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What advice to give someone considering Linux


ral
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from a dumb newbie....my biggest problem with Linux was getting information that I could understand...and getting things to work....

A chance encounter with "fishfart" on one of the IRC channels, led me to site that had the drivers for me to get the sound card (RipTide) working with RH8.0...then finally got QSSTV to

work...but, the RipTide thing was an RPM and did the work itselfl.....this was with RH8.0....can't get anything except the sound card to work under Mdk9.0....oh, and the modem, but it was insalled in the first place cuz I didn't know about the HCF drivers now available....

Don't get me wrong! I like Linux and even gone so far as to remove Windows from my main machine....but, getting infomation to get things to work is a pain...I know there are several sources of help, but, if you don't know the correct questions to ask, you don't get much help...and the IRC's can be helpful, sometimes...most of the time, you either get ignored or riduculed for being a newbie....but, that works both ways too....and RTFM is a neat reply but it doesn't send you in the right direction....if I understood what the manual was trying to explain, I might not have to ask in the first place....like what's " segmentation fault" ?...keep getting that one trying to install KPSK and linPSK.....

But, am glad to see Linux in it's various flavors making inroads to the desktop market...but, it's not there yet...

Next, a suggestion if you wanna push Linux....an interactive site that lets the potential user see linux working....maybe mouseovers that will explain the various functions...for the commercial users, stess the realiablity and cost....

Ok, let the flames begin...got my fireproof skivvvies on and ready...

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Me I loved my PC and Windows... I loved tweaking it, learned hot to network it and even played with the registry. But computers became my hobbie.

 

Now if I did not love computers I would probably not have gotten into Linux.

 

You won't get any flames from me.

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What you are wanting to do, Ral, is difficult but is important for anyone who really wants to see linux succeed. You might want to point them towards Lycoris. It is very, very windows-like. Then point out that there are more advanced linux distros.

 

Then again, RH8's Bluecurve is very much like Lycoris but Lycoris actually looks like win to the point of being a Win-ripoff. Nevertheless, both are pretty darn easy to use.

 

Personally, I believe that if someone can learn how to get around in windows they stand a fair chance of being able to function in just about any OS. (Of course I started with Amiga, so I think that everything else is just an after thought :P )

 

Seriously, there are a lot of people out there that really aren't even aware that Windows and a computer are inseparable. I still meet people to this day that don't realize that Macs don't run Windows (natively). These are the people you need to write to - John Doe.

 

BTW: If you haven't checked out ML9.1 Beta 3 you should if you can. Very slick and is what I think will become exemplary of what Linux can be.

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Ral, the site is looking good. You have some gramatical errors and whatnot, but in general, it is looking pretty polished and nice.

 

I would add that the Linux OS is available for more than just Intel and x86 architecture. Examples of architecture where it's available include PowerPC, Alpha, assorted mainframes midrange and minis, newer 64bit architecture machines, etc.

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I downloaded and tried the KNOPPIX distro today. Boy, I almost fell out of my chair! I burned the CD, stuck it in the drive and booted it up. In 2 minutes and 5 seconds (dual 433MHz Celerons with 384MB memory) it had booted from CD, detected my dual processors and most of my hardware, started X and dumped me into a fully loaded KDE 3.0 desktop with icons to mount all of my harddrive partitions (great for repairing filesystems).

 

They managed to pack a ton of stuff on the CD (almost 2 GB worth aparently) and it shows. There was OpenOffice, WINE (haven't tried it yet though), the usual games including such hits as Frozen Bubble, multimedia, development packages, office, internet, utilities. Just about everything I have on my Mandrake setup. In fact, I am currently using Konqueror under KNOPPIX to write this (mind you, you have to set up the network configuration by hand since it is different for every machine). And the best part is that it doesn't require any harddrive space.

 

If you want to just show someone what a typical Linux installation would allow you to do I highly recommend sticking a copy of this distro in their CDROM drive and giving them a guided tour. No harddrive space required.

 

Glitz.

 

PS. The main reason I downloaded this distro was to help my brother retrieve some data from his trashed windows XP partition. Aparently if there are errors on an XP partition then windows will try to "protect" your data from any further corruption by not allowing you to access your files. What brilliant moron came up with that idea? In any case, it worked like a charm. In fact, after I showed him how to mount one of his fat32 partitions in RW mode and start konqueror, he pretty well found and moved all his files all by himself. And he had been using Linux for all of 3 minutes.

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