After reading all this info about MS, I want to switch to Linux.

[Dabura_HG]

This will be quite a step for me since I'm used to Windows, hehe.

What I'm particularly interested in is which Linux is most popular/user preferred? Do I need to be really tech savvy to run Linux for simple tasks such as internet, customizing it, and whatnot. Do I need to be tech savvy to run Linux in general?  

I bet there will be a lot of new commands that I'll have to get used to.

Which Linux OS is rock-solid *and* free? The free part is a stipulation, but I would like to try Linux out first and see how it goes from there.

Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated.    One more thing, hehe, which browser do you guys recommend for Linux? Up-to-date security is a must in the browser.  

[Fett101]

Basic operation is simple, but the more you want to customize, the more tech saavy you'll need to be (oblviously) If you wanna check it out before actually screwing with you HD partitions, then Suse has a downloadable ISO you can burn to CD. You can just run it form that CD without screwing with your hard drive. Recommended distros for newbies are usually Red Hat, and Mandrake.

[Stryker]

All versions of linux can be downloaded at kernel.org... but I'm sure that's not what u meant.

Several distrobutions are at http://www.linuxiso.org. I'm sure most people will tell u to try either redhat or mandrake. I suggest RedHat 9. You'll probably use mozilla.

I've never had redhat crash, but then again all my hardware is compatible. I'd check urs first. Usually the only problems that occur are dialup modems. And of course those goodies like digital cameras and scanners and such. Those tend to need a little bit of work. I haven't used them in redhat 9 so i couldn't say. You do NOT have to be a techie or anything to install, customize, or use it. If you want to get all geeky with it you can though.

[Dabura_HG]

Thanks for the fast replies guys, appreciate it.  

That pretty much summed it up for me, hehe.

[Stryker]

you'll be sticking around or are you going to leave us? 1 more sane person puts the troll:human ratio a little more balanced.

[xyle_one]

Welcome to the forums. I suggest redhat 9, or mandrake 9. i have had good experiences with both. If you have any questions, please, do not hesitate to ask here.

[Calum]

question: what's the best distro?

answer: http://linuxiso.org - your source of freedom

the real answer is "it depends". i would recommend RH9 if you want a bog standard linux that does a lot of stuff, RH is supposedly good at networking etc. i'd say mandrake for more audio visual stuff like playing movies and so forth, i'd say use slackware if you have used a unix type system before.

it all depends.

[Dabura_HG]

I'll definitely be sticking around to learn more about Linux and how great it is.    

I'll most likely go with Redhat 9 and see what it's like, and I'll make sure to ask any further questions I may have.

Thanks for the welcome and the offer to help a newbie out.    

Edit: Couple more questions. What's the windows application compatibility like with Wine? I will probably run MS office and a couple of games maybe. I also checked Redhat's website about hardware compatibilities, such as my Athlon XP processor. It will work, but I didn't see my soundcard which is a SB Live! Value card and an AOpen GeForce 4 MX 440 graphics card. :/ Does anyone here have the same sound/video card? Thanks again!

[ July 15, 2003: Message edited by: Dabura_HG ]

[xyle_one]

im not too familiar with wine. actually. i have never even bothered to check it out. If you need to use an office suite, i highly suggest open office. it can read and write to microsoft office documents, is much more efficient when it comes to file size. I have noticed a significant reduction when i convert to open office file formats. even saving into ms office formats, the file was smaller than the original ms office file. Redhat 9 picked up my geforce 3 just fine. I didn't have any sound card installed at the time, but i intend to put one in eventually. Sorry i cannot be any more help about that-

[Dabura_HG]

Actually, hehe, that was helpful.

Back with more questions.    

What are program installations like? Are they just like windows or are they different?

I presume that the "Home" icon on let's say, Mandrake is just like the "My computer" icon where you can see all your devices and such.

What is networking like in Linux? Will I be able to setup my cable connection quickly to get it running again? Can't think of any more questions so this is it for now.    

Edit: I saw some screenshots of Mandrake and was kind of intimidated by the DOS looking menus, hehe. I hope that's not going to be too hard to manage. I'd imagine it'll be kind of awkward at first in having to find where all the menus are, how to configure the OS to my liking and so on. What I've noticed is that one can mount images. That's also interesting.  

[ July 15, 2003: Message edited by: Dabura_HG ]

[xyle_one]

i found redhat and mandrake to be easier to use than windows. for most things anyways. Remember, it is different, so it will take some time to ge your head around it. For installing software, i recommend apt-get & synaptic.apt-get is an app that lets you choose software to install, and it takes care of everything for you. you just hit go. synaptic is a gui for it. For most software, its as easy as double clicking the RPM file. During the initial installation, you get a wide variety of software to install as well. Once i first booted into red hat, i was able to view all of my network compters, and was able to access them. Same with printing. it picked up the printer on my mac and i was able to print to it.

"home" on mandrake, or redhat, is your home directory, or your "My Documents" folder.

I do not forsee any problem getting your cable to work. it should be taken care of during installation  

[Dabura_HG]

Interesting, different file formats, eh?   :eek:  

Another interesting thing about Mandrake is that it's got built-in media players. Wow, haha, it takes care of everything. Linux, I welcome you with open arms. Bye bye windows and your silly spying habits.  

Much love to the helpful people!  

[psyjax]

Your sound card, and GFX card will work.

I have the same combo.

You may have to manually configure the driver however, this is not to hard. Usually it will choose the vesa driver, but you should use the nvda (nVidia    ) dirver as that way the resolution is corectt.

Whatever...

In any case, installing software can be a real pain in the ass, so be warned. Sometimes RPMs fail, and the apt-x utilities have a bit of a learning curve.

Linux is good stuff tho, so don't be discuraged. It takes a bit of getting used to.

[solo]

quote:Originally posted by psyjax: plain 'ol psyjax:
Your sound card, and GFX card will work.

I have the same combo.

You may have to manually configure the driver however, this is not to hard. Usually it will choose the vesa driver, but you should use the nvda (nVidia     ) dirver as that way the resolution is corectt.

Yup, you'll need the binary nvidia driver for decent gaming performance.
Here's the newest as of now: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Quadro_Certified/1.0-4365/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4365.run

 

quote:
Whatever...

In any case, installing software can be a real pain in the ass, so be warned. Sometimes RPMs fail, and the apt-x utilities have a bit of a learning curve.

Here's how to get Apt going when your in Linux:
1. Go to rpmfind.net, enter "apt" into the search box, click OK.
2. Choose the rpm with the newest version, the one for your distro, and your platform (i386,i486,i586,i686 and I'm pretty sure you have a i686 which means you can use any of them under and including i686) and click the RPM link on the right. By the way make SURE that for instance if you use Redhat 9 that you get the one for Redhat 9 and not Redhat 8 because the RPM system is incompatible, same with a lot of other distro versions.
3. Save it to your home directory.
4. Go to your desktop and click Home. Double click the apt-whatever.rpm file.
5. Enter your system administrator (root) password at the next prompt.
6. Click okay thru the various prompts or windows and it will install.
7. If there's no errors (which there shouldn't be) go to Redhat Menu->System Tools->Terminal (at least in Redhat, for other distros im sure youll find it).
8. In the window type the following lines (pressing enter at the end of course).

Code: [Select]

It will go for a minute calculating dependencies and stuff. If you get back to the prompt (something like [root@localhost /home/blah]) without a line like
E: Could not find package 'synaptic'
then it's installed right.
9. Close the terminal
10. To use Synaptic, click Redhat Menu->System Settings->Synaptic (at least, again, on Redhat).

You may now easily download a ton of software from the Freshmeat software repository. There is much more software in plain RPMs and other repositories also. You will probably not have many dependency problems in every day life. If you do get a dependency problem (it will tell you) its as simple as going to rpmfind.net and downloading it. Very rarely will you get the really bad dependency problems that require so many packages to be installed that you just get pissed off. Just make SURE you always install RPMs made for your distro and not other ones. That's where a lot of problems come from.

Linux is good stuff tho, so don't be discuraged. It takes a bit of getting used to.[/b][/QUOTE]

[solo]

oh yeah and to install the nvidia driver just save it in your home dir and press ctrl+alt+f1. use root and your system admin pass as the password and when the prompt shows up type this:

(Make sure to save everything first as all your programs will be closed)

telinit 3
<wait til messages stop coming and press enter>
cd /home/<your user name>
chmod +x NVIDIA<press tab>
./NVIDIA<press tab>
<follow onscreen instructions>
telinit 5
<youll know it worked if you see the nvidia logo pop up before it goes to the login screen>
<press ctrl+alt+f1 again>
<type exit>
<press ctrl+alt+f7 to get back to the login screen>

It's not Linux's fault btw that you have to do all this terminal stuff, tell nVidia about making an X-based driver installation. They say you need X not running but there's no reason why X needs to run in actuality.

In Bash (the most common Linux command line) pressing tab autocompletes file names, so you dont have to use regular expressions or type the whole goddamn thing out.

Linux has virtual terminals that allow you to have more than one terminal you can be logged into (most distros have 6 set up by default). You can switch between VTs (as theyre called) by pressing ctrl+alt+F<number>. Actuallyt you only need to press alt+F<number> but when you have X (the Linux graphics system) running, you need to use ctrl, so its good just to use ctrl anyway    .
And of course, each terminal can be graphical, via X.

The last two paragraphs you didnt need to know at all but it's good information if you wanna know how it all works under the hood.

[ July 16, 2003: Message edited by: Fury: Freedom Fighter ]