Linux Beginners' Guide

I humbly accept your kind words.

 

FWIW, I've found Kdenlive to be the best alternative to Windows Movie Maker so far.

 

You might like OpenShot or PiTiVi if you use Gnome.

 

Hey everyone,

I've finally decided to try Linux out for more stability and security. Which distro is on the easy side and not that different from Vista/7. I don't want to run into troubles and spend too much time learning a completely different OS. I have a few questions for you guys:

1. Does the following article fairly sum up the differences between Ubuntu and Mint?

http://windows2linux.tech-no-media.com/2009/06/what-is-best-linux-distribution-for.html

2. How do I dual boot with Windows 7 Professional once Mint or Ubuntu is installed?

3. I mostly use do schoolwork with Firefox, MS Word, MS Outlook, Acrobat Reader, VLC. MSN Messenger...Are those software supported?

4. I solely use wireless connections at home and at school. Will I run into troubles?

5. Should I get 64 bit Linux since I am running the same architecture on Win 7 here?

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

I have to quickly head off to school so I can't answer your question about the article right now but here are my answers for the rest of questions. I'm a Linux Guru so ask me anything you want to know.

2 - http://lifehacker.com/5403100/dual+boot-windows-7-and-ubuntu-in-perfect-harmony Read this article by LifeHacker. I was just reading it myself. If it's too complicated I can find a better one.

3 - Firefox works, MS Word should work other wise use OpenOffice, MS Outlook should work otherwise use Evolution, Acrobat Reader will work but in case it doesn't there is always Evince, VLC will work but I suggest you use Banshee or some other music player, MSN messenger will work but I suggest you use some other MSN messenger.

4 - Wifi should work perfectly fine, it has been for me. Your situation might be different though, we'll check on that before you install it. Tell me what wifi card/dongle you use and I'll tell you if it works.

5 - 64bit is fine, it'll work fine. You don't NEED to run 64bit though, but if you're like me and you need the speed then it's perfectly fine.

 

has anyone tried this distro yet?
i was looking at distrowatch.com and they had this at the top of the page:
http://linuxbsdos.com/2009/09/28/hymera-open-review/
went to look it up..looks like a new distro?
idk..it just looked nice and peaked my interest..

 

I don't try or care for obscure distro's. They just don't offer anything new for me.

 

That one peaked my interest, but I think their web page wasn't done in English IIRC....when that happens, I forget about it for the time being

EDIT: Hymera is in English..I was thinking of a Debian distro from Spain which wasn't.

 

I have been using Ubuntu/Xubuntu on my older T2x series laptops for about five years. It works well and gives me the right mix of features for older equipment. I am on my fourth T2x. I have it dual booted with Win XP for compatibility in my SOHO network.

I also use Xubuntu on my Acer EeePC 900A. I upgraded the flash drive from the original 4 Gig to 32 Gig to make it a usable piece of equipment.

All in all, I am quite happy with the Ubuntu versions of Linux. I have tried other distributions of Linux but find the range of software available on Ubuntu to be more than adequate for my needs.

 

that's what i keep going back to as well..
i've tried 8 distros and have kept going back to ubuntu..
though i saw on distrowatch and zoid mentioned is as well..ZorinOS..i may have to try that one..but for right now ubuntu has been working great for me!

 

It looks like Unbuntu might be best for a newbie...I can't wait to give it a try! I never have issues in W7, so it's soo boring lol.

 

Hey, Thanks for this! I just installed Ubuntu under Wubi, it works great! And I cannot wait to learn a new OS! +rep

 

Thanks Calvin for the guide, I found it quite helpful! I am a new Ubuntu user, setting up on a little machine I built several weeks ago from scraps. Then my "main" PC died and I was "stuck" with this Linux machine for everything.

Well as you suggested, immersion, was the answer! I got everything configured and working because, I had to. I now find that I enjoy Linux very much and may even someday cut the cord to M$, but not just yet.

Also thanks to your advice I am burning a BackTrack 4.0 Boot DVD now to learn that distro! As AdultSwim references seem popular here, Great Job!

 

No problem, always nice to hear from those I've helped.

 

Linux is, in simplest terms, an operating system. It is the software on a computer that enables applications and the computer operator to access the devices on the computer to perform desired functions. The operating system (OS) relays instructions from an application to, for instance, the computer's processor. The processor performs the instructed task, then sends the results back to the application via the operating system.

 

Linux runs on a computer. Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use. When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only refers to the computer itself -- not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called the "system unit."

Some of the major parts of a personal computer (or PC) include the motherboard, CPU, memory (or RAM), hard drive, and video card. While personal computers are by far the most common type of computers today, there are several other types of computers. For example, a "minicomputer" is a powerful computer that can support many users at once. A "mainframe" is a large, high-powered computer that can perform billions of calculations from multiple sources at one time. Finally, a "supercomputer" is a machine that can process billions of instructions a second and is used to calculate extremely complex calculations.

To finish this for those at square one, or from other worlds.

 

No.
Linux is just the kernel
Technically it is called GNU\Linux.
Linus made the kernel while Richard Stallman create the GCC Compiler and libraries and programs.
Without GNU, Linux a Kernel by itself is quite useless.
Anyway that guy seems like he is trying to post his ads because his answer is of no relavence to anyone's post.

 

Without human interfacing, it would all be useless indeed

 

Agreed, it looks like pure spam to me.

 

Not sure many people come here, but I didn't want to start a new post. When I get time I'll go though all the links on page one.

First time Linux n00b here. Anyone have suggestions on where I should start? I'll probably be running it on my M11x. Right now I have Ubuntu 9.10 downloaded, but haven't installed it yet. I downloaded to do secure erases on several SSDs. One for Win 7 on the M11x, and another for Win 7 on my Inspiron 1720. Is there a better linux system to start with? Maybe a newer version of Ubuntu that is stable?...if thats even a concern, like I said I know very little.

I have a 40GB Intel SSD and a few questions. Figure since Win 7 will be primary for everything, and I have no other use for the 40GB SSD, why not give linux a try. It's kinda intimidating learning a new system. Im comfortable on apple systems, though I havn't used them in years, and I always use windows, somehow I fear linux. I think I'll run into problems, not know what to do and give up. But such is the learning curve. I somehow don't see myself needing more than 40GB for a linux system either. I also won't need to run it off a live CD. Hows TRIM support for linux?

Bottom line question, where should I start as far as O/S wise? From my understanding Ubuntu is the recommended system for n00bs like myself. What sets it apart from other systems? Can I install things like Microsoft Office on it? Will drivers be an issue? Do standard games run on Linux such as MW2? Not that I'd actually use if for that, just asking. How do I get the "cube" destop? For some reason I like that look and the options.

I know so little I don't even know what to ask lol

Sorry for the randomness of my questions, I'm a scatterbrain with ADD

 

latest stable version = Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, after getting it installed on my system it's been alot more stable for me than previous releases.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/linux-compatibility-software/452657-ssd-trim-ubuntu.html


good post here on trim

Where to start:

[all variants] Ubuntu Desktop Computing Made Easy (Lucid Lynx v10.04) - Ubuntu Forums

1. no, MS office won't install, but open office comes pre-installed and will most likely compatible with your needs if you're not a power user.
Cube desktop is part of compiz setting manager. after running this (from above post)
2. Games at the moment are about the only reason I ever boot into windows, sadly no, they won't run on linux. however, steam is being ported to linux and along with it the source engine, and after that things might start swinging our way
3. Ubuntu generally handles its own drivers. only thing you'd need to do is go to administration->hardware drivers and install the proprietary Nvidia driver for your m11x. only thing I've ever had an issue with driver wise other than GPU's is wifi. but even then that was only for a while, and there were plenty of people out there to help with the issues.

in the terminal, it seems a bit daunting but its just a list of things to tell ubuntu to dl and install for you. then compizconfig settings manager will be under preferences for you, open it and enable Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube:

 

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I D/Led 10.4 yesterday and will beinstalling it today from a thumb drive. Going to spend the day tinkering. Thanks again, +1

 

no problem! hope you enjoy it =] I'm actually myself taking my first real deep dive into linux. I've toyed with it a few times before and got frustrated and decided it wasn't for me, but after these last few days on 10.04 I've decided that the only reason for leaving win7 on my system is for games =P

 

yea,I'm not even going to setup a dual boot. I'm going to use the 40GB SSD for Linux. Figured if I need Win 7 I have the Inspiron 1720, and if I want to game, I have another SSD to swap into the M11x. Under 5 min. to swap and 14 screws.

 

I downloaded the links. With the Cube setting, is there a way to set differant wall papers for each workspace?

 

Different wallpapers on each workspace in ubuntu but just fyi (as per my test) this seems to also block conky from view.

 

Hmm, not sure what conky is? Can you eleborate?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conky_(software)

"Conky is a free software system monitor for the X Window System. It is available for Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.[2] Conky is highly configurable[3][4][5] and is able to monitor many system variables including the status of the CPU, memory, swap space, disk storage, temperatures, processes, network interfaces, battery power, system messages, e-mail inboxes, Arch Linux updates, many popular music players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious), and much more.[6] Unlike system monitors that use high-level widget toolkits to render their information, Conky is drawn directly in an X window. This allows it to consume relatively fewer system resources when configured similarly.[7][8]

Conky has gained a strong following among many Linux and BSD enthusiasts, and was hailed as "one of the best maintained, and definitely one of the most useful, programs in the world of open source" according to Jan Rähm in a March 2009 article in Linux Magazine."

 

yep, like this:

 

I reccently switched to Ubuntu 10.04 on my old SL500 (my mom will soon get it) and I wonder if the iwlagn driver is still a bit glitchy. My network consists of a Belkin N+ router (300mbit) and a Intel 5100agn wireless card and the gnome-applet for wireless connections shows the speed only for a few seconds and then switches to "unknown" under the connection information tab. Is that a common error? I also believe that the connection is rather slow and unstable compared to Windows 7. It is not really important an important issue but I wondered if someone encountered the same issues.

 

I just rediscovered this thread, which I once found some time before I registered to this forum, when it still had this strange rating system. Fortunately this was removed, but I think it still needs and deserves some improvement.

1. It is still biased towards Ubuntu (& Fedora). Both are bleeding edge distributions, which might be fine for some people, but others who are looking for a rock solid system might get a wrong impression of Linux. It's impossible to fulfill both aspects. And giving two examples of one extreme is no good choice. I don't want to have my favourite distribution added to the list, if everybody does, it becomes endless. I'd just remove both, Fedora and Ubuntu and replace them with a link to distrowatch. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
And please don't try to tell me that there are no beginner friendly rock solid distributions.

2. There is some mention of dual boot systems and reanimation of old dead computers. I guess most of us know, that a dual boot system doesn't help very much because you need to reboot and that the old system is dead for some reason - because you have a better machine now. So I'd add a link to the later following paragraph concerning virtualisation.

3. Then there is this CLI paragraph. I think it needs an additional sentence stating that posix-like shells are superior to the ones known from Windows. I know quite some people who were at first afraid of the Linux shell because they didn't like the Windows shell (which I understand). It should be made clear, that Linux is much more user friendly here.

4. In the games paragraph add a link to the Linux games thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lin...ware/493938-what-games-do-you-play-linux.html

5. There is always this talk about free as in freedom but there isn't a single mention of the GPL. This should be changed - maybe including a short mention that the GPL isn't the only idea of free software. CC is mentioned, but I think it would be more important to include BSDL and CDDL.
btw: Why is there only a Linux section in these forums? Where should people with other unixoid systems turn to?
Edit: I've just seen that the Linux forum has BSD in its subtitle, which might seem like the solution for my btw statement but still doesn't cover Solaris and more important is in fact wrong. BSD is not Linux!

 

This has been brought up time and time again.

It's called Linux/BSD as in Linux or BSD, which is not the right way to convey that information, but nobody is thinking 'Linux/BSD', although there has been some discussion of kFreeBSD.

Here's the original suggestion which created the Linux subforum.

 

Thanks for the links! But still I don't understand why this forum isn't simply called "Linux and other non-MS". That would be a correct title and cover BSD, Solaris, Plan9 and so on.

 

There isn't much discussion here of anything but Linux (it's pretty rare at least), and as those threads I linked to show, previous attempts to change the title haven't really gotten anywhere. There isn't much traffic here to begin with. I agree with you in theory.

 

can I ask a question? If I install Ubantu, how can I install the various lenovo drivers when all of them are designed to be installed on windows?

Lenovo Support & downloads - Drivers and software - ThinkPad X200, X200s, X200 Tablet

 

Ubuntu comes with most drivers bundled with the operating system already, but there are some that you can download from the Hardware Drivers application (under the System/Administratoin menu) once you've installed.

A great resource for Linux on Thinkpads is ThinkWiki, the X200 page is here.

 

To be a bit more general:
The software/driver installation routines of Windows and Linux differ significantly. Under Windows you get a setup.exe from somewhere and install and maintain it on your own.
Under Linux (most distributions) you use your package manager which provides you with a central database for all software and takes care for updates too. This might seem confusing at first, but once you're used to it, you won't want to miss it anymore.
In Debian based distributions (like Ubuntu) the original package manager is called apt, which is a command line tool. But there are several graphical interfaces for it. An alternative for apt is aptitude.

During the installation of a Linux distributions the package repository will be searched for any needed drivers that aren't included in the kernel (many are already). So with a bit of luck (the right choice of hardware) you won't have to worry with driver installations at all.

Of course there is always the risk, that a specific driver is neither included in the kernel nor in another package. If this happens you need to do it the Windows way: get a precompiled binary from somewhere.
But since especially drivers are highly dependent on the kernel and the variety of different Linux kernels is so big, there is often no reasonable way to provide a precompiled binary for all. In this case you'll need to get the source code and compile it on your own.
But please keep in mind, that these last two methods are only considered to be an emergency help if nothing else works. Use your pakage manager whenever it is possible. Especially in distributions with a strong package management system (Debian, RedHat, Suse) using external sources is considered to be bad style. If the hardware manufacturer releases his source code under a free license, chances are good that your distribution will include a packaged driver in the next release. Otherwise this hardware might remain difficult, partly depending on the philosophy of your distribution. Then it might be a good idea to either change the hardware or the distribution.

 

Thank you for your inputs.

debguy: your information have already made me think that linux is not for me because it seems so complicated.

after I install ubantu on my x200 tablet, will I lose functions such as the tablet buttons.

Also, I read some people's comment on youtube, they say that linux only looks flashy due to the compiz and various effects however, it is useless because it can not run most programs such as office, photoshop or crysis, is that true?

 

No, but everything may not work out of the box(but it does work). Here's a good link for information.

 

Please don't feel offended, but I think you have a completely wrong idea of what Linux is. Linux is not a "better Windows". It's a completely different operating system, with its own paradigms. It's an alternative, not a replacement.

It's different from Windows in many ways, but that doesn't mean that it's complicated. I myself actually consider the package management system one of the biggest advantages of Linux over Windows, because usually it makes things very easy. And I wouldn't want to miss it anymore.
Linux has its own software ecosystem. It cannot run Windows applications natively*, because it doesn't know how to handle them. But the same goes for Windows if you try to feed it with Linux binaries.
So you're right Linux can't run MS Office, Photoshop and Windows games like Crysis. Instead of that it has Openoffice or Abiword + Gnumeric, Gimp and Sauerbraten or Warsow.

These are alternatives that can mostly fulfill the same tasks like their Windows counterparts. But one can't take that for granted. One of the most famous examples is the Photoshop/Gimp clash. Many Photoshop experts consider Gimp to be a lousy replacement, and they're right. But it might be a good alternative if you accept its disadvantages and get used to its advantages. For example Gimp lacks true YMCK support. But this is often just an excuse, because most casual users don't need YMCK. The true reason for this emotional debate is that Gimp has a completely different user interface which is unknown to Photoshop users and therefore seems to be complicated. But once you're used to it, you'll find it very intuitive.

In fact this Gimp issue can be transfered to the whole Linux world. There are a lot of misconceptions about Linux and many deliberate FUD campaigns on both sides, some of them hard to detect as such. Linux is often said to be beginner unfriendly. But what most people actually mean (often without knowing it) is that Linux is hard for lateral entry persons (does that word exist?). They confuse "works easily" with "works like Windows". Nearly everybody has experience with Windows before he starts with Linux. And the better you know Windows the harder will Linux seem to you, because none of your hardly learned skills will work anymore. You're a bloody beginner again. If you don't accept that, Linux will not work for you.
On the other hand the few people I know who startet with Linux in the first place find it easy after the same time a usual Windows beginner would need for Windows. And they have the same problems adapting to Windows that Windowsers have when adapting to Linux.

*) Sure there's wine and cedega, but let's keep this simple at first.

 

Umm... just a short question:
Who is maintaining this sticky?

 

I am, I used to have all the free time in the world but I'm busy with a lot right now. If you want just post suggestions here and whenever I come around I'll look at them and add them in.

 

Ok, thanks! I did post some suggestions a page ago.

 

To Calvin or anyone else, how about creating a link for basic Terminal commands for us noobs?

I had to install Veetle via the terminal and I fudged and stumbled my way thru it. I got it to work but it would have been very helpful to have a reference on how to change directories etc.

 

The latest edition of the PCLOS Magazine is a compliation of all of their CLI intro articles. Worth a look.

 

Thanks Boundzy but without the link few of us noobs would have known.

How about someone posting a noobs guide to Wine? I am having trouble figuring it out lol.

 

which part are you having trouble figuring out..just curious..?

 

All of it lol.

Let's start from the beginning shall we.

 

lol okie have you had a look at the wine wiki how to yet: HowTo - The Official Wine Wiki ...or the FAQ just for starters..but i get the feeling thats not quite what you are looking for..?

 

Thanks, I had a look at it and it was just general info. I would like to know how to properly set it up, add programs etc, how to find those programs on my disk.

I downloaded Wine 1.2 from Software Manager and just clicked on Configure Wine. That's where i'm at lol.

Oh I forgot to mention, i'm running Mint 10 RC 32 bit exclusively on my Vostro 1500.