Linux

[Jester]

I’ve wanted to move to Linux for awhile now, the only up side of Windows I can see is that all PC games are made to run on it, but to be absolutely honest I never play games on my PC anymore I do most my gaming on my GC and DC so I have decided it’s time to move to Linux so Bill can’t stop me doing things he doesn’t like on his new Longhorn (or whatever it’s called now) OS.
I have installed Linux onto my computer dual booting it with Windows so I can still work on it while I attempt to learn how to use Linux.
So I know how to install it etc the problem I have is that I’m finding it quite difficult to learn so I was just wondering if you guys could recommend any good books or anything that would prove helpful for a newb learning Linux.

 

[mongolito404]

Wich distribution did you install ?
Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. ?

 

[Jester]

Oh sorry, i have installed SUSE.

 

[IsSuE]

well, just search at amazon.com, there are quite a lot of good books. but i would recommend you, just to use your new installed linux, as if it was windows. there will be many problems comming to you. by solving those problems you will learn linux more and more, thats the way i did (am doing) it right now.

hope this helps

 

[mongolito404]

Use google and google group, a lot. Always try to uderstand what's going on and do not search for a quick-and-simple-point-and-click-solution that teach you nothing more than to click on the right button.

 

[circle_that_pit]

If you're still completely heart-broken about not being able to play games you can check this out Cedega.

 

[IsSuE]

i compared wine 0.9.7 to cedega, and found out, that for example steam / Crazy Machines / etc.. runs better under wine than under cedega ( which you need to pay for ). but in my case, the games i play run native under linux ( quake3, quake4 )

 

[darkman]

Congratulations on being set free from the matrix. B)

 

[DemonStar55]

SuSE is wicked easy to use

some good sites:

http://susewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page (some stuff outdated)

http://spinink.net/suse-for-windows-users/

http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ (lots of packages)

 

[aapje89]

great suse link:
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/178/42/

 

[Jester]

Congratulations on being set free from the matrix. B)

​

Looool.
Thanks for all the advice guys. I think i'll just keep playing around with it and hopefully i'll be able to finally delete windows from my PC completely

 

[Rayek]

This is a nifty thread.

I just bought an excellent book, 'SUSE Linux 10 UNLEASHED', and it's probably the best book I've seen for beginning Linux users. It's kept me up at night, reading, learning, and trying stuff out for myself. I HIGHLY reccomend it. It includes a DVD of the distro. I don't think you'll go wrong with SUSE. I've tried a few, and SUSE seems to be the most complete, and with YaST, setup stuff, installation, and updating is such a breeze.

You can pick it up at amazon.com, as of yet, it's the cheapest place to buy. I got swindled and paid 50 bucks for it at barnes and noble, don't do that.

But seriously, it's the best book I've seen.

Get it.

 

[Jester]

This is a nifty thread.

I just bought an excellent book, 'SUSE Linux 10 UNLEASHED', and it's probably the best book I've seen for beginning Linux users.

​

Thanks dude I just found it on amazon.co.uk for £23.34, that's a bargain considering it includes the distro as well. I'll order that when I get paid.

 

[Rayek]

Let me tell you, you won't be disappointed. They even take the liberty upon themselves to write out what exactly each game bundled with SUSE does, and how to play it ... Even solitaire. Let me tell you, you can't go better than SUSE, especially if you're a beginner... (unless you get *shudder* kbuntu). I'd suggest also adding some package repositories to YaST, if you haven't done that already, so your system has some cool things like *ghasp* MP3 support! And Flash support! Stuff that they can't bundle with the distro because of some reason or another. I'm not sure if the book covers it, but if you're interested, I could give you a few tips

 

[challenger3]

Is it ok if I 'hi-jack' this topic?

I too am interested in having linux OS.

What I would like to know is; can you buy a computer WITHOUT the regular windows XP, thus saving on price? All Dell computers seem to have windows included?

Also what is the best distro to have - SUSE?

And are there any draw backs to having linux instead of windows?


(PS- whom ever created this topic, I bought a book called - 'Linux, in easy steps' by Mike McGrath) and major newspapers praised it and PC home said "This is one of the best..."

 

[Nova]

Hey challenger3. May i suggest you take a look at www.ubuntu.com ?

Ubuntu linux is not only user friendly, it is very quick, there is so much community support it is unbelievable. When starting up with ubuntu, i was sometimes confuzzled in some places but i got through thanks to the friendly ubuntu forums and IRC community. I am completely happy with it.

 

[G Morgan]

Is it ok if I 'hi-jack' this topic?

I too am interested in having linux OS.

What I would like to know is; can you buy a computer WITHOUT the regular windows XP, thus saving on price? All Dell computers seem to have windows included?

Also what is the best distro to have - SUSE?

And are there any draw backs to having linux instead of windows?


(PS- whom ever created this topic, I bought a book called - 'Linux, in easy steps' by Mike McGrath) and major newspapers praised it and PC home said "This is one of the best..."

​

Unfortunately most companies sell machines with Windows as standard. Some companies even go as far as selling no-OS machines for more than Windows machines which makes no sense whatsoever. I would just buy a XP machine then simply nuke the OS, simple solution really.

All part of vendor locking, Microsoft have made so every machine has Windows on it and its on the user to be clever and seek an alternative.

 

[G Morgan]

Hey challenger3. May i suggest you take a look at www.ubuntu.com ?

Ubuntu linux is not only user friendly, it is very quick, there is so much community support it is unbelievable. When starting up with ubuntu, i was sometimes confuzzled in some places but i got through thanks to the friendly ubuntu forums and IRC community. I am completely happy with it.

​

The problem with Ubuntu is while it works you don't learn so much about your machine or Linux. Slackware is the best for learning how it works because it will require you to do some work in order to get the machine operating properly. Ubuntu is the most Windowsy option because it gets things going but Linux really requires you to understand a little more than Windows to get the most out of it.

All depends on whether you simply want a working OS or one that you know a little more about. If you did go for Slackware I'd ensure that you have access to the Internet from elsewhere (either another machine or a dual boot system) in case it does all go to hell.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

Hey challenger3. May i suggest you take a look at www.ubuntu.com ?

Ubuntu linux is not only user friendly, it is very quick, there is so much community support it is unbelievable. When starting up with ubuntu, i was sometimes confuzzled in some places but i got through thanks to the friendly ubuntu forums and IRC community. I am completely happy with it.

​

The problem with Ubuntu is while it works you don't learn so much about your machine or Linux. Slackware is the best for learning how it works because it will require you to do some work in order to get the machine operating properly. Ubuntu is the most Windowsy option because it gets things going but Linux really requires you to understand a little more than Windows to get the most out of it.

All depends on whether you simply want a working OS or one that you know a little more about. If you did go for Slackware I'd ensure that you have access to the Internet from elsewhere (either another machine or a dual boot system) in case it does all go to hell.

​

I'm not sure I totally agree with this, I know a lot of people out there who would simply go back to windows if they can't get things to work. I think it's better to have a working product, then people will more likely stick with it and will learn more through use. Making things hard for the sake of forcing them to learn isn't the best approach to knowledge, not all are as technologically minded as you or I. I have done some teaching in the past, and the best way to keep peoples attention is to make it fun, having them go crazy out of frustration isn't the best route.

If a project makes Linux a breeze, then stick with it. We all know that you will need to do something sooner or later that will have you delving into the CLI/Shell etc, and being used to the OS will give you the confidence to do it. Expecting a complete noob to get used to a new OS and having to delve through pages of FAQs just to find out how to install a driver is not good. This is why in the past, Linux has not been for the Joe Public's desktop PC's. Hopefully this will change soon.

Actually I think I will give Ubuntu a try, just for a giggle

 

[G Morgan]

I did qualify my post by saying if you want a working OS or not. I would suggest that if anyone does go for Linux though that they try to run 2 distros at once (alongside their windows partition posibly). That way you'll still have a Windows OS and say Ubuntu (which is a very good OS despite my earlier post) as running ones and a smaller Gentoo or Slackware partition to play with. Of course this is entirely dependant on HDD size and still requires a little bit of knowledge though actually partitioning a HDD isn't that difficult if you've got instructions.

Personally when I first started using it (since I've got all my machines networked) I had a working distribution on all the normal machines (Debian) and built a machine from spare parts I had lying around to put in my bedroom to use simply for WWW/E-Mail etc. using a very slim Slackware installation as my start point and building up.

Anyway its still entirely possible to simply install Ubuntu and get that running as a working OS. Personally prefer the KDE desktop though that would require either Kubuntu or installing the KDE desktop using synaptic, apt-get or whatever takes your fancy (synaptic is easiest, think of it like the Windows component manager but with a broadband connection). Found Kubuntu to be less user friendly than Ubuntu if simply due to the fact that you tend to get more X issues.