I’ve been piecing together a sort of Frankenstein’s monster of a computer and just now got around to firing it up and loading an OS.
I chose Fedora 9 for the operating system, and so far it’s working out great, but it’s like learning to ride a bicycle after years of…, well, not riding a bicycle!
Operating systems mainly all operate based on a few principles, so learning the bare basics has been easy.
One thing I’m already loving about Fedora is the ability to put a “drawer” on the panel and chuck dern near anything I want close at hand into it.
The standard desktop theme changes with the time of day, which I thought was a cool touch.
Fedora is a good distro, very polished and well-tested and maintained. I’ve also found that OpenSuSE, Debian, and Knoppix can made a good desktop OS.
I tend to lean towards the Debian side because I love apt-get. It’s just the easiest way to install software anyone’s ever come up with, just type “apt-get install” and the name of the software, and it does the rest. That’s the way Windows should work.
I always regret never having learned X-windows well. Where I was working was multiple versions of *NIX, but always forbade filling their fragile networks with Xwin code, so I am still bumbling along in vi, wondering how those pretty Xwins work.
Where I work, a practical knowledge of vi is a real plus…and pretty much a necessity for my specific job.
Knowing vi is a Good Thing.
It may not be pretty, but it exists on just about every UNIX or Unix-like OS out there. Learn it once, and never be without an editor again.
–James
P.S. Since text editors came up, another favorite is joe. Invoke it with the command “jstar,” and it emulates WordStar. I spent years using WordStar in CP/M and DOS…I know that old command set deep down in my fingers. (Even though I can’t tell you how to do something, my fingers know! )
My desktop computer runs Ubuntu. I really like it, its clean and simple, and comes pre-loaded with more or less everything you need, and has an installer which makes it easy to find and install any other programs you might desire.
On a non-linux sort of note, I just got a laptop that runs Vista. I’m still getting my head around it, but it doesn’t seem quite as easy to navigate as Ubuntu, still, its a giant step up from earlier versions of Windows. If only I could get something to install properly…
I just got a laptop that runs Vista. I’m still getting my head around it, but it doesn’t seem quite as easy to navigate as Ubuntu, still, its a giant step up from earlier versions of Windows. If only I could get something to install properly…
Turn UAC off and then disable your antivirus until your install is done.
I’ve not really had much trouble with anything in Vista 64 since I disabled UAC.
UAC is not a “sudo”-type (sandboxed) environment anyway–having it on gains you a lot of irritation but not really much security.
good to know there are other Linux users around here.
The more I use Fedora the more I’m tempted to install it on my laptop to use as a primary OS instead of Vista…
on that note, I was doing some research and came across a version of Linux called Vixta that imitates Vista in look, feel, and some features but takes up half the space on your hard drive and half the memory usage.
That’s debatable… but that’s also a topic for another thread.
Gotta git back to work, but I’ll check back later…
My former boss gave me a computer with windows XP on it. The OS only works maybe 1/4 of the time and my suspicion is that it’s all bootleg anyway. I’ve considered replacing it with some kind of linux installation. I haven’t taken the leap though. I am not all that terribly experienced installing operating systems. What would I do? Go out to some website and download it? Would I have to put whatever I downloaded onto a CD in order to install it?
I have Ubuntu on another boot partition but never use it because the wifi doesn’t bloody work since I upgraded it to Hardy Heron and after a couple of weeks trying to get it work I’ve given up.
This is why Linux can never be mainstream.
Might try a different distro sometime soon though.
I’m just guessing it’s a laptop. Some of my friends with laptops running Linux tell me that laptops have more compatibility issues than desktops… http://www.linuxonlaptops.com/ is a good resource for working around those things.
This is why Linux can never be mainstream.
From having hung around with linux geeks for some time now via school, i would humbly submit that “not being mainstream” is rather beside the point, in fact for several, including myself, it was a desire to depart from the mainstream which culminated in the switch to Linux. It’s kind of an apples to oranges comparison in many respects (or maybe its an apples to chainsaws and woodworking tools ).
Might try a different distro sometime soon though.
I’ve recently learned that laptops have more hardware compatibility issues than desktops (I’m just assuming you’re speaking of your laptop). http://www.linuxonlaptops.com/ is a good place to research those types of things.
I’ve also heard ( and, granted this is third-party information here) that Ubuntu has more difficulty with laptop hardware compatibility, you might have more luck with another flavor.
I’m enjoying Fedora quite a bit. I’ve gotten all the hardware/drivers on my laptop to work with the exception of the internal wireless card, I’m still working on that one.
)
).