Linux: How should I start????

[MrSeanKon]

Folks I am too GKR cos Micro$oft so I wish to start learning Linux.
I am 10000000000000000000000% newbie I don't anything about this operational system.
Any help will be appreciated.

[dsio]

Download a set of CDs using Bittorrent.

The two distros I would recommend are Ubuntu and Fedora, as both are easy distros with a fair bit of power.

My personal choice is Fedora, purely because its RedHat's community offering, and closely tied to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is a very common server OS, and is the basis for many other distros.

Ubuntu is slightly easier than Fedora, however its Debian based, and I can't help you with it quite as much as I could with Fedora.

Just doing a quick run down of my FC6 setup that I have on both my machines:

OS: Fedora Core 6, fully updated, latest kernel

Browser: Opera / Konqueror depending on my mood

Media player: Kaffeine (A very lightweight, powerful media player, with a playlist editor, a simple and extremely efficient playlist search system, support for all video and audio formats, and DVD, and DVB)

Window Manager: Gnome (The KDE vs Gnome debate is an old one, with KDE being slightly more flexible, and more windows like, while Gnome being slightly faster and more OSX like. Gnome is different, but its one of those changes where you would never want to go back, due to the ergonomics and ease of use. Gnome is also the standard for Fedora and Ubuntu)

Instant messaging: GAIM (simple. lightweight, clean, supports all major IM types including Jabber, MSN, AIM, IRC)

Compositing manager: Optional Beryl (allows for desktop effects and eye candy, similar to OSX Quartz Extreme and Vista Aero Glass, Beryl is a fork of Compiz, but builds on its featureset considerably)

Bittorrent: Azureus (Its java, its effective, its good)

Text Editor: gEdit (simple, fast, light, supports every type of code highlighting you could want)

Programming environment: gEdit + terminal (IDE's don't sit well with me.)

Gaming: Cedega (it costs $5/month, but its worth it, as they are constantly working on keeping it up to date with the latest games and technologies. Essentially, emulation of Windows games and programs on Linux has matured to a point where most things work very well. I've never had any problems.)

Mail: Kontact

[robbie]

I'm a Suse fan. I run 10.2 on my Dell Inspiron laptop and just about everything works fine. Even the media buttons on the front panel. (ie volume and mute controls)

I can play DVD's and burn them as well.
$.02

[booman]

I'm very interested in Linux also. I'm a Windows expert only because I work on them all day at work and all night at home. I would love to use a free OS and configure all of my own free programs etc.

dsio, I don't understand most of what you wrote...
I have done some searching for downloading Linux but it is all so confusing with the distros and all...
Do you have a good link for downloading Ubuntu and Fedora?
Just one would be a good start.
Then I just burn it to cd right? And then boot the computer from cd and start formatting, set-up, install?
I'm looking forward to using some of those programs and playing some games.

[dsio]

Linux, is not an operating system, its a kernel. The way it works is people take the kernel, and package it with the rest of the software needed to make it a usable operating system.

Now, that collection of software that is used in conjunction with the linux kernel, depends on which company released it, as there are many companies each releasing their own linux operating system, all slightly different.

We call each of these different releases, distros, or distributions.

So theres:
Fedora
SuSE
Red Hat Enterprise
Debian
Ubuntu
Gentoo
Kororaa
Mandriva

and the list goes on. There are hundreds of them, but those are a few of the major ones.

Heres the link to Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Heres the link to Fedora http://rhold.fedoraproject.org/Download/

I recommend using Bittorrent

[MrSeanKon]

Τhanks for replies dsio.
Do you know a site which has Linux FAQs??

Originally Posted by dsio

Linux, is not an operating system, its a kernel.

GKR what does this mean?
The installation procedure is not easy like Windows??

[dsio]

The Fedora and ubuntu installation is very easy and straight forward. Look up linux on wikipedia to understand what it is, and also have a look at http://www.fedorafaq.org/

[MrSeanKon]

I think Linux is freeware or not????
dsio do you know C or C++ programming under Linux???
Can you suggest me something???

[GrahamGarside]

Linux is open source which is a differant kettle of fish than freeware.

Basically it's source code is available for anyone to look at and alter. There is no distribution restrictions on it like paid for software, though you can even charge for it.

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

[MrSeanKon]

Basically the main problem is that OcBible cannot run under Linux.
That's why I am asking.

[dsio]

I don't know C, and I don't know C++. I am learning ObjC at the moment, which is Apple's MacOS implementation (cocoa). I would rather give Rosie O'Donnel a lap dance than learn ObjC, but here I am, stuck with it.

If you want to develop Linux applications quickly, I'd recommend Python, which I do know to some degree, and look into the QT toolkit. Python is a very simply language to learn, but is very different to C*/Java.

Cool thing about QT is its completely cross platform, which is why programs like Opera can run on just about anything you can jam an RJ45 into. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_(toolkit)

[GrahamGarside]

http://www.aglbical.org/Rosie.jpg
Any time stud.

[Samuknow]

Originally Posted by dsio

I would rather give Rosie O'Donnel a lap dance

I think I need to go wash my head out with bleach after that. I can not get it out of my head. Thanks......

[MrSeanKon]

Τhanks for info again dsio.
The main problem is that OcBible cannot run under Linux.
That's why I created this thread.
Probably (after discussion with gizmo) we will share a Linux OcBible version or we will make a web-based edition.

[booman]

Thanks dsio for the links and info.
I will definitely check it out and do some downloading.
I don't have bittorrent but maybe I can download the old fashioned
way.
If I try to install it, I'll have questions for sure...

[MrSeanKon]

You may post here or you have to create your thread
Me too I don't have any torrent programs but I can download them as you said booman.

[dabaerman]

Originally Posted by dsio

Linux, is not an operating system, its a kernel. The way it works is people take the kernel, and package it with the rest of the software needed to make it a usable operating system.

Now, that collection of software that is used in conjunction with the linux kernel, depends on which company released it, as there are many companies each releasing their own linux operating system, all slightly different.

We call each of these different releases, distros, or distributions.

So theres:
Fedora
SuSE
Red Hat Enterprise
Debian
Ubuntu
Gentoo
Kororaa
Mandriva

and the list goes on. There are hundreds of them, but those are a few of the major ones.

Heres the link to Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Heres the link to Fedora http://rhold.fedoraproject.org/Download/

I recommend using Bittorrent

I downloaded Ubuntu last night. forgot to use bittorrent but it did just fine. I did the checksum and burned the iso with Infra Recorder.
using Ubuntu with Firefox as I type this. looks like this one is a keeper. now to get it folding!!

Ron

[robbie]

My boss just got a new Dell laptop and he installed unbuntu on it. It works GREAT. So I might give it a try on mine as well.

[dsio]

Although I personally don't use it, I can't believe how well Ubuntu has taken over the crossover market, with a 'real' Linux desktop, not a fake XP like Linspire and others.

I've only ever had one person complain about it, and that was because he wanted Internet Explorer.