[mkillio]

I'm thinking of trying out Linux and I was just wondering what your guys's opinion on it was and which one to try and where to get it.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by mkillio

I'm thinking of trying out Linux and I was just wondering what your guys's opinion on it was and which one to try and where to get it.

It's a good solid version of Unix for the most part. Purists tend to like BSD, but I think RedHat is a little easier for the beginner. You can either buy the CD's in the shops (you can pay more for support), or you can download the distribution from various sites. www.redhat.com would be a starting point.

[mkillio]

I heard Lindows is really easy to use but Mandrake is best graphic wise.

[mkillio]

I was also hoping not to buy it.

Well, I am currently downloading Mandrake 9.2 along wit the extras. I'll let you know tomorrow night what I think about it. I have to get a HD from work to put it on and then I'll install it after class.

[Althornin]

Originally Posted by mkillio

I'm thinking of trying out Linux and I was just wondering what your guys's opinion on it was and which one to try and where to get it.

If you just want to try it out, i cannot recommend KNOPPIX enough. It is a live Linux (debian based) filesystem on a bootable CD.
It autodetects even the latest hardware (my Dell D600 laptop, for instance, works great - even the wireless). Its a no hassle "setup" - just boot to the CD. Take it out when you tire of it. It has Staroffice, etc - fully featured.

Add to that, you can do a proper install of Linux from it, and what you get is a full featured Debian install, but all your hardware works without having to dick with it. DEbian is regarded as one of the most stable and reliable linux distros, and knoppix is no exception - its just alot easier to use.
Try it out, its totally worth it.

Also, check here: DistroWatch
Good info.

[Tim Murray]

how DO you install Debian from Knoppix, anyway?

[Dio]

I found SuSE substantially easier to work with than Red Hat.

Linux itself is a great kernel, but I've never quite been convinced by the design philosophies underlying Unix, which are aimed at power for experts not ease of use.

[epicstruggle]

although i dont run linux currently (gave the comp to wife, and had to go windows with it). I would suggest going with gentoo. Its a big pain in the ass to learn exactly how everything is put together. But god, you learn alot. I had to install/reinstall at least 30 times, but the end i didnt even need to look at the directions to get to have it running properly.

So if you really want to learn how to get it up and running, and how/why things go in a certain order, then go gentoo.

later,
epic

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by mkillio

I was also hoping not to buy it.

Well, I am currently downloading Mandrake 9.2 along wit the extras. I'll let you know tomorrow night what I think about it. I have to get a HD from work to put it on and then I'll install it after class.

Mandrake is a good distro to start with Linux; very easy install and runs quite flawlessly.
If you're using a NVidia card, the first problem is enabling 3d support. But'll find plently howtos on the net.
If you're having problems with Mandrake, just pm I'll try to help you as much as I can...

[Simon F]

I've got SuSE at home - seems OK

[Saem]

I've tried, Knoppix, Mandrake, SuSe, Redhat, Debian, Lycrois and a few others. Knoppix is a great way to get an idea of what you'll encounter very fast. SuSe is the slickest and is slightly better with drivers, though installing things is a bit more of a pain since you have to do things the SuSe way. The Redhat way is very popular so either that or Mandrake would be your best for ease of use and documentation.

I'm starting to lean more towards BSD these days, but I doubt our needs our simillar.

[Althornin]

Originally Posted by The Baron

how DO you install Debian from Knoppix, anyway?

knx-hdinstall
or
knoppix-install
two different scripts, they do the same thing, slightly differently.
knx-hdinstall is easier, imo.
must run them as root, so sudo.

Knoppix Info

Personally, i lean towards Solaris (being a sun se), so whatever

[mkillio]

Ok, so I installed Mandrake 9.2 along with the extras. I st it all p including root user and password and all the other user and password stuff. Then it rebooted and started to load everything and it went to a screen that asked for my login, I entered, then it asked for the password, I put it in. Then it went to a line that said

[mike@pcp01088454pcs mike]$

mike was my login name, I was keeping it simple. what the hell do I do from here? I tried reinstalling it without putting in any usernames or passwords and it still went to it. I then tried a third time, my current state, but I did not install the extras, mainly to save time. I did not enter a root user name/password but I did put in a name/password for the regular user. Any and all help would be very much appreciated.

BTW, Trillian is one of the coolest programs ever.

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by mkillio

Ok, so I installed Mandrake 9.2 along with the extras. I st it all p including root user and password and all the other user and password stuff. Then it rebooted and started to load everything and it went to a screen that asked for my login, I entered, then it asked for the password, I put it in. Then it went to a line that said

[mike@pcp01088454pcs mike]$

mike was my login name, I was keeping it simple. what the hell do I do from here? I tried reinstalling it without putting in any usernames or passwords and it still went to it. I then tried a third time, my current state, but I did not install the extras, mainly to save time. I did not enter a root user name/password but I did put in a name/password for the regular user. Any and all help would be very much appreciated.

BTW, Trillian is one of the coolest programs ever.

Well, cool be a lot of things:

A) First of all do use the X-environment as default? if not type "startx" at the prompt. If this is not the case, than the XServer (the graphical environment can't start, which is probably due to problems of the display driver of the graphics card -> fetch drivers from Internet -> see B).

B) Do you have an ATI graphics card? If yes, you'll need to fetch ATI's latest linux drivers and install them as mentioned in the help file. (a friend of mine had the same problem)

[mkillio]

I was just wondering what programs you guys recommend for Linux, such as office programs, web browsers, anti-virus, media players etc.

[Tim Murray]

Firebird, OpenOffice, and Emacs.

Ohhhh... Emacs. My one true love.

Firebird is a web browser from the Mozilla folks--Mozilla core, no email, no nothing except a web browser. Unbelievably fast, no popups, tabbed browsing, etc. Best browser out there right now, bar none.

OpenOffice is an office suite that is the open-source core of StarOffice. I use it instead of Office now (although that's primarily because I have no clue where my Office CD is). To be honest, I haven't missed Office at all since I installed OO.

Emacs--the ultimate text editor. (I've reached the point where I don't type stuff in a word processing app, I type it in emacs and then dump the output. macros are fun when you're writing an annoyingly long paper.)

[Saem]

vi ownz j00z!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!111

=)

[Tim Murray]

Originally Posted by Saem

vi ownz j00z!!!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!111

=)

you know, the original version of that post said, "Please, for the love of God, don't start emacs versus vi."

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by The Baron

you know, the original version of that post said, "Please, for the love of God, don't start emacs versus vi."

I was about to join the vi cry

[mkillio]

I'm having alot of trouble installing these programs. i.e. firebird and xine. I extracted them to the folder I wanted them in. But i can't find the install files. Also anyone know where to get an ATI driver for the 9800 that supports the latest (system x, or start x. I think that's what it's called in the terminal you would type startx to show a graphical ver. of linux) it's like ver. 4.3.2 I think. ATI's website only supports ver. 4.3.0.

This 1024x768 is killing me with my 21" monitor.

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by mkillio

I'm having alot of trouble installing these programs. i.e. firebird and xine. I extracted them to the folder I wanted them in. But i can't find the install files. Also anyone know where to get an ATI driver for the 9800 that supports the latest (system x, or start x. I think that's what it's called in the terminal you would type startx to show a graphical ver. of linux) it's like ver. 4.3.2 I think. ATI's website only supports ver. 4.3.0.

This 1024x768 is killing me with my 21" monitor.

Xine should be already installed on your linux (multimedia folder in the start menu), if not you can install it via the "install software option" of your mandrake control centre. Xine doesn't change that much so it should probably a pretty new version. If not, try this site with daily built Mandrake rpms. It also includes DVD support for encrypted DVDs. http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/
Just follow its intructions and you should be fine.

The graphical environment is called X server. So your X server is 4.3.2 and the ATI driver only supports 4.3.0? Are there some issues? Have you already checked that the resolution isn't limited by the configuration of the monitor?
If it's not the monitor, there're some things you could do but they 're rather lengthy and complicated so check that first.

Now to http://sourceforge.net/projects/firebird/; apparently no Mandrake rpm is avaiable which leaves you with ./configure; make; make install Here's a FAQ about this http://www.faqs.org/contrib/yal/page7faq.htm and then here's the detailled stuff http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-B...g-HOWTO-3.html

EDIT: for clarification

[Florin]

Originally Posted by The Baron

you know, the original version of that post said, "Please, for the love of God, don't start emacs versus vi."

"Ed is the standard text editor." (probably funny only for those who have actually had the misfortune of accidentily firing up ed at some point in their unix careers - but sooner or later, it'll happen to you too..)

ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look:

-rwxr-xr-x  1 root          24 Oct 29  1929 /bin/ed
-rwxr-xr-t  4 root     1310720 Jan  1  1970 /usr/ucb/vi
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  5.89824e37 Oct 22  1990 /usr/bin/emacs

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by Florin

"Ed is the standard text editor." (probably funny only for those who have actually had the misfortune of accidentily firing up ed at some point in their unix careers - but sooner or later, it'll happen to you too..)

I have actually on one or two occasions found a need to use ed. IIRC, it was some multi-hundreds of gig flat-file database that needed a little bit of fiddling. Vi simply couldn't get the swap/mem to load the file, where ed could simply jump to the bits I needed to change without loading the whole file.

Sure, I could have written something to scan through the file sequentially and make the changes I needed, but it was a lot quicker just to do a few edits in ed.

[mkillio]

the ATI 9800 defenitley is not supported. I go straight to the command prompt with it. And I can't install ATI's driver because it creates a "conflict error".

[StefanS]

Originally Posted by mkillio

the ATI 9800 defenitley is not supported. I go straight to the command prompt with it. And I can't install ATI's driver because it creates a "conflict error".

Did you force it? Because you have to force Mandrake Linux...

rpm -i --force blabla.rpm

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/readme0370.txt

Note for RedHat 8.0 users:
RedHat 8.0 installations often include a specific version of the
libGL component. (For example, provided by the rpm package
XFree86-Mesa-libGL-4.2.0-72). Installing the ATI Linux driver package
causes a conflict because the ATI Linux drivers include a custom-built
libGL version providing extra pbuffer support. The ATI libGL is backward
compatible to the respective XFree86 libGL version.

Install the ATI Linux driver package and replace the existing libGL
installation as follows:

- Force RPM to use the replacement file of the ATI driver package:
rpm -i --force <ati_package_name>.rpm
NOTE: This includes overriding the rpm warning

or

- Remove the existing libGL installation and then install the new libGL
with the ATI driver installation.
For example:

rpm -e --nodeps XFree86-Mesa-libGL-4.2.0-72
rpm -Uhv <ati_package_name>.rpm

NOTES:
(1) Ensure that no OpenGL program is running during installation
(2) You need the "--nodeps" option because some screen savers, qt-3,
and some parts of XFree86 might depend on the libGL presence.
Installing the new libgl from the ATI package will restore the
required libGL presence.

Perform the following steps after you have installed the driver files:
- Run fglrxconfig to configure your XFree86 installation.
- Respond to the questions of the fglrxconfig program
- Save the settings to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.

That applies for Mandrake as well...