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Technical FAQ for New Linux Users
Jay writes: "This article is really helpful if you're new to Linux, or even if you're not-so-new. It helps Windows users transition to Linux, but those converting from other operating systems will find useful information here as well." Personally, I'd think that learning a new OS would be worth the cost of a book (which I note is out of print - does that mean a new edition is on the way?), but if you're too cheap to buy a book, well, here's a pretty decent guide to getting started with GNU/Linux.
WARNING, the above link is not a link to goatse.cx. Don't click it!
Looking through it, I've already found one inaccuracy. On page 12, it says that you can copy a file off a floppy by doing cp /dev/fd0/bookmarks.html /home/yourusername/.netscape. This is incorrect. The floppy drive must be mounted and you must then copy the file from the mountpoint. I've just notified the authors.
> How about an Intuitive UI Instead?
I can't fathom the common notion that you can put an "Intuitive UI" on a Turing complete device.
The presupposition is that people are born with an intuition about what is computationally possible, along with an intuition about some "right way" for every possible computation should be expressed. Neither is remotely near the truth.
In practice, "Intuitive UI" tends to be a euphemism for "straitjacket". You could build a computer with nothing but a single toggle switch for its UI, but you would find it inconvenient if you had more than two things you wanted the computer to do.
The nice thing about UNIX and its clones--along with MVS and VMS and almost every operating system that came along before the Mac--is that it's a full-featured OS that lets you do almost anything a computer can do, and do lots of it pretty easily if you can be bothered to learn the arcana of expressing exotic computational requirements.
However, those OSes will also let you cover them with an optional straitjacket if you do want to limit their operations, say for a net kiosk or a POS system. But not everyone wants a POS system (pardon the pun!).
Simply put, Windows and Mac have traditionally been designed to make life easy for Joe User by filtering out the complexity of general-purpose computing, i.e., Joe User runs a handful of apps, and that's "computing" for him. But lots of people need computers that are general-purpose computers rather than expensive limited-purpose appliances, and for us the "hide the complexity" strategy makes life more difficult rather than more comfortable. No one can make a menu that lists every operation I want my computer to undertake, because even I don't know today what I might ask of it tomorrow.
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Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Personally, I'd think that learning a new OS would be worth the cost of a book (which I note is out of print - does that mean a new edition is on the way?), but if you're too cheap to buy a book, well, here's a pretty decent guide to getting started with GNU/Linux.
Actually, the link to the ORA debian gnu/linux book is one link away from the full text of that book, online & free, courtesy of O'Reilly.
--sean
One of the guys I work with saw my box at work, saw transparent windows, and told me "I don't care what it takes, I want transparent windows". I gave him the standard warnings (no photoshop, word, etc. etc.) but he didn't care. I chuckled to myself, because that's what caught my intertest in linux in the first place. (e.themes.org, I think even all ye console purists can agree that the right E screenshot can convert anyone.)
.... this was weird to me, because I've being doing it so long, because when he got frustrated, it was like "fscking linux" instead of "fscking gnome, unstable mozilla, stupid rpm." It takes a while to explain how all those things interact and come shipped with a distro, remember they are used to everything coming from one vendor. "No, you can't update KDE with Red Carpet", "Oh, that sucks..." ... you get the idea.
:)
.....
This is what I learned, in a nutshell of course:
1) Teach them to use the console method first, then, when they've done it a while, show them the GUI way, that way they'll learn how it works.
2) The multi-user thing coming from windows is kind of hard to get over. "Why do I have to be root to install this?"
3) Guy calls it all linux, not GNOME, KDE, Red Hat, Ximian, mozilla
4) He needs to know his hardware, regardless of distro - everyone knows this, I hope.
5) After he got a hold of it, he found linux easy to use and maintain (I used Ximian GNOME in this case). Because it's different doesn't make it hard. Once you get them to 'think outside the box' (hate to use that phrase), learning linux can be easy and fun.
6) Nothing will help you learn linux faster than teaching someone. I consider myself an average linux guy, this experience taught me alot, and in the end, we all want to learn something, right?
7) The most important IMHO: The simple things are hard, the hard things are easy. Yes, you don't need to defrag, virus scan, worry about privacy issues, 'registration', or worry about BSODs, but yes, it will take us 2 hours to get yout ghetto ass CD burner working right
There are many different people who are drawn to Linux and not all of them have the financial resources to lay down $30-$40 on a book. Think kids in not-so-wealthy school districts for one, or even adults who are currently stuck in low paying jobs who are trying to improve their situation.
This is one of the benefits of free software. People are able to bootstrap theirselves in a way that conservatives claim the great American capitalist meritocratic system makes possible. In reality, increasing your earning power often has a steep price tag. Free software helps allevitate some of that cost.
So while there are plenty of people who are too 'cheap' to buy a book, so what? Although those people start off as leaches, and may remain leaches forever, just the very basic fact that they are running Linux almost insures that in some small way they will return something to the community... Even if it is nothing other than just once showing a newbie how to mount a drive.
I only wish this had come out when i started using linux. I had no help so i picked up the good old "Linux For Dummies" book.
DON'T BUY IT IF YOU'RE SWITCHING!
Most books state that they don't require any prior knowledge of linux or unix but the authors seem to write as if they're explaining linux to all those "newbies" who have been using linux for a few years.
My only advice, other than reading this FAQ (which is really good, BTW) is to simply fsck around with your new OS. Break it, then fix it, then break it again. Besides - if you're not using linux because you A)want to try out new things and B)want to get into the guts of an OS, then you're probably safer with windows and AOL anyway. Most of the people I know using *nix and it's variants on a *real* basis these days are the ones that were breaking their parents' cable boxes in the process of trying to figure out how they worked when they were kids.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Initially i thought this would be a paper for every windows user transitioning to linux but that obviously isn't the case. It seems that only proficient windows users would understand the majority of the paper. all the talk about mounting and swapfiles and ports... i think that's too much for mom and pop users who expect their computer to work like magic... then again, they're also the last people to even think about linux. so i guess this is a good start down the road of demystifying linux and making it easier to understand.
isn't there some kind of auto config option for installing linux? if it were to be a desktop os to contend with... asking lots of technical questions is a lot to ask for a user, regardless of expertise. well, even though i'm not a linux user, i can't deny the sheer power of a good ol' command prompt =)
I spend more time helping new linux users find replacement applications than anything else. To help alleviate this, I have set up an easy to use linux software index that works a little different than most. Just choose the task you need to do and the index tells you the single best program to do it in linux and advice on common pitfalls with it. You used photoshop? Ok, choose Graphics -> High-end Editing and it will tell you all about getting and installing the Gimp. And so on.
There is some other general help stuff, but I feel that applications are what hold most people back. They surely aren't sticking with windows for the OS itself. The link is in my sig if you are interested.
Uninnovate - Only the finest in engineering.
If you're new to Linux or even been around a little while, you have to check out the LINUX Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition.
Been referencing it exclusively ever since I found it.
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
I think one of the things that made using Linux not so difficult for me was that I grew up using DOS and VMS, and editing BBS configuration files since Junior High. Think about the newbies who've never had to leave the GUI world? In a lot of respects I think I like Linux so much because it brings me back to BBS days in a sense; it lets you become a provider of something (by setting up minor servers and stuff), and it gives you a chance to play around. Bringing up a config file in pico reminds me of fixing up dropfiles in DOS edit :)
Like a BBS, there was a default install -- but chances are you changed it to represent your own personality; Linux is similar. What packages you install and how you configure everything is almost an expression of yourself. Let us not forget the l33tness attitudes originated from the BBS scene.
Goatse.cx has an excellent, nearly complete collection of HOW-TOs and even full-blown guides on just about anything related for Linux. Certainly worth more of my time than working for money to buy an overpriced O'Reilly book.
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Is your company running tools written by ma