a problem with their product, they wouldn't admit it or fix it.
I would rather not pay money for that sort of shoddy quality and support. I've been burned too many times by closed-source software vendors. I know I'm not alone.
Incidentally, Yzeb Petronix is real, and living in my basement where he is working on kernel drivers for biometric scanners.
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Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:1)
You mean like the GNOME Usability Study Report [gnome.org]?
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Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:1)
The key is to have a smooth learning curve, so that someone can sit down and be immediately productive, and then gradually work their way up to the advanced level. The learning curve for, say MacOS, is pretty linear. The learning curve for Linux is not.
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Re:Cheap (Score:2)
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Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Re:I have a question (Score:1)
Now, ever since C came out (and before that, with lisp and probably other languages, but C was the popular one) we've had languages that could move the index from 1 to 0 and adjust all the related math at compile time. But they stuck with starting the array index at 0.
Re:What about the apps? (Score:1)
Re:Cheap (Score:3)
Not just the FAQ (Score:1)
The site seems to have lots of introductionary (such as the new FAQ) and general technical articles (hardware stability, journaling filesystems, embedded Linux, firewalls, etc). The Linux Zone seems to be also an index to interesting documents on other sites.
Unfortunately some of the articles (at least the tutorials [ibm.com]) require annoying registration.
Emm...who's written it? (Score:1)
The section "Wait a minute! Are you saying that there are no drive letters in Linux?" (page 14) says that Linux doesn't have drive letters but mount points. Correct so far.
But then it implies that '' /dev/fd0 (or /dev/floppy or /mnt/floppy)...)'' are such mount points. Eeeeehhhhhh?
More: ''...There can be many SCSI drives, on one or more controllers. The mount point designations just keep incrementing up through /dev/sdz. ...''
Gods! The writer doesn't know the difference between a device file and a mount point!
Ah, so the /mnt-files are just ''aliases''! Rrright. It's always nice to learn something new!
This came up on...July 29th on Slashdot. I guess the real technical writers are on summer vacation, and the article was submitted by the summer trainee. Am I wrong?
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
You have to download something because for the most part it's left up to the application to control its transparency and most applications don't do anything along those lines. What's built into the OS are the hooks that applications can use.
The only application I've used that uses this is DUMeter, which displays a graph of inbound/outbound network traffic. In the current version, you can set the window to any transparency in 10% increments, then leave it in the corner of the screen and still be able to see what's behind it.
The one feature I'd like to have added is for it to pass any mouse activity through to the window behind it unless that window is the desktop - have your traffic meter visible but not interfering with any application use! Since it normally resides in the system tray, this wouldn't keep you from interacting with DUMeter itself.
-- fencepost
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
And that's why Linux will never succeed on the desktop. All the Linux geeks like you.
First of all, I develop numerous Open Source applications. So, while I may not contribute to Linux (an OS I think is crap anyways), I do my fair share.
Second of all, if no one complains, nothing gets better.
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Maybe you should try OS X?
I will make it easier for you. How about someone make the install of the fucking OS simple and SECURE?
How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:3)
Personally, I'd think that making the OS easier to use would be a good idea.
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Personally, I'd think that making the OS easier to use would be a good idea.
Making the OS easy to use is a noble goal, but remember: making it easy for the novice and easy for the advanced user are not the same!
Example task: Creating 96x96 JPEG thumbnails for each of a directory of larger JPEGs, such that x.jpg's thumbnail is x-th.jpg. Not an uncommon task, and one that will make my point quite clear.
Novice way: Open up Photoshop, GIMP, etc. For each image in the directory, open it, scale it down, and resave it with the new filename. Incredibly intuitive. A complete pain in the ass.
Intermediate way: Use Photoshop's Batch Action (or equivalent) on a bunch of files to resize them. Unfortunately, I believe this only outputs them all with the same filenames in a different directory. You'll still need to manually go through and rename the files. Not quite as intuitive. Still annoying.
Advanced way: Type this:
for i in *.jpg; do mogrify -geometry '96x96!' < "$i" > "$(basename "$i").jpg"; done
Not at all intuitive. Incredibly quick and easy if you know how.
Remember, having a book available to learn about an OS doesn't necessarily mean that the novice way isn't there. It does mean that the advanced way is there. That's a good thing. I hope there are always books available about the software I use.
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
Call me crazy...
Cool beans (Score:5)
DON'T BUY IT IF YOU'RE SWITCHING!
Most books state that they don't require any prior knowledge of linux or unix but the authors seem to write as if they're explaining linux to all those "newbies" who have been using linux for a few years.
My only advice, other than reading this FAQ (which is really good, BTW) is to simply fsck around with your new OS. Break it, then fix it, then break it again. Besides - if you're not using linux because you A)want to try out new things and B)want to get into the guts of an OS, then you're probably safer with windows and AOL anyway. Most of the people I know using *nix and it's variants on a *real* basis these days are the ones that were breaking their parents' cable boxes in the process of trying to figure out how they worked when they were kids.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Re:Cheap (Score:3)
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:2)
(OT: What I would like, though, is CD mounting routines that recognize Mac HFS -- it works just fine manually, but it's a pain...)
mtools is a no-brainer, though. It could be a *little* smoother (I'd rather type mcp and mls than mcopy and mdir) but it works just fine.
/Brian
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
The fact is that as much as people complain about learning curves, Linux is what it is. It's Unix (if dmr says so, it's Unix; certifications be damned), and that means it takes time to learn. It's not for everyone, though it can be made so with a little tweaking.
As for controlling everything from a GUI... just doesn't happen without a lot of work. Even on the Mac you need ResEdit to change some settings, and some of those you need to hexedit. XML is helping to close the gap, and LinuxConf is an excellent program (couldn't live without it myself). But sometimes, there's no choice but to geek out.
/brian
Cheap (Score:2)
I'll have to read this when I have some free time - I never really understood the way things work inside the kernel, how X works internally, and that sort of thing. Let's hope that's all in there.
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
I don't care what it takes, I want transparent windows
Or just give him Win/2000. Lots of downloadable utilities to make any window transparent. It's even built into the operating system, rather than the ugly hack that you need to do to make it work on X (which doesn't natively support it).
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Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
Actually, "duh" and wrong, at least as far as Telnet goes. Telnet does not use the shell (although Ping does). You can put Telnet on the menu anytime you want, it's just not there by default.
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Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:3)
If it's built into the operating system why do you have to DL something?
Try clicking on a menu... you'll notice a fade effect. Try dragging files in file explorer, and you'll notice the files are transparent.
Win/2000 has it, but it just doesn't beat you over the head with it. The utilities you can download are ones that allow you specify transparencies for various windows, borders, dialogs, etc.
To tell you the truth, I credit Microsoft with some taste when it comes to this. The other platforms with this effect (and I include Apple in this) seem almost nouveau riche, like wearing big gold chains just to prove you can.
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Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
Actually they were talking about Win2k so your parent post is correct. Under 9x telnet is a separate GUI application, but under Windows 2000 it is a command line utility. There are also other things under Win2k that must be done from a command line, ipconfig /renew comes to mind. There is no "winipcfg" utility in Win2k. Rather than weakening the command line interface in Win2k as suggested by the original poster, MS has expanded the command line. They claim you can do almost everything you can do from a GUI (system tasks) from the command prompt.
Enigma
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
IIRC, all CD burners emulate SCSI in the Linux environment. Try the CD Writing HOWTO [tucows.com]for more information. It sounds like your burner is behaving normally.
Enigma
Anything that brings more converts is good (Score:2)
Personally, I think that anything that makes the transition road easier for the masses (who don't have to use Linux, who aren't under any legal obligation to be technically proficient, and who are currently quite content in their Windows world, if only because they don't know any better) is a Very Good Thing. Remember, it's up to us to prove our case to the layperson, they aren't obliged to immediately see the light and become Bourne Again users just on the say-so of some geek who says, "Linux is 1337".
i hope this works well (Score:2)
If it does, wouldn't it be a good idea to include this with any given Linux distribution? The how-to's included with Linux right now are good.. but sometimes they aren't good enough.. and they lack details that I have to spend hours searching for on the net. I honestly doubt that most people are willing to put in as much time as I'm going to.
Re:Converted a Win guy this weekend ... notes foll (Score:2)
Heh. Whenever I'm using a windows box I've always got at least 10 DOS prompts open and _nothing_ else. Windows user's think I'm really wierd. I guess it's the *nix user in me. Comes out even if I'm not on a *nix box :O)
Either that or the DOS user is in me is still there after all these years.... I never really did spend all that much time in a point 'n click environment. Pretty DOS and UNIX all my life...
But your post just reminded me of my parent's in law who always look over my shoulder when I'm using their computer and ask "Why do you do so much typing???? Can't you just point and click like everyone else?"
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Garett
this article should be unecessary (Score:2)
If a little more effort was put into usability and interface, some of that stuff would be obvious even to a beginning user.
This is a big problem in the adoption of Linux. Look at Sourceforge - there are like thousands of projects, 75% of which are in permanent beta. Think what Linux could be if just 1% of the time spent coding was spend writing documentation and refining interface!
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
At one point I tried 'learning' Linux, and found that it would take 20 times longer compared to the other OS mentioned.
If you can't see that the lack of cohesive interface, user-friendlyness, quality documentation, and a common GUI are holding Linux back, I don't know what to tell you. But they are.
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
Someone with moderator points, please mod parent back up. It might sting, but it's true.
Re:i hope this works well (Score:3)
1: This guy is a beginner, and you think it's funny he's having trouble with the interface;
2: Linux is so-user unfriendly that you have to have a buy a book to get going.
Websites (Score:2)
Now I generally hang out at linuxjunior.org [linuxjunior.org] - which is similar in function.
Newbies dont know now to post "my rpm wont install" to kernel-hackers, and many people get fed up the 5th time in the day they tell someone to type ls -a to see their ".foo" file. Thats where these sites (and sites like linuxorbit and linuxquestions) come in.
Copuple with the horrible GUI windows-esque installs of distros like mandrake, and WM's like KDE, its never been easier to make the move. People can sit at a linux box, never even having heard of it before, and manage to get to their favourite website (if the system is set up).
While any pro-newbie move is good, this would have been news 2 or 3 years ago, not now.
Not so hold-my-hand-ish (Score:4)
isn't there some kind of auto config option for installing linux? if it were to be a desktop os to contend with... asking lots of technical questions is a lot to ask for a user, regardless of expertise. well, even though i'm not a linux user, i can't deny the sheer power of a good ol' command prompt =)
Re:What about the apps? (Score:2)
Most day-to-day computer users don't have a clue and they don't particularily want to get a clue. Thats fine, but thats hardly an argument for linux being useless. Home/end users are unimportant in the grand scheme of computing anyway. They will eventually just be using thin computers or some such derivative anyway.
As far as your quote "I'm going to make a bold statement now...There isn't one thing that I can do in Linux that can't be done in Windows." - Thats laughable. Try again when you have used computers for something besides writing email and browsing the web. Desktops aren't the entire world, only a small part. If you don't care to do anything other than read your email, than windows has probably got you covered, as does linux. If you want to run mathematic simulations, write your own sound processing interfaces, attach custom hardware to your computer, or whatever other crazy thing than you probably would be much better off with linux. Some of us just do more with our computers than the average desktop.
I've got a cheap acoustic guitar and a custom-cut and finished strat with custom electronics sitting right here. Sure, the strat can't play any notes the acoustic can't, but thats no reason to claim it's not a better guitar. It just takes someone knowledgable and skilled to use it to it's full potential.
What about the apps? (Score:5)
I spend more time helping new linux users find replacement applications than anything else. To help alleviate this, I have set up an easy to use linux software index that works a little different than most. Just choose the task you need to do and the index tells you the single best program to do it in linux and advice on common pitfalls with it. You used photoshop? Ok, choose Graphics -> High-end Editing and it will tell you all about getting and installing the Gimp. And so on.
There is some other general help stuff, but I feel that applications are what hold most people back. They surely aren't sticking with windows for the OS itself. The link is in my sig if you are interested.
Rute (Score:4)
If you're new to Linux or even been around a little while, you have to check out the LINUX Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition [sourceforge.net].
Been referencing it exclusively ever since I found it.
Re:too cheap to buy book (Score:3)
Nearly every book on Linux is, to some extent, distribution specific.
Even the book linked from michael's comments was specifically a Debian book. Every time Red Hat does a new release, there's a new "Bible" published that's just as expensive as the one before it, and, invariably, doesn't address everything you want or need to know.
I would much rather have web based resources that are easily modified for currency and relevance.
This is not to say that I haven't bought any Linux books. I have one of the aforementioned Red Hat "Bible" books, books on Samba, XFree86, Linux Network Administration, Linux Security... heck, even VI. So I'm not adverse to supporting the Linux market through purchasing documentation, but it does ruffle my feathers to see /., of all places, imply that using an online resource is nothing more than being cheap.
Guess I should stop getting my news from /. then and instead pay for something less timely and more likely to take up shelf space.
-- Sinistar
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:2)
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Excellent point. This 50-page manual is a testament to bad design on every page. I particularly like the constant assumption that Windows users have spent most of their time in the DOS shell.
It would be fun to do a controlled study to watch average users scratching their heads over the thing and asking to be excused early.
Tim
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
Despite your mod down to Troll status, you're quite right. The idea of needing to read a 50-page manual before using a piece of software has been obsolete since 1984. Most of the computer-using world knows that it's obsolete, but /. is a haven for command-line nostalgics. Apparently there are people who prefer to spend their time memorizing commands rather than using software to get something done, just as there are people who would rather tinker under their car's hoods than actually drive anywhere. I have nothing against this taste, but what seems to be missing on /. is an understanding that this inclination is and always will be in the minority.
Tim
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
I know it's a joke, but to respond anyway:
I read that report and I thought it was very good [slashdot.org]. However, it did not deal with the same subjects as the FAQ of this story, which is oriented largely towards installation issues and use of the command line.
I don't ever recall seeing a usability study on the use of the command line by ordinary computer users, but I'm sure it would be an amusing waste of time and money. It's obvious what the results would be.
Tim
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
I've known how to use UNIX for twenty years now, but I prefer to use my Macintosh. Everything is easier, and easier means faster, because the software works with me rather than against me. While system stability on the Mac is worse than on Linux, application stability is much better. I got a Linux box (Red Hat) last year out of curiosity, and played with a bunch of software I downloaded, but everything about the application software was so painful, awkward, ugly, slow and unreliable that I found myself still using the Mac for everything. After a few months of idle time on the Linux box I gave it away. I haven't missed it once.
Tim
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Re:Lies, god damned lies... (Score:2)
Is it harder to become a newbie in 2001 than 1995? (Score:5)
Like a BBS, there was a default install -- but chances are you changed it to represent your own personality; Linux is similar. What packages you install and how you configure everything is almost an expression of yourself. Let us not forget the l33tness attitudes originated from the BBS scene.
Re:The link text? (Score:2)
TROLL (Score:3)
Q: Internet Explorer is 100x better than Netscape. So why should I run Linux when it doesn't have a decent web browser??
Nobody tells you to use Netscape, you can use the excellent Konqueror, Mozilla or even Opera instead.
Q: Windows is super easy to install. To install Linux I have to do an fdisk, whatever that is. What's the deal here?
Try one of those easy distros, Red Hat, Mandrake that come with a graphical disk editor, couldn't be easier.
Q: There aren't any WYSIWYG word processors for Linux. How should I do my school work??
StarOffice? Lyx? KWord?
Your last question is really lame
There are hundreds of web pages like that (Score:2)
Why pay for a book? (Score:5)
--
I have a question (Score:2)
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Intermediate way: Use Photoshop's Batch Action (or equivalent) on a bunch of files to resize them. Unfortunately, I believe this only outputs them all with the same filenames in a different directory.
Actually you can at the end of your action put in a Save As Command. With a file open, open the Save As Action (Actions cannot open with a file open, it needs to see you actually do the action.) Save where you want file to go and what format you want it. Make sure that box left of Save As action has a dialog in it.
Now with Automate > Batch choose what folder your images are in and then select none in Destination. and Run it. Now with every file the Save As dialog will come up allowing you to choose the file's name
Re:How about an Intuitive UI Instead? (Score:2)
Wouldn't it be even better if Photoshop gave you a way to find out the command-line equivalent of its batch thumbnailify command, and your file manager gave you a way to find out the command-line way to rename a bunch of files? Then intermediate users would have no trouble doing what they need to do, and advanced users would be able to combine the two commands into a "give me thumbnails for the images in this directory" script without having to look anything up in a reference manual.
You don't have to look at the reference manual. You don't need to learn any commands.
In photoshop this thumbnail action would look something like thisThumbnail
Image Size
Save As
You can double-click on Thumbnail to choose a keybind for the action. F1-F15 and you can add shift and command as modifiers. Double-click on the other commands and a dialog will show up allowing you to change any variable.
To get these command you can select record, do what you want and these will be put in the action screen or you can select Insert Menu Item and a text field shows up. You can type your command in or you can select the menu item or type in the keybind and photoshop will put it in for you.
Basically every menu item in photoshop is a command and their dialog box is what you use to change variables.
With these commands you can move them into any action, dubicate them, remove them or change the order which they execute all using your mouse.
Re:Cool beans (Score:2)
The first time I got into linux is because i have heard that it is like unix, just for x86's. So I downloaded A couple distros of linux, that my college dorm neighbor has heard about. (He did not know sh*t about linux either). So I ended up with cd's of Debian and Slackware, which are not the fluffiest purty installs. The next two weeks I have formatted my hard drive maybe 50 or so times, but each time learning a liitle more. Like
This brings me to the point of this spiel. All my efforts to get x running were all trash because I did not know the name of the driver, and the fact that I should have downloaded the 4.0.0 ver) and how to really edit the conf (non of that fluffy xf86config). That was shown to me by another person who is an intermediate linux user. He also showed me how to get the desktop environment.
The fact that this was now running gave me sme confidence. I learned to edit other configs, and managed to figure out how to compile the kernel (getting my system unbootable only once / wished someone would help me though). Then I figured out how to actually modify networks, etc.
Now At this point I decided to buy the book, with all the fixings. Look ma, I am building a masquarading firewall (well planning to build it tomorrow).
So my final point is that in early stages, don't get a book, get a friend. He has been through the difficult first config, and he will figure out yours. When you feel like you can copy files by yourself, and you are starting to configure that ftpd you just installed from a package, and even compiled gaim, get a good thorough book. I bought the Using Linux, sixth edition by Que publishing, too lazy to check author. And it has lots of goodies, everything except how to configure the x server, which is probably a book in itself. But hey that friend, if at this point knows more than you, he could still help.
Tip for newbies Don't use Debian or Slackware. Sure you will learn a heck of a lot before you will even get X running, but you WILL lose a ton of sleep over it. Follow what my friend did. Get mandrake or Redhat. He had everything including sound and PPPoE running, and he still does not know what the
Like right now I am looking for a friend to tell me how to upgrade glibc on a debian distro, and where to get the iptables utility if the distro does not have it, but if not I will eventually find them myself, I am past the helpless stage.
Re:Inaccuracies (Score:2)
[jcast@cate2-108 jcast]$ mount
/dev/hda6 on / type ext2 (rw)
none on
usbdevfs on
/dev/hda2 on
/dev/hda9 on
/dev/hda8 on
/dev/hda5 on
none on
none on
/dev/hda1 on
automount(pid795) on
[jcast@cate2-108 jcast]$ ls
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 6 Mar 23 22:37
[jcast@cate2-108 jcast]$ ls
ls:
PDF (Score:2)
Re:Cheap (Score:2)