Ok I'm convinced, what next?

[AlexMax]

1. Read the DOS/Windows-To-Linux-HOWTO
2. Have a little patience
3. Do NOT listen to XP Poser #299329936969 and take ANY of his advice.  He will discourage you and is a mindless follower of the Windows propaganda machine.  I have reason to beleive, by just watching him, that perhaps he is a Microsoft employee trying to discredit people, though like all other M$ tactics it is misgiuded and doesn't do shit.
4. When in doubt, read the man pages...or a HOWTO

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: AlexMax ]

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by AlexMax:
1. Read the DOS/Windows-To-Linux-HOWTO
2. Have a little patience
3. Do NOT listen to XP Poser #299329936969 and take ANY of his advice.  He will discourage you and is a mindless follower of the Windows propaganda machine.  I have reason to beleive, by just watching him, that perhaps he is a Microsoft employee trying to discredit people, though like all other M$ tactics it is misgiuded and doesn't do shit.
4. When in doubt, read the man pages...or a HOWTO

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: AlexMax ]

What ever distro you eventually decide to use will have an absolute TON of information available; they're gonna help you use THEIR distro, and that's a GOOD thing (sorry Martha; BTW: when you get to the big house, DON'T bend over!)Where was I? oh, yeah; most distros have more documentation than you'll ever need, many have the ability to help you set up devices, but one thing you want to MAKE SURE you do before you attempt to install Linux; KNOW AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR HARDWARE; LINUX ASKS QUESTIONS!!!

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by Saddle Magic:
A couple questions.

What's the story with Debian GNU/Linux "Potato"?

I have run Debian since "slink"; "potato" was, until this past Friday the stable release of Debian.  Pure Debian is a handful to install as a first distro, but if you decide to choose it, and make it through the install, it is probably the most reliable distro available, plus its package manager (or updater, if you will) which is called 'apt" is the best of all Current package managers.  
Because of a personal conflict, I hesitate to recommend Libranet 2.0, however, since you're a newbie, and it IS a personal matter, I'll suggest it to you, because it's the best way for someone to get an introduction to Debian.  Libranet is based on Debian, with a few Libranet apps thrown in.  It's fairly easy to install, and configuring devices is a snap thanks to the adminmenu feature; Id suggest you go to their website and look it over.  http://www.libranet.com
It's a 2 CD set, and it costs $35.00 US

[sporkme]

make sure your ISP works with linux.  this in sot so much in hardware as it is in software.  also, your modem may be a winmodem, in which case mandrake (i reccommend mandrake) may not be able to drive it because M$ owns some of those things.

stick around the forum!  we need smart people!

[choasmaster]

lwinwithux asks questions, well maybe for some hardware, but ever since i started using linux, i havnt had to bother with stupid irq conflicts, it understands that fact that if my video card is on irq 10, DON'T PUT ANYTHING ELSE THERE.well, have fun, and read a book, i would recommend the books on redhat like the redhat bibles and sorry if somepart of this post is messed up a bit, im useing  links/ChaosNETOS/*its a linux distro, but i want it it id itself as ChaosNETOS, and i changed the name again*/

[foobar]

Hey SM,
How are you today ? Like you, i'm in dial-up hell, so don't expect a lot of quick answers from me.
I'm fairly new to linux, but already addicted to it and still learning.
The first distro i got was slackware - i know, bad choice, but i was 100% newbie    

I would consider myself as a quick learner, i didn't have a lot of trouble at all installing slackware. It was a distro from '96, so i really couldn't do stuff with it.
But now i've got mandrake 8.1, and it's great, the installer is very powerful. It will detect any internet connections/lan cards and connecting to the 'net is a piece of cake. I already helped two friends of mine upgrading from winblows to linux, and got their adsl running like a charm.

Be sure to check out your local library for linux-for-newbies books. Also, when in linux, just go looking for commands you never heard of before !
I once simply tried 'mo' for fun, and bash added it on to the word 'mount' !
I thought: Hey what's this ?
So i said:
# mount --help

That's just one example about my linux learning process. Nowadays, if you just say 'f*** it !!', throw away all windoze and start with linux from an empty hdd, you never ever want to get back to windows. Believe me, i got a friend of mine who simply let me erase his two hdd's and put a running mandrake system on it.

About the modems, i once read a 'hacker tutorial' from Carolyn Meinel that said 'Linux works best with software that isn't Brand X'.
My point is, get hardware with names you've heard of before. (Mostly the expensive ones    )

I got a winmodem from lucent, and it works fine under linux ! It was once of the few supported, but now it works !

So my advice is just to dive into linux, and see what comes ! Linux is full of stuff, you can instantly start 'netting or typing or whatever !

Welcome !

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: -=f00bar=- ]

[foobar]

And if you're not sure about your modem, check it out @ linmodems.org !!

[saddlemagic]

Thanks much, I'm cheating by asking all the questions here. My plan is to install Linux and have it work, get my apps working or aquire some new ones if what I have doesn't lend itself to Linux.

I really don't want to spend hours/days/weeks making this work or work right. I have done that in the past and I know I'll spend some time tweeking and adjusting, as long as I'm not spending measurable time just trying to make it function. Or picking up a flavor that goes over real sour so I have to get another one right away. Looking at the thousands of dollars I've spent on software over the years, most of it never worked or never worked right. This time I want to do it smarter.

For some reason, I don't know why but, Debian intrigues me. If I can pick up a copy of Debian 2.2r7 (maybe 2.2r6) for cheap that will be the ticket. If not I'm leaning towards Mandrake 8.2. In any case I will play it safe and set up a dual boot to start with. Once I learn the ropes I'll probably blow up my C: drive, reformat it and do a clean install of whatever flavor Linux I end up with.

This week! I'll be ordering something this week. Either buy it off eBay or order from some place or another. I've got this $20 bill burning a hole in my pocket and M$ burning a hole in my head.

[sporkme]

i will ship you burned cds of whatever you want if you pay shipping.

also i have modems that work in linux you can have for free if you pay to ship

asking questions is not cheating.  having someone do it for you is.  i congradulate you on having a human brain that works!  you can see though the blinders!  welcome to the dark side!

if you absolutely have to know something right away search it up on http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ forums,

stats:

 Members: 33,314, Threads: 56,211, Posts: 292,050

it IS there i PROMISE

[Master of Reality]

here is a list of a lot of Linux Distributions. I think there is about 283.
http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/
These are the very user friendly versions.

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[choasmaster]

id love to bootstrap ChoasNETOS with immunix's compiler, that would be 1337 to say the least

[HibbeeBoy]

OK, I am in too. I have convinced upper management to at least let me evaluate deploying Linux corporate wide. After explaining the significance of July 31st and a price comparison well, the choice is clear. The strategy will not be to replace Window$ in one fell swoop but to implement new PCs and upgrades with Linux. There was much concern about Office documents (Excel etc) compatability with Linux based applications. Doesn't seem to be a problem from what I have gathered so far. It also looks like I can get more mileage out of older PCs because Linux is leaner so we don't have to buy new hardware to run the next version of Window$. Looking forward to it.

[mescalin]

With a download manager to resume downloads I downloaded Mandrakes CD1 on my 56k (don't laugh), so it's possible. It did take me about a week though of dl'ing nights.

But even a student as cheap as me gave in to a copy of the mandrake linux 8 cd powerpack sitting on CEX's shelves for a mere 25 quid.

Anyone looking for linux should definatly check around because most stores don't really seem to know how they should be priced   .

Okay i know linux is free, but when you buy the box, as well as supporting them you get free stickers!!! and manuels and stuff. You could have a "powered by linux" sticker on the front!

[pkd_lives]

Hey Hibbeboy, nice to see business taking this seriously, good going, spread the word.

One thing you really need to watch out for. Lots of people use the bloat of a certain monster OS (why beat aroung the bush I mean M$ and so I'll say it), to justify getting themselves newer systems, people can be pathetic about having good systems at work, and they are likly to get a bit miffed when they see a PII suddenly appear and not the latest P4, 1G Memory, etc., despite the fact they don't need it.

Get your answers in early (pointless expenditure is not good for the company, and therefore it's disloyal to want huge PC's for word processing). This is more stable system, the time saved in reboots will feedback as time spent actually working. The software we use is open-source, therefore if the vendor stops support or goes out of business, we can employ any good software engineer to maintain and provide support, as we will know exactly what's going on with the program. We no longer need to spend a fortune auditing licenses. Yes you can take a copy for home use, feel free to learn it yourself, it will benefit the company directly, etc. etc.

There is less argument when good solid ideas are presented as well thought out reasons, leave your dissenters with a way out, so that they can feel they were offering constructive critisim, saving face essentially.

[lazygamer]

Well I have ASDL, so mandrake d/l's like ZOOM!  

Ok, my lazy @$$ finally got much of my backups burned. MUCH is the keyword. Damn im tired.  

So I suppose Linux(mandrake at least) is ultra easy to install(for non-retards), it just feels scary for those who have never done it before(me).

So your POSITIVE that with my Linux cd in the drive, it WILL boot off of it? Until I showed my interest in Linux in a thread here, I had never heard of this rad concept. How do I know my BIOS won't say "sorry, you haven't loaded your config.ghey drivers, no freedom boot for you".  

Oh and do the people here mind if you post all sorts of dumb newbie questions to the Linux board once you have it set up?  :cool: