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# Recent Changes:
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# 28-Aug-2002: New 6.2.3.0, running win and linux together
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# 24-Aug-2002: Renamed this section, "Common Newbie Questions"
# this required some general changes to split into
# win-specific and more generic material
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# 24-Aug-2002: 6.1.1.0 Best distro for newbie
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# 24-Aug-2002: 6.2.2.0 Cut/Copy-n-paste is funy, what's up?
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TABLE OF CONTENTS - PART 6
6.0 Part 6, Common Newbie Questions
6.1.0.0 General Questions
6.1.1.0 What is the Best Distribution For Newcomer?
6.2.0.0 Questions Common to Former Microsoft Windows Users
6.2.1.0 Is Linux a Replacement for Microsoft Windows?
6.2.2.0 Cut-n-Paste Does Not Seem To Work, What Gives?
6.2.3.0 What if I Still Need to Run Windows?
6.2.99.0 Undeveloped and Proposed Material
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Copyright (c) 2002. This document is copyright by the individuals
named in the credits, section 1.4.0.0.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
A copy of the license can be viewed at:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt
============================================================
6.1.0.0 General Questions
6.1.1.0 What is the Best Distribution For a Newcomer?
This is of course a matter of opinion. General opinion as of August
of 2002 is that SuSE or Mandrake vie as being the best distribution
for newcomers. More detail:
-> Mandrake is highly praised as being easy to install and for having
latest-and-greatest hardware support. Their newsgroup,
alt.os.linux.mandrake, is said to be very newbie-friendly.
-> SuSE 8.0 is also highly praised. It was described by COLA's Ian
Potter as "comprehensive to the point of being excessive."
SuSE is described as the kind of system you would put on mom's
computer or the neighbor's box.
-> Red Hat is not usually promoted per se as being "great" for newbies,
but it is not uncommon for posters to state that they started with
it and had no problems.
-> Debian is mentioned for its excellent package management, but
newcomers are warned it is not necessarily for those who have no
prior unix experience.
When this question comes up, after the answers above have been hashed
out, somebody always says, "And when you've gotten you're feet wet,
you'll be ready for gentoo..." Gentoo is a source-based distribution
that makes no attempt to be friendly to the newcomer, but is incredibly
friendly to one who has gained some comfort with what Linux is all about.
Gentoo currently enjoys status as the power-user's distro of choice, the
sort-of ultimate sandbox for those who have learned their way around and
want it all.
6.2.0.0 Questions Common to Former Microsoft Windows Users
6.2.1.0 Is Linux a Replacement For Microsoft Windows?
You will often hear it said on COLA and elsewhere, usually with strong
emphasis, "Linux is not a replacement for Windows!" However, if you
are using Microsoft Windows now, and are considering using Linux
instead, does that not make it a replacement? So which is it?
The answer is that both Microsoft Windows and Linux are operating
systems. There is always only one operating system controlling a
computer (we will not get into virtual machines here), and so it must
be either Linux, Microsoft Windows, or any of the other OS's that will
run on a PC. So in that sense, yes, if you remove Microsoft Windows
and put on Linux, you have replaced Windows, it is gone and you have
Linux instead.
However, Linux is not a replacement for Windows in that it has a
completely different design and design philosophy, a completely different
payment and licensing policy (it's free), different hardware
requirements, and different applications. So Linux is not a replacement
for Windows because it offers a completely different, and we feel,
superior, experience.
6.2.2.0 Cut-n-Paste Does Not Seem To Work, What Gives?
The operations Cut/Paste and Copy/Paste in the X Window System are
simple, flexible, and powerful. They are also *almost* exactly the
same as Microsoft Windows, but they are not completely identical.
The following notes assume you are using Gnome or KDE:
-> CTRL-X is cut, CTRL-C is copy, and CTRL-V is paste. Standard
right-click context menus are also available.
-> If you highlight any text in an X app, you can paste it into
another X app without copying it first.
-> You can have multiple entries on the clipboard of any type. Any
app capable of handling the format can receive something via paste.
More technically, the X Window System allows for something called the
PRIMARY selection, which in KDE and Gnome automatically holds any
highlighted text. This is what makes paste-without-copy possible.
There is also the basic multiple clipboard functionality described
above.
6.2.3.0 What if I Still Need Microsoft Windows in Some Situations?
Depending on the situation, there are any number of ways that Linux
and Microsoft Windows can work together.
-> The Network. Linux can provide file and and print sharing services
to Windows clients, and can attach to file and print shares
provided by Windows Server. See www.samba.org.
-> The Workstation. If you must run Microsoft Windows on a workstation,
and you will not need both Linux and Win at the same time, dual-
booting is always an option. In a workgroup situation, there is
something called X-terminals (no room for complete explanation here,
ask on COLA) that allows you to dual-boot a PC into Win or Linux
w/o actually installing Linux onto the machine!
-> The Workstation (again). If you must run Microsoft Windows on
workstation, and you will need Linux and Win simultaneously, you
can purchase vmWare (www.vmware.com) for $300.00 USD and run
Windows as an application inside of Linux. There is a free
version of the same kind of product at www.plex86.org, but it
gets barely any mention on COLA, while vmware is discussed more
often.
-> Terminal Services. If you need to connect to a Terminal Services
server from a Linux machine, check out www.rdesktop.org, quite
possibly one of the simplest and easiest apps in the world to
use (in the opinion of this FAQ maintainer...)
-> Just One Program! If you need only one or two crucial programs,
you may be able to run them under the Wine project, www.winehq.org,
which is an ongoing effort to allow Windows programs to run
directly under Linux. The Wine project is ongoing and makes no
pretense towards being complete or comprehensive at this time, but
it is amazing what they have accomplished considering the target
system is owned by one of the most ruthless competitors the world
has ever seen.
6.2.99.0 Undeveloped Material for switch from MS Windows.
1.0 So Where Do I Start?
1.1 Answer for the non-techie: find a friend who can install
Linux, go to a LUG. Get a book!
1.2 Answer for the techie: start with dual boot or spare machine,
move up to "solo" with linux. The advantages of immersion,
choosing a distribution. Get a book! Some people do well by
having a goal, such as setting up a web server or email server,
or learning a new programming language.
1.3 Answer for the techie who does free (or coffe and doughnuts)
support for family and friends: same as 1.2 with additional
notes.
2.0 Where Should I Expect Trouble?
2.1 Choice can be confusing if you do not expect it
2.2 Link to ldp, DOS users HOW-TO
2.3 Tighter security can be disorienting to one who is used to
always logging in as "administrator"
2.4 You will want to learn a text editor
2.5 Your partitioning tricks will not work, and will not translate,
you will need to learn unix partitioning. Hints for doing it
the first time so you don't screw yourself.
2.6 The absence of wizards can be disorienting until you are
enlightened by text config files
2.7 Learn the FHS (put in link).
2.8 There are things that are not as "polished" as your Windows
experience may lead you to expect, and so take a little more
work the first time, but after that they *work*, so you don't
have to revisit them.
2.9 Some newcomers from Windows report that they have to actually
write things down when they do them, because they work so well
for so long that they forget what they did or how they did it.
3.0 There are some times I cannot do w/o Windows, what are my options?
3.1 For the net: samba
3.2 For your ws: dual-boot, vmware, wine, floppy-based X-terminal
3.3 For internet services, email, web, scrap Win altogether, go for
"clean" linux solution.
3.4 If you have to have exchange, there is: ??? What's the name of
that package? Evolution?
3.5 For terminal services, rdesktop
4.0 OK, I'm sold, but the rest of the world uses Windows, can I send
out my resume as a Word document?
Answer would be various openoffice.org, abiword, koffice, etc.
5.0 I've been reading COLA and other places. I'm an MCSE but not a
programmer, what good is it to recompile a kernel when I cannot
program??
5.1 Compiling does not imply coding, and w/many distros everything
is pre-compiled
5.2 Who says you can't program? Have you ever tried? Start out
with shell-scripting.
5.3 advantages of a small kernel, custom configured by YOU YOU YOU!
6.0 OK, I'm NOT sold. I've read this entire section and it seems I
have to change my entire life, but I already can use my machine,
run down those advantages again:
Stability
Interoperability, and so on and so on.
Burning CD-ROMS while calculating pi to 3 gazillion places, while
also downloading and compiling gentoo in a chroot environment...
7.0 Where no Windows User has gone before...
7.1 Sourcecode, sourcecode, sourcecode
7.2 X-Terminals, Remote X, all that
7.3 Rethinking LAN vs. timeshare
7.4 floppy-based firewalls
7.5 True compsci knowledge instead of product training
7.6 Commune with the authors. Linus drops by COLA from time-to-time,
send an email directly to the author of a package.
--
Ken
Linux: the more you learn, the more you love