New Linux users please read this: Linux is NOT Windows

I don't mind the libraries, but I do mind loading both sets. With the way things currently are, I prefer GNOME. But I have been following KDE4 very closely, and will most likely switch over in October.

 

Out of curiosity, why switch to KDE4?

 

To see what it's like.

 

Wow, great article, thanks for the link. Just to clear up confusion, I wish everyone who owns a computer would read this...

Matt

 

that is a great article! i love the lego part. it helped me understand things a bit better. on a side note, i wish i had more legos to play with

 

KDE seems to be going toward a OSX/Mac style. Especially with the new applets.

 

I was considering trying out linux on one of my laptops as an alternate to windows ,but after reading "linux is not windows" I'm thinking a newbie like me could be out of my depth.
However i am not put off yet, i have done some reading up and think it would be a good idea to set up a dual boot, this would allow me to explore and learn about and become familiar with linux while still holding onto my xp as a fall back.
I just wondered if somebody out there could me get started with a little advice.
the laptop i intend using is an old compaq armada with an intel celeron 700Mhz, 320 MB of ram and the HDD only has 10GB, my xp is filling a good bit leaving 4.5GB of free space.
Is this enough space to fit on a linux OS and if so is there one that you would recommend ??

neil

 

# Intel 386 through Pentium III.
# Spare hard drive space. 850MB for workstation installations and 1.7GB for a server installation. However, by choosing an expert mode, you can reduce these footprints considerably and install less software. A full installation will generally require at least 2.4GB, and perhaps more if you plan to install additional software, such as office suites or games.
# 32MB of memory or more is recommended, but if you don't use X11, you can use 16MB RAM; realistically expect 64MB to be the minimum if you plan to use X11 and run numerous clients at the same time.

I'd say you'll be fine!

 

Since you say it's "one of my laptops", that implies that you have more than one laptop, correct? If that's the case, why not just wipe out Windows on this laptop and just install Linux? Your Windows fallback in case stuff doesn't work can be your other computers.

Can you make Linux work with just 4.5 GB? Certainly, that's one of the beauties of Linux, but why worry about that so much when you don't really have to?

By the way, if you REALLY want to learn to use Linux, I recommend not having the Windows fallback at all, just force yourself to do the research to fix things when they go wrong instead of saying, "screw this, I'll figure it out later, I'll just use Windows for now." Though If you're working with deadlines for work or school, that may not work out so well.

It's definitely a more extreme approach that puts some people off, but that's what I did when I started running Linux, and I think I pulled through just fine (I switched about a year ago).

 

You could easily install one of the smaller Linux distros like Puppy Linux on that.

 

Thank you for all your comments.
is it possible to put a linux system onto an external HDD and run it from there. there must be a way to boot up from a hard disk other than the one that is already inside??
I just don't want to wipe off my xp yet because i don't have a disk to re-install it if it all goes pear shaped.
thanks
Neil

 

I have found a good tutorial on linux, it is aimed at those who just want to learn some basics to get them started off. nothing tech, even a chimp could follow it. if you are interested in trying out linux then it is a good read.....i'm off to read the other half....
http://lowfatlinux.com/

neil

 

Yup, very easy to do. Just check if your Bios will allow you to boot from USB or set your Boot-up manager to see the external drive. Some easy use Linux from a USB stick. Like DSL Distro.

 

magic,
That is exactly what i'll do, i just have choose a distrobution that suits my needs and do it.
I don't really know much about bois or how to ask it to boot from my external HDD yet.... ...... so, i'm off to learn about it

thank v much for steering me in the right direction

 

Neil,
On an older computer like you mentioned earlier, it may not have USB boot support, definitely check into that.

Assuming you CAN boot from USB, make sure you're running it off of USB 2.0, otherwise you'll introduce yet another bottleneck into the system (even with USB 2.0, you may still be introducing a bottleneck).

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the impression I got is that the old computer you want to install Linux on is a computer that doesn't see much usage anyway, so you figured you'd try something new with it. If my impression was correct, why does it matter if you keep the Windows installation intact anyway?

By the way, check your Private Messages, I'm sending you one now.

 

ok, i have since learned that my bios doesn't have a usb boot support and it is only a usb 1.0 i have any way, so ......
i had downloaded ubuntu onto my external drive before i discovered this, i was struggling to figure out what to do with it anyway.
i wish i had studied computing at college LOL
yes, i have two laptop computers i aquired them both about 2-3 months ago and it has been a real learning curve. The "A" machine is an oldish sony vaio, it came with xp on and my wife seems to have adopted it as her Ebay machine lol. the "B" machine is an old compaq armada 110 it came with windows ME and claimed to have only 54MB of ram it was slow and wouldn't work with the external hard drive or my mp3 player etc SO....
I have boosted up the ram now to 376MB and put on XP and use it primarily for music and photo's storing mp3s and pictures on the external drive. i also use it for internet access, and although it all seems to work ok the XP seems to be a bit too cumbersome at times, and takes ages to crank up especially now that i have put on some security tools, ... and the thought of rolling back to ME......yuch!
So, that is when i started looking into alternatives, and a linux distro seems to be the answer, the more i look into it, the more it seems like the best way to go on a budget, but my alarming lack of computing knoledge is getting in the way. I am enjoying learning though
I am discovering that linux has a whole underground following, with loads and loads of distributions available, and i love the idea that i can take real control of my computer rather than let windows do it on auto-pilot.

I think as you suggest the next step is to just wipe the hard disc and start again with a linux distro and tailor an OS to my needs. I fancy trying Ubuntu but i cant get it to do anything, If i copy it to a cd and try to boot from there is it likely to be a success?
thanks again to all

ps.. does any one have any opinions on what there favorite distro is ??

 

sorry, i should have spell checked that lol

 

Interesting article. I'm a tech, so O/S wouldn't be a issue for me but I'm hoping to just run something a little more stable at the end of the day. Starting to feel like I'm always having to patch up issues and keep the boat afloat on rough seas with Windows XP.

 

Yea, Linux is very stable. Once you get past the setting everything up the way you like it, you really don't have to worry about any thing else.

 

If you don't mess with things, Linux tends to be much more stable than Windows. But be warned, if you start messing around with configurations and settings and system files, I've found Linux to become less stable. I say that, though, only because Windows has a tendency to just forget what you screw up if it's not too bad, but Linux will keep things exactly how you set them.

 

Cool. Got my new 200GB in the mail, trying to figure out what I'm going to do. Was thinking triple boot, but can't figure out how to split it. I know while over time Windows eats up space. Last time I put Linux on a system everything took about 4 gigs and stayed about the same for about 6 months before i was back on Windows, after my system crashed. Going with Ubuntu 7 since it's the distro flavor of the moment.

I know its XP -> Vista -> Linux

 

Excellent article mate.....Repped u big time

 

All these talk about KDE4 and Gnome, I am so confused, muhahahaha. In case you can't tell I am a big Linux noob. Linux is cool, I am trying to get use to it right now through using a Virtual Machine, I don't feel like rebooting just to get from one OS to another, but so far so good. Thanks so much for the Article.

I second with the idea of if you mess with Linux it ends up more unstable in a sense that it does not reverse the effect. Since it doesn't ASSUME you are stupid to begin with, unlike Windows. For example, I tried on an older machine to update Ubintu with ATI driver, ended up Blackscreen Linux forever and had to do a reinstall, granted all I was doing was copy pasting codes into the terminal and looking at it while it flashes all these unfamiliar terms on the screen. I am so noob. *face turns red*

 

oh i do love these threads...
hmmm...

Windows is a layered architecture operating system...

Linux is a server style operating system...

Mac OSX is a little different as it uses NextStep as its base...(not fluent in nextstep or mac osx, but still unix variant of some sorts)...

Unix is a multi-user layered operating system...

So now thats the architecture out of the way....

all use a gui, or desktop window of some sorts...
all are functional to the one that has experience in there use or tweeking...
all are capable of doing there required function...


AND MOST OF ALL, EACH ONE ACTS AS AN INTERPRETER BETWEEN THE USER AND THE HARDWARE....


what do i prefer?
none really, they all break at some stage, even if its just trying to make them do what you want and they dont like it...

I have found that if you give a person a linux machine and train them on it, then chuck them a win based one, they soon complain, but then i have also found the exact same result doing this the other way around, and it also happens with mac ppl...

I use linux and win, and i use both for the same job...I play games in both win and linux, and enjoy both...
But i do find that running boinc under win is a lot faster as the architecture allows the application to take priority of the cpu, this is a big plus...
But i have used boinc on linux and got good results with that too, just not as good...

so NO win is not lin, and vice a versa...
but they both are not hard to use or implement...

 

i liked this articule.... nice job

 

Once you've got the hang of it, making LiveCD's (or alternate install CD's) is easy. But there are several traps.
If you've downloaded the .iso and you just "copy" the data all you've done is made a coaster. You have to set up your burn utility (Nero, Adaptec, NTI, etc.) to burn an image. This can all be done on a Windows PC, BTW.
If you've burned a disc and it doesn't seem to do anything, boot into Windows, then pop the disc in the optical drive, then go to that drive and hit "Explore". If it sees one huge file then you did it wrong. You should see several folders and a handful of files.
Some other tricks -
Don't use CD-RW's. Use 700 MB CD-R's. Good quality ones, not generic junk.
Burn the image at about 4X to 8X, depending on your machine. I can burn .iso's all day long at 8X on my P4 3GHz Windows PC, but wouldn't want to go any faster.
One of the guys on this forum suggests Burncdcc as a Windows-based utility for burning .iso's. I don't have any experience with it but under the impression it's sole purpose is burning .iso's so less complicated than burning images in Nero, for example.
Then of course once you're ready to try the disc you have to know how to go into BIOS and set the PC to boot from the optical drive.

 

Pardon me if I'm extremely late, but what are the advantages to using Linux over Windows? I've heard things like users not having to worry about viruses, Linux is somewhat like OS X where everything functions together, etc. Is this all true? How many of you dual-boot between Linux and Windows? How many of you prefer Lunix over Windows? Vice versa?

 

Advantages of LInux over Windows, IMO: No need to worry about malware, at least for the time being. Use of a firewall is, at least usually and in general, enough protection. LInux uses fewer system resources - at least the distros I've tried: Mint, PCLOS 2007; Ubuntu and Suse (each of which is currently installed on my desktop). I've also tried Knoppix, Gentoo, Slackware and a few others which are, at least at this point in my own limited Linux career, too damn hard for me. LOL

All of the Linux distros in my experience function faster than either XP or Vista. Although I like Linux quite a lot, I don't think any of the distros I've mentioned are quite as intuitive as is OSX, but admittedly, I'm a bit of an Apple fanboy and more experienced Linux users may not agree with my judgement on this point.

In any case, IMO, you should try Linux. It's different and fun learning to use the various distros (stay the hell away from Gentoo though!! LOL ), and almost all are free. Good luck and I hope you enjoy yourself.

 

Not to mention stability! I have a few machines that have been running for months without a single reboot. Granted, they aren't intended to do anything more intensive than serve files or run firefox, it's still great to be able to forget about rebooting constantly after updating.

Amusingly, my experience is exactly the opposite. I had a much easier time poking around in Gnome and KDE than I did on a friend's Macbook.

 

I don't know about stability....I had to hard reboot Ubuntu once or twice....

 

Sorry, a sudden smartass impulse struck me, pixelot, and I couldn't resist.

It won't happen again - really!

I've also had to reboot a couple of times after updates.

 

LOL.

Hehe.

 

The only time updates are requested (but not forced) are after new kernel headers are downloaded. Other than that, it doesn't need to be rebooted.

As for the hard rebooting, I've never seen a system require that unless the user was doing something they should not have been...

 

Like typing in Open Office and downloading Updates????!!!! That's all I was doing, and the system stopped responding. After about 10 minutes of zero functionality, I powered it off.....

 

Were you keeping an eye on your updates to see what was going on????!!!! If not, I don't know what to say. It's impossible to fix something if you don't know what's broken...

I always do my updates from the terminal, so I can constantly keep track of what's going on. Did you try doing it again to see if it's a true bug and not something to do with your hardware?

 

I swear, that is probably b/c of the ACPI services. I had freezing issues with my last Toshiba as well as my current HP.

In any case, the fact that Linux usually only has to reboot when you replace the kernel is pretty amazing.

 

Nice a article. And it also made me discover a great webcomic ^^

 

My desktop (running Kubuntu 7.10) has an uptime of more than a month right now. There's simply no need to reboot like you do in Windows.

 

Well, that's a mith you have to do that with windoof. I am not a Win fan, but my lappy is running straight since - I don't know when. I only put it to standby, but never reboot.

So, na windoof can do that....
M.

 

Until you install a new program.

 

ACKKK! I had to hard reboot again. I was just playing around with the wobbly window, when suddenly it froze and only the mouse worked. So I rebooted.

 

Nope. Not even then. Some programs still insist (like the annoying adobe stuff), most programs don't. And how often do you install new programs?
Cheers
M.

 

I don't know about you, but I install/uninstall programs pretty much daily.

 

Nothing better to do?
M.

 

It's certainly not the only thing I do.

 

Seems like every time I boot into Windows, it's bugging me about updates. And after the updates install, Windows tries to restart itself. And if I try to delay it, the restart prompt pops up again 5 minutes later, and if I don't click "No", it restarts itself automatically after another few minutes, so I can't leave the computer, unless I go into services.msc and manually disable the "Automatic Updates" service. Funny how in Linux, it just tells you that you need to restart and then the updater terminates...

 

Haha. You can just choose to select and install updates yourself. Windows isn't that bad.

 

Yea, I had that once. There was a way to get around (just clicking or not clicking the right things) this can't remember quite how. Was easy. As a result I had the restart dialog open for a day or so and moved to the bottom off the screen. Was not that annoying. Happens to pretty much everyone using any system he/she is not used to will result is a lot of troubles till you are.
M.

 

This was an amazing article that helped me understand Linux a lot more. As some have said, every new Linux user should read this.

 

And the old as well.