Vector Linux users

[dog]

Does anyone here have any experience with Vector Linux? Everything on their web site sounds good but I have no experience with Linux and not much with windows. I need a simple to setup and use system primarily for writing and publishing ebooks plus general surfing and chat.

[piratePenguin]

Does anyone here have any experience with Vector Linux?

I believe Aloone_Jonez does.

Everything on their web site sounds good but I have no experience with Linux

I've never used Vector Linux myself, but I'd usually recommend Ubuntu to users new to GNU/Linux.

writing and publishing ebooks plus general surfing and chat.

What programs do you plan on using for writing and publishing ebooks? For surfing the web you can use the Firefox web-browser, and for chat you can use GAIM. They're both installed by default on most distributions.

[worker201]

Real men write with vi and publish with TeX.


Vector doesn't look all that much more spectacular than any other distro.  But I did notice they are still using XFree86.  Most distros have moved towards Xorg, because of a licensing problem with XFree86 (I never did understand what was so awful about their new licensing requirements, but oh well).  So if your goal in using Linux is at all politically motivated, you ought to go with an Xorg distro.

[Orethrius]

Does anyone here have any experience with Vector Linux? Everything on their web site sounds good but I have no experience with Linux and not much with windows. I need a simple to setup and use system primarily for writing and publishing ebooks plus general surfing and chat.

I think you'll find that we're all quite eager to help you with your system.  When you say easy to use, you mean you want it to boot right to the graphical login?  That takes a bit of setup, but it's do-able.  On the eBook front, if you intend to use PDFs (which I highly recommend, given that they have few (if any) cross-platform issues), I would recommend OpenOffice.org.  It's not the fastest game in town, but I've yet to see another Linux program with PDF output capabilities that can match its ease-of-use.

[dog]

My question about Vector Linux seems to be a moot point since they refuse to answer emails or even ship what was paid for.  That's the third Canadian company I've purchased from and the third to shaft me!

I hate Microsoft because of the crummy service and the way they release programs full of junk then charge for update to repair it.

I already use Firefox. I want to thank everyone that responded  to my question. What I was in a system is just to log on and work [ie, writing] when the time is right for my brain. Plus email, chatting or surfing when I'm bored. Maybe photo manipulation for an occassional book cover

I'm ashamed to admit I'm not smart enough to understand how to instal  a linux OS. I don't know anything about ISO nor the rest.

Again thank all of you for the time you took to reply.

[piratePenguin]

My question about Vector Linux seems to be a moot point since they refuse to answer emails or even ship what was paid for. That's the third Canadian company I've purchased from and the third to shaft me!

Wow that's pretty evil of them...

Do you have a CD rewriter? Because you can download the ISO files (an ISO file is an "image" of a CD. It contains all the data for the CD and is ready to burn to a blank CD using whatever CD writing software). You can download the ISO files for vectorlinux by browsing around here, but which ISO file(s) you want depends on which version you want.

I'd still recommend Ubuntu. To download the ISO (CD) use this (assuming you don't have a 64bit processor?) link.
If you don't have a CD rewriter to burn the ISO file, you can get Ubuntu cd's sent out _for free_ here. Just fill out the form and they'll send them out, although, it does usually take _a long_ time for them to arrive (they ship them only every few weeks/months).

What I was in a system is just to log on and work [ie, writing] when the time is right for my brain. Plus email, chatting or surfing when I'm bored. Maybe photo manipulation for an occassional book cover

For the writing, you can use OpenOffice.org, and for the chatting you can use GAIM. For surfing, Firefox ofcourse. For photo manipulation, the GIMP. Those programs usually come pre-installed with most distributions.

I'm ashamed to admit I'm not smart enough to understand how to instal a linux OS. I don't know anything about ISO nor the rest.

Once you get your ubuntu/vectorlinux CD, pop it in the drive, restart the computer, boot from the cd (sometimes happens automatically. Sometimes you needa do a bit of work for it), and follow the instructions. If you have any problems, just post back here.
Once ubuntu is installed, read a bit of http://ubuntuguide.org/ to learn about how to set it up to your liking.

[dog]

Thamls for all your help. After reading your earlier reply and went to the "Ubuntu" site and ordered the free CD. Its an amazing fact that they do not ask for even shipping charges.  For Free to actually mean Free is a novel concept!  Thanks for the ISO ibfo. I'm going to try burning a Ubuntu CD in the morning!

Thanks again for offering you help.:thumbup:

Wow that's pretty evil of them...

Do you have a CD rewriter? Because you can download the ISO files (an ISO file is an "image" of a CD. It contains all the data for the CD and is ready to burn to a blank CD using whatever CD writing software). You can download the ISO files for vectorlinux by browsing around here, but which ISO file(s) you want depends on which version you want.

I'd still recommend Ubuntu. To download the ISO (CD) use this (assuming you don't have a 64bit processor?) link.
If you don't have a CD rewriter to burn the ISO file, you can get Ubuntu cd's sent out _for free_ here. Just fill out the form and they'll send them out, although, it does usually take _a long_ time for them to arrive (they ship them only every few weeks/months).
For the writing, you can use OpenOffice.org, and for the chatting you can use GAIM. For surfing, Firefox ofcourse. For photo manipulation, the GIMP. Those programs usually come pre-installed with most distributions.
Once you get your ubuntu/vectorlinux CD, pop it in the drive, restart the computer, boot from the cd (sometimes happens automatically. Sometimes you needa do a bit of work for it), and follow the instructions. If you have any problems, just post back here.
Once ubuntu is installed, read a bit of http://ubuntuguide.org/ to learn about how to set it up to your liking.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Does anyone here have any experience with Vector Linux?

Yes, I've found it quite fast, it's probably your best bet for a low spec machine.

I've downloaded and installed ubuntu today and I don't know whether I like it or not as I haven't had time to test it fully but from my first impression it seems quite good.

[MrX]

Yesterday I burned Ubuntu live CD, very cool and ready to go to use. Unfortunately it could not read my BeFS disks and my FAT32 disk either (or maybe I didnt know where I could find 'my computer' so I can look at my disks. [ha ha]
In BeOS I clik on the 'disks' icon and then all the hard disks on the system show in the tracker window.

[Aloone_Jonez]

Well you don't know what you're doing because reading FAT32 partitions with ubuntu is a piece of piss.

[ksym]

Does anyone here have any experience with Vector Linux? Everything on their web site sounds good but I have no experience with Linux and not much with windows.

Nice, then you can start learning Linux without the klik-n-play-cultural baggage from Windows systems.

I need a simple to setup and use system primarily for writing and publishing ebooks plus general surfing and chat.

I suggest that you try SuSe Linux. It is commercial, LSB-certified and has maybe the best out-of-the-box hardware support.

Writing and publishing eBooks? OpenOffice.org ... maybe, i dunno never tried it's PDF capabilities.

[choasforages]

openoffice.org is a relativly sweet piece of software, i used it all throughout highschool instead of microsoft word. it was easyer for me to figure out then office anyway.

[worker201]

After looking at the screenshots for Vector Linux, I was compelled to download and install IceWM.  It looked cool for them, hopefully it looks cool for me too.