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THG Linux Migration, Part Two 209

Posted by michael from the got-linux? dept.
LqqkOut writes "Tom's Hardware Guide has posted part 2 of their Windows->Linux migration article. This time around, we're presented with some nifty divx screen caps that make life look oh, so easy. The Tom's crew packed a lot into this article, but did they sacrifice some essentials like 'RTFM' and other sage advice? This follows up their first article where users were shown how to choose and download a distro, back up some important data, and check for HW compatibility."
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THG Linux Migration, Part Two More

THG Linux Migration, Part Two

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  • One major step (Score:3, Funny)

    by Limburgher ( 523006 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:46PM (#8849576) Homepage Journal
    Do they walk you through setting up a slashdot ID?

  • Great Video (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rapid Home Offer ( 770408 ) * on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:46PM (#8849585) Homepage Journal
    I love how they demonstrate video players by showing Steve Ballmer's sweaty-pitted Developers video [tomshardware.com] on Xine.

  • Did I miss something? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drewhearle ( 753120 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:49PM (#8849632) Homepage Journal
    Perhaps I missed something in the article... but why are the installation screenshots RedHat and the desktop screenshots SuSe?

    • Re:Did I miss something? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:00PM (#8849778) Homepage
      but why are the installation screenshots RedHat and the desktop screenshots SuSe?

      It's Tom's Hardware, what the Hell do you want?

      • Re:Did I miss something? (Score:4, Funny)

        by cavebear42 ( 734821 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:12PM (#8849968)
        Tom is really, really good at hardware. OSes aren't hardware.
    • Their insall guide is not distro specific, probably to prevent fan biys from complaining that "oh its red hat, where's gentoo?"
      In reality, they should have focused on one distro, I don't care which one. This is supposed to be a beginner's guide and a through walk through would have been a lot more useful to a newbie than a brief overview of the steps to cover all major distros.
      Linux installed is easy to use, its the initial install and setup that scares away the newbies.

  • RedHat or SuSE? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by red floyd ( 220712 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:50PM (#8849644)
    I thought TFA said it was using RedHat9, but the screen shot of a fully installed system is SuSE.
  • 1. Move from MS Office to OpenOffice.org (cost: 2 weeks to settle down, 1 month to adapt fully)

    2. Move from MSIE to Mozilla (cost: 2 hours to settle down)

    3. Move from Outlook to Mozilla Mail (cost: 1 week to settle down)

    4. Switch the OS when no-one's looking (cost: $40 for Xandros, 1 hour per PC).

    Seriously: the key to migrating is to start with the applications.

  • RTFM (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:54PM (#8849701) Journal
    Don't you just hate that phrase? The whole "RTFM" thing is quite funny if you ask me. I know of NOBODY that has RTFMed everything they touch.

    If I RTFM before I did anything, I wouldn't ever get anything done, as I would still be RTFM.

    I hardly ever RTFM, and when I do, it is in reference to a singular problem. As in, "how do I do ______", and RTFM section on that.

    Actually, if one could write a FM, they ought to be able to SCRIPT it and put it in a GUI, don't ya think?

    Here is a trick that nobody has thought of, how about a CLI command builder. You know a GUI interface to utilities and programs that doesn't actually do anything but create the CL necissary to execute a command you need done.

    That way, a person could use the GUI to improve their CLI skills.

    • Re:RTFM (Score:2, Interesting)

      by lordsali256 ( 769585 )
      I totally agree with this guy, I currently use Windows, but I have tried to switch to linux SEVERAL times, but I always get stuck in certain things. Wish there was a huge online linux FAQ that was easily searchable. Not Google either, I want something linux specfic. If there is something out there like this LET ME KNOW.

      • Re:RTFM (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        http://www.google.com/linux :)
      • The best advice for anyone moving from Windows to a Linux GUI; mice with 3 buttons. A lot of the software such as gimp, blender, and audacity (used for 2-D images, 3-D images, and audio respectively) require a third button to function properly...

      • Re:RTFM (Score:4, Informative)

        by linuxkrn ( 635044 ) <gwatson@lRASPinuxlogin.com minus berry> on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:39PM (#8850300)
        How about http://www.linuxquestions.org/ [linuxquestions.org]

      • Re:RTFM (Score:5, Informative)

        by Juanvaldes ( 544895 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:56PM (#8850513)
        well there is Google Linux [google.com] and tons [debian.org] of Linux [linux.org] Faq's [ultralinux.org]
        Let me say I know the frustration, this weekend I finally got a linux distro to like our PC's hardware and actually work. While a massive centralized faq would be nice I know it will never happen and so I use what is available to me. This is one of the downsides to a discentralized system, there is no one place to look and lots of reinventing the wheel is done.
        • have you EVER look in the Microsoft Knowlege base?

          A centralized information source is no better.

          Go ahead and search for any topic and try to get a good answer without wading through gobs on unrelated gunk.

          everyone needs a better centralized information system that has a decent search engine and relevance ranking...

          unfortunately it takes LOTS of money to hire librarians to manage your information and documentation stores... and no company wants spend money on it... as it does not increase marketability n

    • Re:RTFM (Score:2, Interesting)

      by cavebear42 ( 734821 )
      TFM has a purpose. What its all about is when someone comes to me and says, "Hey, Bear, how do I print a test page on an HP 4050?" or, "Bear, what would a guy have to do if he wanted the files in a directory without any of the other data?"

      I dont have the time to answer every question for every person. It is not logical for a person to figure this stuff out on their own but TFM were provided for people to teach themselves.

      Scripts are not the salvation of society. While I could make a script for many thi

    • Uh (Score:2)

      by bonch ( 38532 )
      If you're using a GUI to build command line instructions, first off you may as well just use a GUI period, and second, clearly your CLI is too complex. You know, most people don't want "CLI skills." Slashdotters love to claim how much better it is, but it's not really better, you're simply used to it. Others may disagree. Anyone who believes they know the "one right way" of doing anything is someone to avoid.

      A GUI program to build CLI commands, talk about overkill--yet I fully expect that someone has t
      • Which is easier to tell someone how to do?

        [I]mv /old/path/to/some/file /new/path/to/some/file[/I]
        or
        Detailed instructions on opening a file browser, navigate to file, then either click and drag or cut and paste file into new location.

        Besides, people who had 286,386, or 486 computers were quite comfortable in DOS and are happy to use a CLI.
    • If you don't have any questions, then no one will tell you to RTFM.

      If you have a question, then you RTFM.

      If your question is NOT answered in TFM, then you ask it.

      Actually, lots of people have thought of using a GUI to put together a command line statement. Lots of people have even thought of using a GUI to import/export text based config files.
    • people who work on writing GUIs (be in Linux, Windows, workplace, whatever) or otherwise designing things that interact with people should put Dave Norman's Design of Everyday Things at the top of their required reading lists. He makes arguments regarding the idea of manuals, which can be quite enlightening.

      I started reading it last night, and the author mentioned in the preface that after reading his text, you'll end up going about your day noticing how various objects are or are not well designed for in
    • You put a huge restriction on designers when you say you won't to read a manual. How can something be new and also intuitive? If things have to be intuitive, we never get a chance to change the interface. Take the Windows calculator, for example. Why do you have to push buttons on the screen? Isn't it possible that there might be a better interface than replicating a physical calculator with mouse clicks?

      I don't think anyone can learn to use a word processor without reading the manual (or asking someo

      • How can something be new and also intuitive?

        IPOD. It isn't easy to make it intuitive, which is why it isn't often done. People are more concerned with getting things to market, that they often sacrifice usability to be the "first".

        This is where the principle of KISS comes in. KISS for most things works better. 80% of the time we only use 20% of the options. Let say we have 10 commands, the simple menu should be two or three most used commands. Others should be available, but tucked NEATLY out of sight.

    • Here is a trick that nobody has thought of, how about a CLI command builder. You know a GUI interface to utilities and programs that doesn't actually do anything but create the CL necissary to execute a command you need done.

      Actually a LOT of Linux programs do just that.
      Good examples would be cd burners and mp3 players.
      Nearly all of those use command-line programs to handle the actual work. It's part of the whole *NIX philosophy: lots of small programs that are good at doing one thing.

      A typical CD-c
      • I didn't want the command line executed, I just wanted the program to create the CL for the operation. I know most *nix GUI's are built on top of CLI programs.

        The point is that if people want us to use the CLI for stuff, and get the syntax right, and I don't want to have to RTFM to do it, learning all 108 options for said program, then the GUI should build the command, and let me review it before it executes.

  • high and mighty (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MagicM ( 85041 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:55PM (#8849715)
    Not to disrespect Tom or anyone else that cares, but this article just sounds way too "high and mighty" for my tastes. Some snippets:
    In Windows, you don't have much of a choice with browsers, as you probably used Internet Explorer.
    In essence, you get to see what is under the "hood of your car," as compared to Windows, where the hood is welded shut.
    While this may be true, it makes it sound like this article is for the typical "windows idiot", in which case "make sure you download the GTK+ development library" is WAY not enough information. And for someone willing to try to move to Linux (and get Oracle, Apache and SMB working), this is just insulting.

    • Re:high and mighty (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ImpTech ( 549794 )
      Oh I dunno... my understanding is the article's written for Windows powerusers who have never bothered with Linux. And yeah, plenty of fairly savvy Windows users still use IE, and being knowledgable about Windows doesn't necessarily imply any knowledge of what it really means to have the source code for your OS.

      I will say that I thought the comment about GTK+, though seemingly only there to illustrate the point that some software will require other software to run, was badly phrased and probably should ha

    • Not to mention (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bonch ( 38532 )
      People don't want to "see under the hood" or "download the GTK+ development library."

      They just want it to work, hence the use of Internet Explorer. Many OSS advocates simply don't get it. The obsession with "choice" and "freedom" has produced difficult-to-use software that gets reinvented by about 20 other competing clones, all doing things differently. Somehow this is supposed to be good.

      • People don't want to "see under the hood" or "download the GTK+ development library."

        They just want it to work, hence the use of Internet Explorer. Many OSS advocates simply don't get it. The obsession with "choice" and "freedom" has produced difficult-to-use software that gets reinvented by about 20 other competing clones, all doing things differently. Somehow this is supposed to be good.

        Did you ever think that many OSS advocates simply don't care?

        Right now, I have an OpenBSD/FVWM desktop. Is m


      • They just want it to work, hence the use of Internet Explorer.

        Well, you're absolutely right about the first part.

        Just like I want my automobile to just work. And it does. I take it to the mechanic and have it worked on regularly. And I pay some for that service.

        But if the car manufacturer started to hide the engine diagnostic codes [usatoday.com] in an effort to make me visit the dealership for very expensive service, you can bet I'd be concerned about welded shut hoods if there were any occasion whatsoever for servi

    • Re:high and mighty (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ratboy666 ( 104074 ) <fred_weigel@[ ]mail.com ['hot' in gap]> on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:40PM (#8850320) Journal
      Tom's was clear -- they promote that the new linux user install EVERYTHING.

      The GTK comment just hammers this home.

      Until the new user KNOWS what they want, they can try it all -- especially the target user here (knows Windows, and is curious).

      The data migration tips alone make this an article worth reading -- how to move your IE bookmarks and PST mailbox over...

      And "Oracle, Apache and SMB" come later. First, convert, bringing over your data, and start exploring the new environment.

      I give Tom's a really big "Two Thumbs Up" for this article -- good to get more hobby users into Linux!

      Ratboy

  • My first time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thebra ( 707939 ) * on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @12:57PM (#8849745) Homepage Journal
    I just recentally installed Fedora with out a problem. Every thing works great except my 3d card. I have installed WineX and am able to install games but they run slow due to the fact my card doesn't seem to be supported. I have had a good linux experience so far and hope to never have to use Windows again. I wish this guide would have been around before I got started to answer some of my questions. Escpecially on installing applications.
    • Accelerated 3D drivers for newer cards are available from your card vendor - presuming that's ATI or Nvidia. They're on their respsective vendor's websites, and the installation should be fairly painless if you follow the doco.

      I reckon it's about time the distros and vendors got overthemselves and included these drivers by default. The users want them, and not having them "built in" is just a PITA for new users.
    • I suspect that your 3D card is a Nvidia card?

      If so, the lack of support for 3D is because Nvidia decided not to let people know how the hardware works, but instead to require you to use thier binary driver. See the Nvidia website for thier driver.

    • the great part is that some distros like Mandrake will support a 3d card with the binary drivers out of the box. Yes only the purchased version of 10.0 with the 5 disks does this, but it is sweet to have the nvidia driver installed, the burner work in the user login and not have to drop to root do burn, automounting of drives, including the usb thumb drive, digital camera, etc...

      there are reasons to buy the full distro.. and extended hardware support out of the box is one of them.

  • Good for those of us who are used to Windoze (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Steve the Rocket Sci ( 770940 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:01PM (#8849813)
    As a person who mainly cut his teeth on Windows and DOS-based PCs, this series of articles helps out a bit. Sure, it's fun to figure things out yourself, but I'm not always in the mood to have to reference Google every time I try something new and exciting. Now only if they had something that would remember all those console commands so my stupid brain doesn't keep filling up. =P
    • Do what I do: make a cheat sheet for stuff that you need to remember. Just print it out and stick it somewhere prominent.

  • If I know Tom’s… (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...this Divx video will be split up into 50 page views of 5 second video clips.

  • Serious flaw (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Oriumpor ( 446718 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:04PM (#8849855) Homepage Journal
    When a very linux biased review [tomshardware.com] doesn't do a good job of convincing a linux user that the linux method of application distribution isn't a crock there's something wrong.

    I'm not just piping in on this topic, I have had to deal with dependency BS just like the rest of anyone who hasn't had some obscure perl module.
    You are also required to download other programs/packages to make your program work.


    Thank microsoft's installapp creator (visual studio) for alleviating this problem on the Win32 side of things. Linux is left to flounder without, since there's no real way to baseline the needed dependencies and install them with the application across multiple Distros/versions easily.

    Automation is what makes computers useful, big round buttons make them usable by the avg.

    • Re:Serious flaw (Score:4, Insightful)

      by betelgeuse-4 ( 745816 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:31PM (#8850192) Homepage Journal
      Using emerge with gentoo, I haven't had any dependancy problems. I suspect the same is true for many people using other linux distros or *BSD with similar package management progams.
      • I agree, as I am a recent Gentoo convert. But seriously, you aren't going to convince any beginner or Windows convert to use Gentoo, no matter how good the package management is. It's entirely too much hands on and people will throw a fit at having to compile things instead of double clicking install_aim.exe.
        • I tend to agree, also having recently moved to Gentoo.

          I have a problem in Gentoo--I can't print. Getting this to work from the manual is not happening--I've tried.

          The trouble is that when I asked about it on the forums I never got a response.

          That said, there have also been times when the forums were great. This is fine for someone with 2 things: time and patience. I happened to have both, but for someone who is doing anything remotely mission critical, the forums aren't good enough, and the manual not

        • Re:Serious flaw (Score:3, Insightful)

          by betelgeuse-4 ( 745816 )

          I agree gentoo isn't suitable for beginners, but emerge and the like show that Linux doesn't have to be a dependancy nightmare. A slick GUI interface and pre-compiled packages might actually be more user-friendly than the double-click setup.exe system. Firstly because you could get all your software from one trusted source (i.e. the programs would be written by loads of different people/groups but the people who produce the packages for your distro would have independantly reviewed/tested the code to a cert

    • RPM Hell (Score:5, Insightful)

      by krmt ( 91422 ) <therefrmhere AT yahoo DOT com> on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:31PM (#8850194) Homepage
      This bothered me too, but maybe that's because I've been using Debian for so long. Seriously, do Linux users really work like this? Hunting after the right RPM's and such? I mean... I remember doing that in 1999 (and it was a solved problem even then) on Mandrake, but they had already begun work on urpmi or something similar at the time. Honestly, I haven't dealt with a real dependency issue in half a decade and I haven't had to compile an app that I didn't write in years (unless I wanted to package it myself for some reason). I thought this was long solved for all distros now.

      Do you guys really live like this? If so... why?
      • Because not everybody wants to use Debian or Gentoo. Because the model in which huge numbers of people try and package every single thing in a centralised manner is inefficient and doesn't scale. How many levels does Debian have now? 4 - stable, testing, unstable and experimental, iirc.

        The fact is, that it takes a lot of time to package everything like that, and a lot of human resources, which most distros simply cannot afford. Often these distros have other things which make them attractive, which is why

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Because not everybody wants to use Debian or Gentoo.

          No one said they should have to.

          Because the model in which huge numbers of people try and package every single thing in a centralised manner is inefficient and doesn't scale. How many levels does Debian have now? 4 - stable, testing, unstable and experimental, iirc.

          The model has scaled pretty well, as far as I can see. Not every piece of crap program on freshmeat needs to be available for the novice user, nor should it be. The model might not be th

      • URPMI works great. urpmi app_name and it will even try to do fuzzy matching. Apt-RPM is also suppose to be pretty good. Even Red-carpetfrom Ximian works out well enough. It is prtty much a non-issue.
    • Seems to work for me.

    • Re: First thing to install after Red Hat? APT (Score:4, Informative)

      by pjkundert ( 597719 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:23PM (#8850882) Homepage
      Haven't looked at the video, but the first (and only) RPM I have to find after installing Red Hat, is:

      APT!

      Just go to rpmfind.net, look up apt, and select the correct version matching the version of Red Hat you have installed. Download it, and install it:

      rpm -Uvh apt...

      Congratulations, that's probably the last time you'll have to search for an RPM! After that, keeping Red Hat up-to-date, and finding and installing most programs, is:

      apt-get update
      apt-get -u upgrade

      (and occasionally "apt-get -u dist-upgrade", for when a bunch of stuff changes)

      or, to find and install some package:

      apt-cache search program
      (review available versions)
      apt-get -u install program-version

      Done! All except for blowing away Red Hat, and installing Debian instead. Then, you can access the rest of APT's powerful features, and really pick and chose between what Debian release you want to run (stable, testing, unstable, experimental).
    • When a very linux biased review doesn't do a good job of convincing a linux user that the linux method of application distribution isn't a crock there's something wrong.

      Repeat after me:
      There is no single method of application distribution.

      Application distribution is distro spefic.
      Redhat is different than Gentoo, is different from Debian, which are all different from the format used by a Sharp Zaurus PDA. What works for Gentoo would be hell on a Sharp Zaurus. Choose a distro that suits you needs.
  • to show off browsing they have the groklaw site. To show off multimedia they have the sweaty Ballmer "preaching" to his choir. It's a welcomed note of humor for us ol' timers.

  • I was expecting more (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stevyn ( 691306 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:22PM (#8850083)
    I know this was geared towards newbies, but I was hoping for a little more about the software. I never had a problem with linux, but I still think the software I use in windows is better than that available in linux. Yeah there's more choice, but all those options never seem to cut it for me. Actually, I think the only things holding me up are photoshop and windows media player and lack of printer support. Oh well, maybe next year...
    • Oh my god, you actually like Windows Media Player? A much better media player for Windows, that can play every media format (windows, quicktime, real, divx, xvid, etc) is Media Player Classic [divx-digest.com]. Also, Media Player Classic is both free and opensource. It also is also faster than Windows Media Player. In fact, there is really no reason to not use Media Player Classic.
      • I don't use a media player just to play music and video files. Any media player could do that. What I use it for really is to keep track of all my music. I have not found a good linux alernative that can do this. If you can, please let me know and I'll try it next time I decide to "switch." I do have media player classic, but all it does is play files, not enough for me, and a lot of high
        school and college students.

  • Hardware (Score:5, Insightful)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:26PM (#8850131) Journal
    They missed out hardware, i think its important for them to mention that most hardware manufacturers are bitches when it comes to supporting, or even being in support of linux or any other OS than Windows, If you're switching to linux make sure your hardware is fully supported, its not enough that there are 'drivers availiable' you have to be ruthless and only buy the most popular and known to be supported stuff, make sure you search the forums and dont waste your time on anything thats not used by less than 30% of the linux community or anything that people complain about because its going to cause you grief.

    let me just add to the list:
    -Sagem f@st 800 ADSL USB Modem and PPPoA, just hassle
    -ATI All-In-Wonder Pro dual screened with a 9200SE - if you get this working ill grovel down to you.
    -Diamond S90 (vortex) sound card - shove it up your ass, you'll get better performance

    and unrelated - IBM Deskstar harddrives - if you hear that grinding noise your screwed.
    • That was in the aforementioned first article. They go through all the common hardware issues. In fact, I wish the first article had been printed a week earlier. I got to suffer through installing linux on a machine with the nforce chipset. It's not so bad if you're prepared. Me, I had to use one machine (iBook) to download the drivers, ssh to a second (headless linux) machine, dump it to floppy (yes, floppy), then upload from floppy on the third machine.

  • Well done (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bogie ( 31020 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:28PM (#8850153) Journal
    My first reaction when watching the videos was duh, but then I realized what a great job he had done. We are a culture that flat out doesn't like to read instructions, having it done in a visual manner was a smart move. Also seeing something done right before your eyes is a much bigger confidence builder then just reading a quick howto on the internet. Look at the Outlook migration video. How nice is it to just say "download the video on it" and know that they probably won't need much assitance beyond that. People and companies especially pay big bucks for videos like this which train users how to install or use a product. While they are not the most comprehensive Linux video training out there and I have a few minor nitpciks, its Free so how can you knock it? Tom's has done a real service to the community with these articles and videos and they deserve our thanks.

  • Migrating (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MrRuslan ( 767128 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @01:32PM (#8850214)
    Evryone made this whole Migrating from windows to linux thing such a big deal i dont know why...anyone who ever installed windows all the way...i mean setup for a blank hd then drivers then updates then some tweaking like turning off services and disabling and enabling some stuff can install any redhatish distro without a problem...but most people belive it or not can't do that with windows...i see many people who cant right click the right way ....those people need service with anything and i think more than half of computer users are like that that ive seen...migration is hard because its not in the OS...OS dosent even matter...if i put anyone with windows experiance in front of my Gentoo box they would not have a problem with my KDE they chat and browse just like on windows....but what if somoene needs some app thats not there for linux...I use Autocad for exaple to do work and i need it...same gouse for ALPHACAM and Cabined Vision and those are not avalable for linux ...now until they i have to work with windows cuz there are no viable alternatives for those apps....but for the basics like office stuff and browser multimedia OS or migration is a no issue...just choose whatever u like best and go for it.

  • xmms and mp3s (Score:4, Informative)

    by EricWright ( 16803 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @02:00PM (#8850568) Journal
    Did anyone notice the statement that xmms was a great program for playing mp3s? On RedHat? Without mentioning that you have to download and install mp3 libraries, due to the proprietary nature of the mp3 codec...

    Oops!
  • In fact, [a particular program] is used in many some big movie studios such as ILM, Sony and DreamWorks. If it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for you.

    Quotes like this make me cringe on so many levels.
    1. What do they use the software for? Perhaps they only use it because some intern set up a script to automate a file renaming process. That doesn't make it good enough for me
    2. What makes you think my needs are completely met by something that meets someone else's needs? This argument has no value. "Kibbles and bits - if it's good enough for lassie, it's good enough for your half a bee, Eric."
    3. ???

    "I'm not a real Linux user, but I advocate Linux on my hardware site. Testing hardware is tough, but when my working evironment consists soley of Windows machines, at the end of the day I like to go home and relax at the command line of my RedSuseBian. There's nothing like a good scripting session to clear the head and soothe my tender muscles. Try it! You'll like it - I gaurantee."

    Bleah. Leave the PR quotes to real PR people, and just give us the facts.

    -Adam

  • Its the Apps... (Score:2, Informative)

    by C. Alan ( 623148 )
    I have said it once, and I will keep repeating it. Linux will not get any more popular until the Apps are as easy to load and setup as in Windows. RPM's are a nice step forward, but Linux is not there yet.

    I have just one App that is keeping me in XP, it is Autocad 2004, soon to be 2005. Sure, I could run it under wine, but I need it to work 100% of the time, with all of its functions. I don't have time to deal with Wine in it current form.
  • I think this guide is too much lacking in specific details to be any use to some one who's migrating, for instance some advice about apt-get and where to find rpms would be useful.
    I have just switched myself. One of the most fustrating part of it is installing apps, not because of the dependancy problems that's easy to solve. The real problems occured for me because you need to use two user accounts, one to install and one to run the app. Windows users aren't used to this, so get it all mixed up and end up
  • Ok, so, in video5.avi they install Samba through RPM. Seems nice enough...

    First they describe Samba as a web server for Linux. Then, on a first install attempt, it shows a screen full of conflicts, so they just --force it.

    Couldn't they find a friend who knew a thing or two about Linux to say "Uhh..."?

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Work is the crab grass in the lawn of life. -- Schulz

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