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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.
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
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
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.
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