Linux at Long Last!!!

[daniel]

Well, after trying everything imaginable to get Linux to work on my Averatec laptop ('cuz I didn't want to be always switching back and forth between Windows and Linux while trying out Linux) including SuSE, kubuntu, and ubuntu, I finally gave up. Then I found a cheapo ($400 after rebates) Compaq laptop with a full money-back guarantee should Linux not run properly on it and decided to give it a try. It's a Presario V2552US - bottom of the line. Smallish, wide aspect ratio screen, five lbs ten oz.

The long and the short is SuSE 10.0 installed without a hitch, and I'm logged on from it right now, typing this in Firefox on the Gnome desktop.

I like Gnome better than KDE because it's got a really cool picture of a lizzard (maybe an iguana? or a gila monster?) and it uses Firefox. Next step: I'm gonna buy a Linux book so I can try to figure out what I'm doing. Like for example, what to do when I find I've exited Gnome and all I've got is a Linux prompt, and I can neither start Gnome again nor shut down the computer 'cuz I don't remember any of the commands from my Unix days.

Whoopee!

[NuShrike]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jul 5 2006, 10:33 PM) [snapback]281842[/snapback]</div>

Next step: I'm gonna buy a Linux book so I can try to figure out what I'm doing. Like for example, what to do when I find I've exited Gnome and all I've got is a Linux prompt, and I can neither start Gnome again nor shut down the computer 'cuz I don't remember any of the commands from my Unix days.[/b]

Congrats! How about some commands for that issue:
startx
man startx
shutdown -h now
man shutdown

Try FreeBSD. I personally use the much lighter-weight xfce4 with less bloat/fluff than Gnome/KDE etc.. and closer to Apple's/NeXTStep interface, but it's not AfterStep.

[daniel]

Thanks for those commands. I've made a note of them. As for other distributions and desktops, I'm going to try to learn the one I've got installed before I look at others. The fact that it actually installed and runs on my laptop makes it "best" for me for the moment.

Is FreeBSD closer to Unix than Linux is? The web page says it is "based on" BSD Unix. But Linux is also "based on" Unix.

[tumbleweed]

Actually I think the lizard is the SuSE emblem? I'm still running SuSE 9.1 because I've been to lazy to upgrade to 10.0. Anyway, both Gnome and KDE are pretty good (haven't tried xfce4 yet), it just depends on what you become accustom to. I really like Kmail because it tells me what is on the mail server and asks me if I want to download it or not. That way I can delete all the junk without it ever coming to my computer. I also love having several desk tops. Linux is as good as a Prius and just as hard to learn.

[grasshopper]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jul 6 2006, 01:33 AM) [snapback]281842[/snapback]</div>

Well, after trying everything imaginable to get Linux to work on my Averatec laptop ('cuz I didn't want to be always switching back and forth between Windows and Linux while trying out Linux) including SuSE, kubuntu, and ubuntu, I finally gave up. Then I found a cheapo ($400 after rebates) Compaq laptop with a full money-back guarantee should Linux not run properly on it and decided to give it a try. It's a Presario V2552US - bottom of the line. Smallish, wide aspect ratio screen, five lbs ten oz.

The long and the short is SuSE 10.0 installed without a hitch, and I'm logged on from it right now, typing this in Firefox on the Gnome desktop.

I like Gnome better than KDE because it's got a really cool picture of a lizzard (maybe an iguana? or a gila monster?) and it uses Firefox. Next step: I'm gonna buy a Linux book so I can try to figure out what I'm doing. Like for example, what to do when I find I've exited Gnome and all I've got is a Linux prompt, and I can neither start Gnome again nor shut down the computer 'cuz I don't remember any of the commands from my Unix days.

Whoopee!
[/b]

What were you doing with a <strike>Avertec</strike> <strike>Averate</strike> <strike>Avertabrit</strike> oh hell, whatever that thing was anyway? Do you also own a Hugo or a <strike>Dawo</strike> <strike>Daywoo</strike> <strike>Dwo</strike> O whatever those dumb cars were?

[jtullos]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jul 5 2006, 10:33 PM) [snapback]281842[/snapback]</div>

I like Gnome better than KDE because it's got a really cool picture of a lizzard (maybe an iguana? or a gila monster?) and it uses Firefox. Next step: I'm gonna buy a Linux book so I can try to figure out what I'm doing. Like for example, what to do when I find I've exited Gnome and all I've got is a Linux prompt, and I can neither start Gnome again nor shut down the computer 'cuz I don't remember any of the commands from my Unix days.
[/b]

If you're wanting to stay in graphical mode, you can also switch the default runlevel. In the /etc/inittab file there should be a line like

id:5:initdefault:

This line defines the default runleve, in my case 5. 5 is generally the graphical, multi-user runlevel, and will probably be your preferred. Right now, you're probably in runlevel 3. I'm not sure though, because each distribution can do that differently. On Fedora, 3 is multi-user, start in text mode, 5 is multi-user graphical mode. On Ubuntu, 2-5 are all multi-user graphical and basically the same thing. There should be some comments in the file explaining what each runlevel represents. Just set it to graphical, or X11, or whatever it's called in yours.

[Betelgeuse]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jul 6 2006, 01:33 AM) [snapback]281842[/snapback]</div>

I like Gnome better than KDE because it's got a really cool picture of a lizzard (maybe an iguana? or a gila monster?) and it uses Firefox.
[/b]

Gnome is a perfectly nice desktop, but you can use Firefox under KDE too (actually, that's precisely the setup that I'm posting with right now). . . you don't have to use Konquerer. That's the nice thing about Linux compared to Windows . . . you don't *have* to use the browser that comes bundled with the distribution (or, in this case, the desktop environment).

P.S. Yes, I know that you can use Firefox under Windows, but there are some things that you are forced to use IE for; I'm thinking of the Windows update page, in particular. . .

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ Jul 6 2006, 05:22 AM) [snapback]281889[/snapback]</div>

Congrats! How about some commands for that issue:
startx
man startx
shutdown -h now
man shutdown

Try FreeBSD. I personally use the much lighter-weight xfce4 with less bloat/fluff than Gnome/KDE etc.. and closer to Apple's/NeXTStep interface, but it's not AfterStep.
[/b]

Another one of my favorites (particularly for new users) is "apropos". It's particuarly useful if you don't know what the command is, but you know something about it. For example, if you want to know something about compressing a file, you can type:

apropos compress

and you will get a long list of compression commands with descriptions. I should say that "apropos" is installed on my distribution (Red Hat 9), but might not be installed by default on SuSE.

[v.jones]

Since this is a Linux posting, I'll reply Unix style :-)

> Well, after trying everything imaginable to get Linux to work on my Averatec laptop ('cuz I didn't want to be always switching back and
> forth between Windows and Linux while trying out Linux) including SuSE, kubuntu, and ubuntu, I finally gave up. Then I found a
> cheapo ($400 after rebates) Compaq laptop with a full money-back guarantee should Linux not run properly on it and decided to give
> it a try. It's a Presario V2552US - bottom of the line. Smallish, wide aspect ratio screen, five lbs ten oz.

If you haven't yet, max out the memory (as least as far as cost effective). While not the resource hog that Windows is, Linux loves more memory. (Actually, to be precise, KDE and Gnome and Linux applications like Firefox, beagle and OpenOffice love extra memory).

> The long and the short is SuSE 10.0 installed without a hitch, and I'm logged on from it right now, typing this in Firefox on the
> Gnome desktop.

Before you get your 10.0 too customized, download and upgrade to SuSE 10.1. It has a version of beagle which actually works and version 2.0 of OpenOffice. It's a little more work, but fewer bugs than 10.0 and an extra six months of support before you'll be forced to upgrade. It also has a much newer and better supported Gnome (up through 10.0, SuSE was KDE centric).

> I like Gnome better than KDE because it's got a really cool picture of a lizzard (maybe an iguana? or a gila monster?) and it uses
> Firefox. Next step: I'm gonna buy a Linux book so I can try to figure out what I'm doing. Like for example, what to do when I find
> I've exited Gnome and all I've got is a Linux prompt, and I can neither start Gnome again nor shut down the computer 'cuz I
> don't remember any of the commands from my Unix days.

You should have shut down available as an option when logging out of Gnome. Do a search on the web for your Compaq model and Linux. You should find several web sites where owners have already posted exactly how to get everything working and any extra tweaks required.

> Whoopee!

Oh come on, get a life! Linux is just an operating system (and the Prius is just a car). Both are tools which merely enable you to be more (or less) productive, neither is the meaning of life (but I'll end it there, as this is not FHOP).

Welcome to the world of computing for computer professionals. Next step is to get VMware Workstation so you don't have to reboot to run those occasional "Windoze" programs.

Just some advice from an experienced sufferer (been using Linux on my notebook computer(s) since 1997 when OS/2 died, pushing my notebooks to the limit back when internal "mass storage" was a 720K floppy, and getting work done on personnal computers since the days of 8" floppies and punched paper tape). So I think I can say: been there, done that, been burnt.

Good luck and have fun!

Vince

[Jonnycat26]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(v.jones @ Jul 6 2006, 02:35 PM) [snapback]282133[/snapback]</div>

Before you get your 10.0 too customized, download and upgrade to SuSE 10.1. It has a version of beagle which actually works and version 2.0 of OpenOffice. It's a little more work, but fewer bugs than 10.0 and an extra six months of support before you'll be forced to upgrade. It also has a much newer and better supported Gnome (up through 10.0, SuSE was KDE centric).
[/b]

I went from 10.0 to 10.1 and the whole Zen updater and the switch to the newer network manager was so FUBARed that I jumped ship and went to Kubuntu.

[NuShrike]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Jul 6 2006, 07:21 AM) [snapback]281975[/snapback]</div>

Is FreeBSD closer to Unix than Linux is? The web page says it is "based on" BSD Unix. But Linux is also "based on" Unix. [/b]

Not to get into another OS war over it, but FreeBSD is a direct descendant of BSD Unix (from Berkeley) that created tcp/ip and such. Linux is a "clean-room" reimplementation of the corporate AT&T/USL Unix by this kid from Finland during the time when he couldn't get free sources to any UNIX because BSD and USL were locked in a lawsuit over who stole code from whom. Current BSD is free of any copyrighted AT&T code, and immune to getting sued versus the SCO vs IBM/Linux case. Here's a big history chart of it: http://www.levenez.com/unix/ . Any of you using OpenSSH probably already know it is created and maintained by OpenBSD.

Linux has grown up a lot since. Otherwise, both run on most i386 hardware, run Gnome/KDE (because X is platform independent), OpenOffice, Firefox, etc.. Basically, BSD tends to focus on picking something that works well from foundation up (engineer /cathedral style) and 10 years headstart vs Linux's "let's try this, let's try that bazaar-style". So Linux = latest cutting edge hardware support no matter how flakey (usually. BSD had USB support first), BSD = nothing until it works and it just works.

FreeBSD is completely designed as a environment from kernel to supporting packages (you can rebuild the entire OS installation from source code together) versus Linux which is just a kernel from Linus, and then some repackager (Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, etc), comes along with tweaks and surrounds it with utilities to make it complete and tested.

At least you're running SuSE which has a more easy to maintain packaging system than say Red Hat/Fedora which is RPM hell. Gentoo (Linux) most closely resembles FreeBSD because you could rebuild from source yourself and resolve a lot of packaging assumption issues that might crop up. I like it because I can individually update stuff, like the latest OpenOffice, Firefox, etc (besides running as my firewall/router before these dinky Linksys boxes came out) without waiting for somebody to package it up so I can update to it.

Oh, you'll eventually enjoy being immune to the latest cool worm/virus going around.

p.s. biggest installation of parts of FreeBSD today? OS X