Moving To Linux 384
Since the book comes with Knoppix and the author's purpose is to introduce the Linux desktop immediately, the first few chapters of this book only briefly describe what Linux versions are available, how to get a copy and how to install your chosen distro. Gagne gives some example installation choices with Mandrake, Redhat and SuSE. The next two chapters deal with using and customizing the author's desktop environment of choice (KDE) and exploring with Konquerer.
Chapter 7 provides a "release-agnostic" approach to package installation with examples and screen shots from Kpackage, RPM installs via shell and building from source. Most readers will become quite familiar with Chapter 8: Working with Devices, despite the author's exclamation that "Device support under Linux is excellent. No, really." Printing looms large in this chapter and there's some good advice to be had here for the newbie. The next several chapters tackle getting connected to the Internet, email and using Konquerer and Mozilla. In short, mainstream user necessities. Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE, and Ximian are all represented in the chapter on system updates along with a pitch to get involved in the Linux community (this is a good thing).
The make-or-break chapters for those readers requiring office productivity solutions come near the half point of the book. Gagne gives an overview of OpenOffice.org's suite of MS Office counterparts. These are really meant as introductory lessons on migrating from the more familiar, more ubiquitous MS suite of applications and not intended as an in-depth look at OpenOffice.org. Here is where the user will judge whether Linux is a viable alternative to Windows. Productivity is essential. Can you create a document that can be shared in a Windows dominant world? Can you do it without struggling to learn new rules and exceptions to the rules? Gagne makes a strong pitch for ease of use in the Linux world.
The final chapters on multimedia and games round out the topics that every semi-literate computer user has on their "must know how to" list. Under multimedia, KsCD, XMMS and Noatun are covered, including visualization plugins and skins. K3b, Grip and MPlayer are also described. Favorite Linux games are represented: KSirtet, KAsteroids, Frozen-Bubble, KBattleship, KPatience, KPoker ... well, you get the idea!
Care has been taken in laying out the book; from the beautiful typography, the boxed asides with Quick Tips, Shell Outs and Notes to the Resources list at the end of each chapter. The book is easy to read and the author has a crisp conversational style of writing devoid of distracting anecdotes or sophomoric humor (chapter subheadings aside!). Gagne succeeds in providing a guidebook to Linux that should enable the average Windows users to make a smooth transition to a Linux distro of their choice. At the very least, Gagne gives the nervous Windows-to-Linux wannabe an excellent bootable Knoppix CD to test drive while following along in the book. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to someone who is looking to give Linux a spin but is afraid to commit their working PC to Linux entirely. This book and the accompanying CD will ease the way toward independence from Windows.
You can purchase Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
For Those That Don't Know (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:For Those That Don't Know (Score:5, Funny)
Where to buy it? (Score:3, Insightful)
They aren't the only stores in town and they aren't the least-expensive stores in town, either
Pay attention to where they rank with the suggestions below:
When one is tempted to buy from Amazon or B&N first, try going here: Moving to Linux via AddAll [addall.com]
or,
plug the ISBN into Froogle.Google [google.com]. On top of that, look in the right margin of the Froogle search - it suggests "Buy 0321159985 for less" at a site named
Re:Where to buy it? (Score:5, Funny)
The "You can buy" link is the "official" Slashdot link. It is always to B&N for two reasons: Slashdot gets a percentage for the referral, and Amazon is punished for the one-click patent. This has never been a secret...
Re:For Those That Don't Know (Score:2, Insightful)
Huh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Huh (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Huh (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Huh (Score:2, Informative)
The perfect help for a secretary to switch to linux.
The wave of the (Linux) future... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm easing my family into it right now. The trick is to start by introducing the easiest open-source applications that are available on both platforms. Pull the old "Here, I'll 'upgrade' your browser for you, and you won't get pop-ups anymore" trick and get them used to Firefox. Follow it up with Thunderbird and OpenOffice, and they'll gradually start wondering why they put up with all the problems they used to have in the first place.
That's when you whip out the book and the Knoppix CD, and introduce them to the same applications they're used to on a different operating system. Get them curious, get them interested, and then they'll start doing the work for you.
Book-Disk Combos (Score:3, Interesting)
Being more of a long toothed techie, I went for the thick "Red Hat Linux 8 Bible" last year. It's nice to have a book that describes something that you also have immediate access to (the linucx and all apps are included in envelopes on the inside covers), and which wonderfully goes into sufficient detail on many of the u
Irony (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft's not better (Score:4, Insightful)
Will this get my karma raised?
you want a comparison? (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux for dummies, 5th edition Amazon.com Sales Rank: 751
Hmmm.. what does that say to you?
Re:you want a comparison? (Score:2)
Re:you want a comparison? (Score:3, Funny)
As for what that means, I don't know that I want to know.
Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Irony (Score:5, Insightful)
They are all difficult to use. Have you ever participated in any usability studies with people who have no computer experience? There is nothing intuititive about using a computer. There are things that seem intutitive after years of using a computer, but to someone with no background they're all overly difficult to use.
Re:Irony (Score:2)
Re:Irony (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately, the vast majority of tech reporters not only believe that it's possible, but that it actually exists in whatever OS they're a shill for. To them, Linux/BSD/Unix will NEVER be ready for the desktop, because they're measuring it against an impossible yardstick.
Re:Irony (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, if you go by "the fewer books, the easier the OS" logic, I'd say MacOS is the hands-down winner. With a larger desktop share than Linux, there are far more Linux books that Mac books in any general or technical bookstore that I've ever seen. Back in the days of Classic MacOS, you'd be hard pressed to find even a single Mac book in a lot of stores.
Re:Irony (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Irony (Score:2, Insightful)
However I think the bare minimum needed for anybody contemplating a change of OS would be a functional-equivalent list of applications for both platforms, listed by file type.
Re:Irony (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Irony (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Irony (Score:2, Insightful)
There's a balance that must to struck between the two, and Linux if finally getting there (Knoppix is a good example I think), where the average Windows "don't bother with IRQs and DLLs"-type users can actually start using Linux without a really steep learning curve, or too much trouble installing it.
Re:Irony (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, but I don't think it's useful to dismiss these kinds of comments about Linux not being easy to use. It's true.
Here's an example...when you have to install an app from a tarball. What's a tarball? It's an aggregated set of files in a tar, for tape archive. No one uses tapes anymore. No one that has this bit of knowledge will necessarily understand the two phase process of aggregating files and then zipping them. No one really deals with zips anymore in the Windows world...now they have installation
Re:Irony (Score:5, Funny)
Of course his idea of an "intuitive" interface is a bit more simple than mine.
His goes like this: "If you can't eat it or screw it, piss on it."
Hardware Issues (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Not on OpenBSD, that is for sure. And the same is most likely for the other *BSD. New code will not be introduced if it will break existing installations, and if it breaks, they fix it. As an example, when OpenBSD made changes on i386 so that you could boot with kernel above 8GB on the harddisk, alot of testing and effort went into _making sure_ that nothing breaks. This included testing on ancient 386/486 machines.
Perhap
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:3, Informative)
Found all my hardware quite easily...
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't lead people on to think that they can just throw any old hardware at it and expect it to work.
MS and Apple have deals where HW makers get to put the logos on thier products if they can show compatibilty. It would be nice if some distro companies would step up and do something similar.(even better if they tested for general Linux compatibilty, not just thier distrubiton)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:3, Interesting)
When we have a live cd that can install 'smartly' and continously optimize its configuration (pretty much like windoze) is when joe average be happy and content.
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2)
However after having done some hard drive installs. I've backed off from pusing it on Windows users as ardantly as I used to because there are still a lot of loose ends when it comes to hard drive installations and once a windows user tries it on their own machine I find th
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2)
Not very likely this is going to happen anytime soon. When some new hardware is inserted, there will be some probing by the kernel. And if the hardware is not recognized, you can see output like :
In thi
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2)
Re:Hardware Issues (Score:2, Interesting)
It is rare for any Linux distro to properly initialise all hardware. I recently have had the plesure of attempting to install SUSE 9.1 Pro on my Dell 8250. I faced the following complications:
a) Had difficulty reading the CD on my Philps DVD+RW without loading ide-scsi drivers (a command which later had to be removed so I could access the drive once I had installed.
b) Manually install drivers for my Radeon 9700 Pro
c) Dell use a bastardised Creative SB Live! Card with a chipset unsupported by ALSA.
d)
Windows user who is looking to migrate to Linux (Score:5, Funny)
/ Don't get me started on the flight speed of African swallows.
Confusing title... (Score:5, Funny)
Linux Moving to Linux
That definitely elicited a double-take.
Re:Confusing title... (Score:2)
Re:Confusing title... (Score:2)
Kiss the BSoD goodbye? (Score:2, Insightful)
Get off pre Windows 2000.
Update drivers.
Re:Kiss the BSoD goodbye? (Score:2)
That's the only time I ever did see a blue screen when I had a 2000 box. I went to post-98 but then went back because I just got tired of patching things on my home machine. I do plenty of that at work. I keep thinking I might go back to 2000 now that automatic update has been out for a while, but my wife insists I keep 98 on "her" machine. For what she does on it, we don't see blue screens too often (twice last year and once so far this year).
Live CDs don't always make good impressions. (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to go, this is a fantastic argument to use to get people to switch. When was the last time I saw one of those... hmmm. Let's see. Since 1998 when I switched to NT4 and later through W2K, XP and 2003 (yes, as a desktop) on literally dozens of machines, I've seen four blue screens, and they were all on the same W2K box (the one I use for gaming and crap). Two were caused by stupid Creative drivers, and I forget what caused the other two.
Yeah, four blue screens in (I guess) hundreds of thousands of hours of operation on multiple machines is a definite reason to switch to Linux. I'm sold.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
Second, while I have seen only a handfull of BSODs in the last few years, I have seen more than 4, across a variety of systems (maybe 50 systems total). I think I've only seen one on XP, but then I'm not around many XP machines. So 1 on XP, half a dozen on W2K, and a ton on NT4, W98 and W95. I'm not counting those caused by failing hardware.
OTOH, during the same time period, I've been around hundreds of Linux systems running (i
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm. I've seen maybe two or three on my game box since I installed XP Home on it last November. To be fair, that's about the same number of kernel panics I saw in the same timeframe back on the first release of Linux kernel 2.2. I've never had a BSD crash, but I haven't used it as heavily (yet) either.
Microsoft will always be dogged by the fact that Win95, 98, and ME were all tepid pieces of dog crap when it came to stability. XP and 2003 will always suffer from the thousands of curses that the last genera
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
TWW
Re:Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)
Then I noticed that when it didn't lock and I managed to shut it down normally I'd get the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" thing. This is an Abit mobo wit
Yes, you must be right (Score:3, Funny)
That whole meme must be a conspiracy by the powerful Linux cabal.
Thanks for settling that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
False.
I have put Win2K and XP on dozens of machines and had BSODs on a few. They occur in the initialization phase before the OS installs.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not so... (Score:2)
I'm not saying that it will w
Incorrect price on BN (Score:4, Funny)
List Price: $34.99
Our Price: $27.99 (Save 20%)
Barnes & Noble Member Price: $26.59
It should be $733.99 (Save -95.23%).
Please Help (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Please Help (Score:2)
um, no... go to the kde menu, then select:
games->card games->
and then choose the type of solitaire you want.
(shrug) doesn't seem all that hard to me...
Re:Please Help (Score:2)
Re:Please Help (Score:2)
Kiss the BSOD? (Score:5, Funny)
And replace it with a Kernel Panic!
Re:Kiss the BSOD? (Score:2)
And at least they BLINK. A BSOD just sits there.
Re:Kiss the BSOD? (Score:2)
What a strange and counterproductive statement to make to someone. Do you really feel "superior" because you run a toy Unix-like operating system (i.e., Linux)? Maybe if you listened to other people you would learn something.
Re:Kiss the BSOD? (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, I run OS-X and XP here, and my Nikon D-70 ONLY works in Windows without a special driver. I had to go to Nikon.com and download software to get it to work on my Mac!
Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
With that said - the big thing that puts me off from trying Linux (apart from switiching gears) is this "BSOD" reference from folks that are trying to tell me that their software is better.
Before you mod this "flamebait" just listen for a moment. I've been working as a programmer, and have used win 2k pro extensively over the past five years on at least 7 different machines. The only time I got a BSOD was on a Western Digital Hard Drive failure.
When I see someone tell me that their software will free me from the "BSOD" - I can't help thinking that they haven't seen or used win2k - or haven't configured their installations properly - and they are trying to tell me "Linux is Better" based off of 95/98/ME or poor computing practices.
And while that certainly is most likely the case that Linux is Better- I'd like an honest comparison on how it fares against 2kpro? Honestly - if you want to convert folks over to Linux - Do it positively - Tell me what's good about Linux - Don't tell me what's bad with windows - I know what's bad with windows and a Linux guy telling me what's bad with windows will get an eyeroll from me, and will outright be dismissed from conversation if they mistate or are erroneous on the latest platform.
Campaigns based on Negativity are self defeating. They won't sway the extremes, but they will force the fence sitters away from moving to the negative side. I want to know what I will gain. I want to know why it's right for me. Tell me the good parts and how and why they are so good.
But above all, Please - Drop the "BSOD" it left with Windows ME.
by the way - Microsoft does drop the ball - Windows CE
Win CE
WinCE - lol
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Linux (Score:2)
A good test I usually suggest is to run your current OS, and install an OS you want to switch to in a virtual machine environment (VPC or VMware on Windows). If you do not find yourself repeatedly switching to that new OS to complete the tasks, then why bother?
Re:Linux (Score:2)
Re:Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking as a techie, the thing which is good about Linux is that if something goes wrong (and it will - those who tell you it won't are either lying or inexperienced) the error messages tend to be more useful, as do the error logs.
You can usually communicate directly with someone fairly closely involved in developing whatever software/driver is broken. You're not stuck with Microsoft's "support", and I find that the signal/noise ratio in mailing lists tends to be significantly higher. Basically, you don't generally have a bunch of MCSE monkeys telling you what the problem is and getting it spectacularly (and obviously) wrong.
Programs tend to be relatively small and self-contained - an obscure bug with a particular package in userland won't usually affect much else in the system (unlike Internet Explorer).
The developers are generally far more open & honest about bugs. You're more likely to hear "Oh, that's new. Looks like a bug..." from an open source developer than from a Microsoftie.
I can sleep at night knowing that not a single byte of software on my computer is pirated.
It may be that none of these are convincing reasons to switch. Fine, then don't. The best operating system is the one that does what you want it to. (Hear that sound? That's my karma evaporating)
It may be that you find these things sufficiently interesting to take another look. Great. If there's a Linux user group in your area, get to know them. They will be able to help if (when) you encounter trouble, and you can return the favour by helping the next new person to send an email saying "Hi..."
saw it (Score:2, Informative)
it seems like a good book, but for a non-geek, try linux for non-geeks
Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! (Score:2, Funny)
Now, can you kernel panic without rebooting?
Not Debian (Score:3, Interesting)
Captive NTFS and Wireless (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing about all these articles is that they expect users to quit Windows cold-turkey and immediately jump head first into Linux. But from what I've seen personally, that's not necessarily the best approach. Those that I've seen try making the hard switch install their distribution of choice, then after a few hours of trying to regain the functionality of their last OS [figuring out what does what, where it is, etc] they get frustrated with Linux and wonder what made them give up their previous OS when it worked "just fine". I like the gradual approach that Knoppix and other live CD-based distros can afford. You can pop it in, screw with it for a while, learn some, then pop it out and go back to your old OS if you get frustrated or tired. I commend Gagne for using Knoppix as the teaching tool of his book.
Re:Captive NTFS and Wireless (Score:3, Interesting)
Actualy, I think they're targetting users who grew tired of spyware/bugs/viruses associated with Windows, people who'd do the jump if only they knew there was an alternative.
I, for exemple, am such a person. I design websites for a living, and I'm looking for sort of a "turn-key" solution to switch to Linux. I need an article that is actualy convincing enough to switch right-fucking-now.
"Maybe, perhaps someti
Kiss the blue screen goodbye? (Score:2, Redundant)
Oh wait, I remember a second one - last year, when the hard drive died, I got the page fault blue screen.
Other then that, I haven't seen one in a looong time - and I use Windows a lot at home and work at a company with almost 1000 Windows servers. But hey, st
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Kiss the blue screen goodbye? (Score:2, Interesting)
Linux zealots continually babble about bsod and clippy and I can see how the "community" gets a bad wrap. I guess if the only forum you read about linux is slashdot then you're getting a one-sided view. The gentoo forums
AT LAST - A NON-UBERGEEK approach! (Score:5, Interesting)
I also think that the haughty attitude portrayed by some Linux users actually puts people off - and gives them reason to stick with Microsoft.
Lotus Notes client for Linux? (Score:2, Informative)
Using wine is so painfully slow that is not a solution.
Is good. But.... (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Modem driver didn't claim to work with Debian, and, although the install script was "Debian-aware", it didn't.
2. How do I get _user_ level icons for mounting and unmounting removable media that a computer newbie can understand? Seemed like "auto" was broken after a hard drive install?
Fedora Core. Simple process. She's happy.
My conclusion was that Knoppix isn't quite there for th
Kiss the BSOD goodbye... (Score:4, Funny)
And shake hands with your new friend, kernel panic.
Who is panic, and what is he doing in my computer?
Who reads anything? (Score:3, Insightful)
"What's a bios, is it dangerous?"
I do not mean illiterates, but people whose lives were formed around staring at a tube. To these people, a PC is just another tube with more variety.
Moving to Linux is good for geeks and non-geeks (Score:3)
I've been using Linux as my primary desktop at home since 1998, but I picked up the book primarily for my wife (who made the leap to Linux somewhere around 2001 due to a magical combination of getting tired of having to constantly reboot and the availability of StarOffice). My hope was that she would find Marcel's style approachable enough to dig into the things she was interested in on her own. That didn't pan out, though; she's happier just asking me a quick question when she runs into a dead end.
However, I found myself learning a few things about KDE from the book that I wasn't aware of due to my WindowMaker / Gnome past:
So I went from being a primarily command-line oriented guy to trusting a little more in the nice GUI apps that KDE supplies... and it has been good. I'm happy that I picked up Marcel's book.
By the way, he didn't write this book using the French chef schtick that he uses for his Linux Journal "Cooking with Linux" columns, for which I'm quite thankful. I enjoy the columns, but a full book of that would be too much. Instead, he adopts a personal tone that is straightforward and pleasant to read.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Switch to OS X (Score:2)
Hardware Investments (Score:2)
At least suggesting ( or assisting ) they migrate to Linux or a BSD variant will let them keep most, if not all, of their invested hardware...
Also, to be a bit more accurate, it would be communistic style, not socialistic.. ( at least by traditional definitions, not the convenient, but incorrect, ones that were dreamed up in the 50
Re:Must know? (Score:3, Informative)
1) You are not the intended audience of this book.
2) You are right, multimedia is of no interest whatsoever to the average user. I mean, who ever heard of playing music on their computer? Next you'll be trying to c
Re: (Score:2)
Re:too little too late (Score:2)