Linux-Noob Forums

Well.. I'm a bit worried now.. Been a Win2k user for a long time now.. 98.. workgroups before that.. and now I finally think to myself I've had enough, I don't even want to touch XP, so I asked about, did a bit of research and came up with Mandrake. I was searching around to see if my beloved apps etc that I've used for so long will still work under Mandrake.. FlashFXP brought me here.

 

I've been told I can dual boot but no.. If I'm going to take the plunge into the world of Linux it's gotta be 100%. So maybe I'm posting this for a little reassurance that I'm doing the right thing.. finally cutting away the apron strings of mummy gates.

 

I would like some advice however considering I'm a complete Noob that has just printed out 300 sheets from various PDF help / starter files to try to get a grip of something I'm just about to jump into.

 

..erm.. this was my first post on a Board that I may become quite a regular of.. Greets to you all.

 

-=VB=-

if you havnt installed mandrake yet, then please consider Fedora

 

most of us are very familiar with that and can advise accordingly including getting flashfxp to run :)

 

welcome to the site and i hope you use it lots and recommend your friends

 

cheers

 

anyweb

ok.. I'll look into it. I have downloaded 'WINE' I think it's the source that I have. Is this a bridge between Linux and some Windows applications..?

yes it allows you to run some windows applications,

 

have you installed any flavor of linux yet ?

 

cheers

 

anyweb

No I haven't.. I think it's best I log onto the irc channel than chat post by post.. cya in a minute.

Quote:Well.. I'm a bit worried now.. Been a Win2k user for a long time now.. 98.. workgroups before that.. and now I finally think to myself I've had enough, I don't even want to touch XP, so I asked about, did a bit of research and came up with Mandrake.  I was searching around to see if my beloved apps etc that I've used for so long will still work under Mandrake.. FlashFXP brought me here. 

I've been told I can dual boot but no.. If I'm going to take the plunge into the world of Linux it's gotta be 100%.  So maybe I'm posting this for a little reassurance that I'm doing the right thing.. finally cutting away the apron strings of mummy gates.

 

I would like some advice however considering I'm a complete Noob that has just printed out 300 sheets from various PDF help / starter files to try to get a grip of something I'm just about to jump into.

 

..erm.. this was my first post on a Board that I may become quite a regular of..  Greets to you all.

 

-=VB=-

Interesting forum idea. Anyways:

From someone else who has also begun the transition from Winbloat to linux.

 

(A testimonial/observation)

I made it to WinMe, the last version I dared trust data to. (2000/NT/XP are strict no!go areas for me)

 

After despairing over many years, wanting to see a reasonable operating system

(I use Unix at work upon occasion, I prefer assembly language over -any- kind of 'language')

and rather put off by the crypto-jargon elitism that pervades the 'C'/Linux crowd.

I finally took the plunge with Mandrake 9.1

I tried 9.2, but that Mandrake crowd appears to release with bugs and short on documentation to some degree.

(9.2 never made it past the second disk, on my hardware)

 

Nevertheless, I managed to get 9.1 to stabilize on my hdc (D:\drive)

after installing it, doing the LILO hda boot surgery necessary to get

LILO to boot exclusively from hdc, leaving my WinMe legacy on hda.

 

Perplexing, but doable.

The result is two different disks which are independently bootable, loosing LILO won't dorrupt WinME,

and WinME is unaware of my hdc drive.

 

I probably did it the hard way, there is probably a simpler method,

but the Linux community DOES NOT ORGANIZE INFORMATION VERY WELL.

Many of the Linux crowd hate and despise anyone who makes the transition,

and it seems to be some subconscious effort to hide all the appropriate documents.

A noob hazing, if you will

This is not necessarily a bad thing, as if they did make transition easier,

the world would be flooded with zillions of clueless ex-Winbloat folk (like us?).

It is better, sort of like having an AOL so that all the AOL personalities can be recognized for what they are.

(Yeah, I know, I do know a *few* intelligent persons who use AOL despite being warned, but some have no choice. Exceptions that prove the rule, I guess.)

 

Mandrake (I have only seen friends RedHat, buggy as well) has its flaky moments.

Installing the fixes from the Mandrake Users place helps,

but there will always be those 'I need to do what ?!?!?!' moments.

 

It doesn't help that Linux and 'C' are havens for cryptopathic personalities,

but once you get past the learning curve, things should improve.

 

At least, that's my hope.

 

x

Omg, as much as I am surprised at it, that is pretty true in my opinion. There are very few places where you can get reliable and good info on how to start your way up the linux ladder. Kudos to all you guys who help us noobs here. :) I got Mandrake as well. I attempted Fedora Core 1 and wasn't really taken by it. So in a last ditch attempt I put WinXP back on my main computer (I know :/ ) and put my friends mandrake on a spare older computer. Now this is on the Internet and I can spend my spare time getting to know how it works. In the mean time I have dual-booted my main computer for speeding up the process of learning and try and come to this forum as much as possible. For someone who does not have his roots set firmly in any kind of Computer Science field it is rather hard to get to know Linux. I took this on as a hobby and it has grown on me. It is certainly not easy and it does present its share of challenges, but the ride sure is interesting and fun and above all well worth it.

woo.. 3.11 for workgroups -> 98 -> 2k, long term windows user ... i was never really lucky enough to attempt _notworking_ on 3.11.

 

wine = windows emulator. its not perfect.. not all windows programs will run, but most will give it a damn good change.. hehe square recently pointed out a page that someone attempted to run windows viruses under linux (with wine)... [img]<___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_rolleyes.gif[/img]

 

dual booting can be a good stepping stone, even better is two PCs, even though i am a hardcore linux fan and wouldn't give m$ the time of day i still run winxp for all my gamin needs.

 

but you are doing the right thing.. no doubt about that, the linux os has come of age, the easy of use has grown phenomenally in recent years and so much of the complexity in administrator has gone that really linux is now more like a "power user" os.

 

i will also say that you are going the right way about it, reading documentation that you can find is a great start, too many leap in and get lost. i will suggest that you learn about what hardware you have and what it takes to get linux running it.

 

maybe invest a little time with a live CD to see linux up and running. i would suggest knoppix. but lots of others are out there.

 

Quote:and rather put off by the crypto-jargon elitism that pervades the 'C'/Linux crowd.....snip....

Many of the Linux crowd hate and despise anyone who makes the transition, and it seems to be some subconscious effort to hide all the appropriate documents.

A noob hazing, if you will

This is not necessarily a bad thing, as if they did make transition easier, the world would be flooded with zillions of clueless ex-Winbloat folk (like us?).

 

haha "noob hazing"... gah i hated my constant hunt for documentation, actually i got told.. "if it doesn't exist write it".. like i even knew HOW !