Kitz Forum
Computer Software => Linux => Topic started by: roseway on December 09, 2007, 12:38:37 PM
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I've locked the tutorials to keep them from possibly getting overwhelmed with comments.
Please post any comments here. Thanks in advance.
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An excellent start, Eric. A quick scan through has brought to light several things I wish I'd known before I started to play with penguins before.
I suppose I've got no excuse not to give it another go. I'm going to miss pulling your leg though. ;)
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Thanks, but don't feel pressured, and my leg is available for pulling any time you like. :)
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Thanks, Prof!
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Very Impressed Eric - Excellent Tutorials
It seriously has made me think about wanting to try linux again. Thank you for doing them :thumbs:
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I dunno if this would be any good for inclusion:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/
(Linux Distribution Chooser)
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That site has been discussed in Linux forums many times, and the general consensus is that it's an amusing bit of fun, rather than a useful tool. I don't expect that anyone has been harmed by taking its advice, but it's really only another opinion among many.
Really I think that the best unbiased advice is to pick one of the top few in the Distrowatch listings and give it a real workout so you get used to it and can do useful things with it. They all 'work' but they all have their quirks and foibles, things you like and things you don't, and only you can ultimately decide what you prefer.
Sorry, I didn't mean to shoot your suggestion down in flames :-[
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No offence taken. :)
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Excellent tutorials Eric and (as said in PM) you don't mess about do you? Suggestion to articles how fast? :)
Not wishing to seem like your ex-boss - and you might have this in hand anyway - but how about when things "go wrong"?
In my opinion this is the biggest problem if the uptake of Linux is to expand beyond niche markets. Everyone knows "someone" who can look at their (Windows) PC - yes OK most of them will make matters worse :D but there is a "knowledgebase" within the community. Not the same for Linux really although it would be SO much easier to do as there's less to go wrong.
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Thanks :) Yes, troubleshooting is on the agenda. I'm doing hardware configuration at the moment, then troubleshooting will be next.
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>but how about when things "go wrong"?<
That's my problem with Linux. I bought a pukka copy of Suse cos it had two big fat manuals, but the things that went wrong were not mentioned anywhere so I gave up.
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The best general answer to that question is to join the support forum for the distro in question. All the mainstream distros have lively forums where beginners are welcomed and not generally treated to 'RTFM' replies. The one caution I would give is that you should normally do a forum search before asking your question, because some questions get asked over and over again, and that does tend to irritate the regulars.
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Wow! These are great - thanks very much Eric for all your work. I've been away for a bit so haven't yet had a chance to try the Fedora live CD that I was given - and probably won't now until the New Year but these tutorials will do so much for my confidence in giving Linux a go.
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Excellent work :)
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Thanks for all the kind comments.
Now that the tutorials are completed for the time being, I would really appreciate any comments about things that are not clear, or are incomplete, or are not there at all. I'm looking for constructive criticism, not compliments. :)
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One more thing I was going to ask about, but not having yet read your latest tutorial, you may have covered it... what about basic housekeeping such as taking out the trash and defragging?
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I haven't covered those things, and they're good suggestions. Defragging isn't considered necessary with Linux file systems (so long as you don't let a partition get over-full) because they use smart techniques for placing the files which keep them mainly contiguous.
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I thought that might be the case with defragging in Linux... it's always amazed me how dos/windows has always managed to stick related stuff all over the place.
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If I had chance Id actually have a go at installing again.
However problem I have right now is that Im running short on HDD space on this PC.. and because Ive handed machines down to the brat the only "spare" Box atm I have is the PIII which is the one that already has RH 9 on from about 4 years ago and had problems with hardware compatibility.
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One option might be to stick another hard drive in your PC if you've got one lying around. Linux isn't fussy about what drive it's installed on. But I mustn't get too pushy now, must I? :-[
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heh - and if you did dual-boot kitz, you could mount your NTFS drives and use Samba to share the relevant folders on your main PC so when it was booted into Linux you'd still be able to access the shares you use remotely!
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It would have to be an external drive - as you know Ive already got nearly full 200 + 250 GB drives.
TBH this whole machine needs an upgrade.. and the HDD situation needs looking at badly. :(
The 200GB drive is utilised as a backup for the existing C+D drive.. with the linkstation for music etc.
I think theres no doubt that in reality I need a couple of larger drives and RAIDing them
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Gosh eric
I spy another tutorial - you have been busy and put me to shame :-[
Well done you :)
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Thanks Eric for another well written tutorial... some of it is actually sinking into my decrepit brain.
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Thanks both. :)
And both of you are doing yourselves an injustice.
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Well done that man :)
May I suggest that you take some of Tutorial 6 and try to work it in a bit earlier in the series? I think it would read a bit better if permissions (passwords) and filesystems/mount points were somewhere nearer tutorial 2 where you do mention root passwords.
I still remember the trepidation of installing new operating systems and thinking "Oh gods where's the hard drive gone", then thinking "Great the manual is on the CD which has gone where exactly.....?" :lol:
Can't really think of much else to say as it seems spot on :)
PS - I'm assuming the Tutorials are still open to edits? I think once you get it polished just right (in your eyes) you should take all the Tutorials and use OpenOffice to turn it into a nice PDF suitable for download. Its not that many pages so it seems just about right for printing before that install :)
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Linux was very much inspired by Unix, which existed long before Windows. Unix uses the forward slash (/) as its directory separator, and so does Linux. The internet of course also uses / because the vast majority of internet servers run Unix or Linux. Windows chose a different route for historical reasons.
What exactly were those 'historical reasons' - I've always wondered why, but I'm pretty sure that the \ is probably the only character invented by IT.
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The original version of DOS didn't have a directory structure - all the files were together at the top level. So there was no need of a directory separator, and / was used to separate command line parameters, e.g.:
dir /param1 /param2
When it was realised that a directory structure was needed, they used \ as the directory separator to avoid confusion with the / which was already in use with command line parameters.
I think that's how it happened anyway. :)
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PS ... and have probably regretted that decision ever since.
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May I suggest that you take some of Tutorial 6 and try to work it in a bit earlier in the series? I think it would read a bit better if permissions (passwords) and filesystems/mount points were somewhere nearer tutorial 2 where you do mention root passwords.
PS - I'm assuming the Tutorials are still open to edits? I think once you get it polished just right (in your eyes) you should take all the Tutorials and use OpenOffice to turn it into a nice PDF suitable for download. Its not that many pages so it seems just about right for printing before that install :)
Yes I agree. I do intend to polish the tutorials and suggestions are very welcome. I'm not planning any new ones at this stage, so polishing the present ones is the next job.
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The tutorials have the makings of something very good I think. It'd be good if, once you think they're nearly ready, you could give them to someone non-techie and see how they get on with actually doing the install/etc.
I might be able to help there as I have an old machine I'm thinking of giving to the couple across the road. It would HAVE to be Linux on it though as they are pretty clueless and there's no way I'm "supporting" them with Windows :D He wants it to use ebay - gods help us all, I give him a week before someone has ripped him off :(
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LOL I stopped* using eBay about 3 years ago, and glad I did... I must say tho if you want a system for someone who is PC clueless (like me :P) then PCLinuxOS would not ba a bad choice of OS at all.
*Actually I was banned from eBay because I disputed a surcharge they slapped on because my paypal account went belly up, but in the end they did me a huge favour
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I wouldn't touch paypal with the longest bargepole EVER. We're going off-topic again though :D
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I have heard some detractors calling it 'gaypal'.
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The original version of DOS didn't have a directory structure - all the files were together at the top level. So there was no need of a directory separator, and / was used to separate command line parameters, e.g.:
dir /param1 /param2
When it was realised that a directory structure was needed, they used \ as the directory separator to avoid confusion with the / which was already in use with command line parameters.
I think that's how it happened anyway. :)
And there I was always assuming it must have been devised by left-handed programmers... a '/' is quite hard for a leftie (such as me) to write, so given a check list I tend to mark everything with backwards facing slashes.
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And of course you could only have 256 files in the top level directory.
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Isn't that 256 limit in the root directory still the case?
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Not since FAT16 (DOS) days.
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Another really basic problem here, and I'm probably being totally stupid, but try as I might I cannot get Linux to access/read a floppy disk - yes I still occasionally use those stone-age media to transfer small files... might need instructions for USB memory sticks too.
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Have you got a floppy disk icon on the desktop? If so, you should be able to put a disk in the drive then double-click the icon to mount the disk and display its contents in a file manager.
If you haven't got a floppy disk icon, then right-click the desktop and select Create New --> Link to Device --> Floppy Device. This will create the desktop icon, and you can then mount it as above.
USB devices should be detected automatically, and depending on the distro may create a desktop icon as above, or may pop up a dialog asking you what you want to do.
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I realised I haven't said anything in here yet... Eric, what a marvellous job.
These tutorials have made it feel like there's a bit of hand-holding for the initial stages of linux... they have a kind of "everything you wanted to know about your first steps with Linux but were afraid to ask!" feel to them, which is nice and reassuring for a Linux noobie :)
No doubt I shall be following them to the letter in the new year at some point!
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Thanks Chris. In that case, happy new year. ;D