Considering Switching Over to the Light Side

[saturninus]

I've been a Windows user for quite a while, and I must say I'm getting a bit fed up with Microsoft.

I am thinking about using Linux, more specifically, Linux Redhat.

There are a few issues that I want to get clear on however.

First of all, I share my DSL connection with my parent's computer.  My parents are extremely computer iliterate and use Windows XL.  If I switch to Linux will I be able to continue to share this DSL connection via the network?  Furthermore, will I be able to access the movie files I've been storing on their computer and accessing from mine without them knowing it?      

I have a lot of MP3s, documents, pictures, and other types of files that I like very much and want to preserve.  I have much of this backed up on CD-ROM, others on 3.5" diskettes.  If I switch to Linux, will I be able to access these files?

I heard operating Linux is much like operating IRC or MS DOS 6.0.  Basically, command line stuff.  I've been into computers for over ten years, will adjusting to Linux be much of a shock?

Does Linux support all the new major hardware, and are drivers included within the installation files?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  I've been toying with the idea of saying goodbye to Microsoft for a while, now I think I am finally getting serious.
Finally, where's the best place online to look to buy a cheap re-distribution of the latest edition of Linux Redhat?

[Meshuggener]

Okay, I've been using Linux for about a year, so I'll help where I can.

The network thing is out of my league - I have virtually no experience with networks nor any high-speed internet (only slow dialup for me).  I'll let some else handle this one.

If you have those MP3's, documents, etc. backed up, then you'll have no problem copying them to Linux and accessing them.  There's a Winamp clone called XMMS (not to mention a zillion other media players out there).  Office files like word documents, etc. can be used with OpenOffice or StarOffice - both good replacements for MS Office.  Pictures and other things can be handled with the window manager of your choice.

It's true, Linux at it's most basic is command-line based - even early versions of Windows were built over DOS before NT came along.  The same can be true with Linux - XFree86 is a large program that allows you to run a GUI (graphic user interface) over Linux.  Two of the most popular window managers for XFree86 are KDE and Gnome - both are very easy for Windows users and are packed with features (not to mention they're much more customizable).

Linux is slightly slower when it comes to hardware.  Basic things like most motherboards, monitors, cd-roms/rw's/dvd-roms/floppy/hard drives work fine - their "drivers" are built into the kernel and most of the time Linux can handle these devices and especially ram better than Windows can.  Other things like sound cards, modems (winmodems are bad), and video cards need some further research before you know if it's compatible or not.

Everything above that I've mentioned is pretty much free - including a billion programs (freshmeat.net).  This is because no one really owns Linux and the source code is available to anyone - same goes for most programs.  So if you want to, you can download most distrobutions for free and then create a cd to install it from.  If you don't have the bandwidth for it - you can have someone download and burn it for you, only asking for mostly shipping costs.  http://www.tuxcds.com/ is a good place for that - you'll find the latest Red Hat under XXX XXX 9.0 (they hide the name because Red Hat asks them to).  Otherwise, I would buy the distrobution from a store or from the distros site.  Why?  Because you'll be supporting the people who develop it.

My advice to you is to find a book.  There's boards like this one and linuxquestions.org where people are glad to help you, but having a book on hand is a good resource - otherwise you'll be posting a lot of threads before you're through.  Give Red Hat or Mandrake a shot though, the gui installer is a breeze, they include a lot of programs like the ones I mentioned, and they make the switch a lot smoother (rpms to install progs, little or no command-lines) and they set up a window manager like KDE or Gnome for you, assuming your video card is compatible.  Have fun and good luck!

[ August 01, 2003: Message edited by: Meshuggener ]

[ August 03, 2003: Message edited by: Meshuggener ]

[solo]

quote:Originally posted by Meshuggener:
Okay, I've been using Linux for about a year, so I'll help where I can.

The network thing is out of my league - I have virtually no experience with networks nor any high-speed internet (only slow dialup for me).  I'll let some else handle this one.

If you have those MP3's, documents, etc. backed up, then you'll have no problem copying them to Linux and accessing them.  There's a Winamp clone called XMMS (not to mention a zillion other media players out there).  Office files like word documents, etc. can be used with OpenOffice or StarOffice - both good replacements for MS Office.  Pictures and other things can be handled with the window manager of your choice.

It's true, Linux at it's most basic is command-line based - even early versions of Windows were built over DOS before NT came along.  The same can be true with Linux - XFree86 is a large program that allows you to run a GUI (graphic user interface) over Linux.  Two of the most popular window managers for XFree86 are KDE and Gnome - both are very easy for Windows users and are packed with features (not to mention they're much more customizable).

Linux is slightly slower when it comes to hardware.

Hmm, thats odd, Slackware and Redhat run faster than Windows on my old 700mhz PC.

 

quote:
Basic things like most motherboards, monitors, cd-roms/rw's/dvd-roms/floppy/hard drives work fine - their "drivers" are built into the kernel and most of the time Linux can handle these devices and especially ram better than Windows can.  Other things like sound cards, modems (winmodems are bad), and video cards need some further research before you know if it's compatible or not.

Most popular cards are. All Nvidia cards are supported, full with acceleration, but you need to download them from the Nvidia site. If you don't ge tthose drivers, you can still use Linux with graphics and all, but games will run pretty slow.

 

quote:
Everything above that I've mentioned is pretty much free - including a billion programs (freshmeat.org).  This is because no one really owns Linux

ya, Linus does...  

 

quote:
and the source code is available to anyone - same goes for most programs.  So if you want to, you can download most distrobutions for free and then create a cd to install it from.  

Yes. Of course I recommend if you like the distribution of Linux and you have the money that you kick back a donation or maybe buy a box copy. Or if you think it sucks, don't donate   .

 

quote:
If you don't have the bandwidth for it - you can have someone download and burn it for you, only asking for mostly shipping costs.  http://www.tuxcds.com/ is a good place for that - you'll find the latest Red Hat under XXX XXX 9.0 (they hide the name because Red Hat asks them to).  Otherwise, I would buy the distrobution from a store or from the distros site.  Why?  Because you'll be supporting the people who develop it.

   thar we go.

 

quote:
My advice to you is to find a book.  

...If you are a book person of course. Me, personally, I don't think I would ever need a book for using Linux for stuff like games, browsing, email, coding and the likes. But then again I never end up having one of those weird systems with incompatible hardware. In fact, every single piece of hardware I have is supported in Linux. And that's unintentional too, I didn't buy the stuff looking for Linux support.

 

quote:
There's boards like this one and linuxquestions.org where people are glad to help you, but having a book on hand is a good resource (Fury's note: Yup) - otherwise you'll be posting a lot of threads before you're through.

Again, I think it depends on how incompatible your hardware is.

 

quote:
Give Red Hat or Mandrake a shot though, the gui installer is a breeze, they include a lot of programs like the ones I mentioned, and they make the switch a lot smoother (rpms to install progs, little or no command-lines) and they set up a window manager like KDE or Gnome for you, assuming your video card is compatible.  Have fun and good luck!

[ August 01, 2003: Message edited by: Meshuggener ]

Yup, and if you have any questions at all, go ahead and post them here. We (at least me) enjoy seeing people using Linux... well I guess that's kind of obvious...

[Meshuggener]

Sorry, when I said Linux was slower when it comes to hardware, I meant support wise - in my experience my hardware runs better and more correctly than Windows ever could.  My hard drive for instance doesn't get excessed every second (even with that find utility turned off) like with XPoo.  Anyway, things like video cards and stuff seem to take longer before they work well in Linux - assuming that the original developers made it with Windows in mind.  It took a while for me to get my Radeon 8500 to work, even with the ATI drivers - in fact I couldn't get DRI or any 3-D acceleration to work until I got Slackware 9 with XFree86 4.3.0.  And then there's the Winmodem and Winprinter crud.

[Faust]

Windows XL?  What like "extra large?"  Sounds good with all the bloat.  

 

quote:
 Furthermore, will I be able to access the movie files I've been storing on their computer and accessing from mine without them knowing it?

Yep.  Linux interoperates well with other network boxes - Debian is used as both the samba master server and an open nap server on my local LAN.    Also Linux IMO has *better* support for video files than Windows - and I do a lot of movie file viewing (100mps network  )  Mainly because I don't have to install nimo codec pack, followed by the ogm codec, followed by the xvid codec followed by realplayer, followed by quick time, followed by whatever god damn proprietary pos some company wants me to use just to watch their fucking movies.  I just use xine, it does em all.  (Except quicktime - mplayer works for that, but xine is getting there.)  I feel theres nothing like sshing to my linux box then grabbing a few files off samba.  Ah...

 

quote:
I have a lot of MP3s, documents, pictures, and other types of files that I like very much and want to preserve.  I have much of this backed up on CD-ROM, others on 3.5" diskettes.  If I switch to Linux, will I be able to access these files?

Mine all work fine, and with 160 gig of hard drive space nearly full of files I have a lot of files to test.  The only problem I can see is with extremely proprietary file formats.  Got any really weird formats there that barely anyone uses?

 

quote:
I heard operating Linux is much like operating IRC or MS DOS 6.0.  Basically, command line stuff

The command line will at times be necessary for in depth system admin.  But other than that most distros (esp Mandrake, Red Hat, Lycoris, Suse, Lindows (in order of my perceived coolness)) have a lot of GUI tools.  Everyday tasks is very much graphical and purty if you want it to be.  Anyone wanna post a screenshot of RH / Something else cool?

If you can afford to waste bandwidth, get the latest Knoppix.  It lets you try Linux with no commitment - it runs a "trial" straight off the cd.  very purty too.  

 

quote:
will adjusting to Linux be much of a shock?

It was a bit of a shock to me, but at the time I was in no way comp literate.  I couldnt even set up a Windows file share network.  [blush]  At first bits will piss you off, but if you learn it you'll love it.  

Re:hardware
90% of my hardware works in Linux, 90% works in Windows.  Most overlaps but some (scanner) wont work in Windows, some (a few network cards) dont work in windows.  And yes I do know how to use an add hardware wizard if anyone wants to start trolling.