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Moving To Linux
Since the book comes with Knoppix and the author's purpose is to introduce the Linux desktop immediately, the first few chapters of this book only briefly describe what Linux versions are available, how to get a copy and how to install your chosen distro. Gagne gives some example installation choices with Mandrake, Redhat and SuSE. The next two chapters deal with using and customizing the author's desktop environment of choice (KDE) and exploring with Konquerer.
Chapter 7 provides a "release-agnostic" approach to package installation with examples and screen shots from Kpackage, RPM installs via shell and building from source. Most readers will become quite familiar with Chapter 8: Working with Devices, despite the author's exclamation that "Device support under Linux is excellent. No, really." Printing looms large in this chapter and there's some good advice to be had here for the newbie. The next several chapters tackle getting connected to the Internet, email and using Konquerer and Mozilla. In short, mainstream user necessities. Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE, and Ximian are all represented in the chapter on system updates along with a pitch to get involved in the Linux community (this is a good thing).
The make-or-break chapters for those readers requiring office productivity solutions come near the half point of the book. Gagne gives an overview of OpenOffice.org's suite of MS Office counterparts. These are really meant as introductory lessons on migrating from the more familiar, more ubiquitous MS suite of applications and not intended as an in-depth look at OpenOffice.org. Here is where the user will judge whether Linux is a viable alternative to Windows. Productivity is essential. Can you create a document that can be shared in a Windows dominant world? Can you do it without struggling to learn new rules and exceptions to the rules? Gagne makes a strong pitch for ease of use in the Linux world.
The final chapters on multimedia and games round out the topics that every semi-literate computer user has on their "must know how to" list. Under multimedia, KsCD, XMMS and Noatun are covered, including visualization plugins and skins. K3b, Grip and MPlayer are also described. Favorite Linux games are represented: KSirtet, KAsteroids, Frozen-Bubble, KBattleship, KPatience, KPoker ... well, you get the idea!
Care has been taken in laying out the book; from the beautiful typography, the boxed asides with Quick Tips, Shell Outs and Notes to the Resources list at the end of each chapter. The book is easy to read and the author has a crisp conversational style of writing devoid of distracting anecdotes or sophomoric humor (chapter subheadings aside!). Gagne succeeds in providing a guidebook to Linux that should enable the average Windows users to make a smooth transition to a Linux distro of their choice. At the very least, Gagne gives the nervous Windows-to-Linux wannabe an excellent bootable Knoppix CD to test drive while following along in the book. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to someone who is looking to give Linux a spin but is afraid to commit their working PC to Linux entirely. This book and the accompanying CD will ease the way toward independence from Windows.
You can purchase Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Marcel Gagne writes an amusing and informative monthly Column for Linux Journal called Cooking with Linux.
The next two chapters deal with using and customizing the author's desktop environment of choice (KDE) and exploring with Konquerer.
I was driving through Redmond, WA recently and heard a rumor that only fat smelly turds are attracted to Linux. I will call them back to add illiterate to that list.
I do kind of like these books that help ordinary people go to Linux. I know one of them even worked for me, and I'm to the point that I'm ready to ditch Windows on my desktop and go with just Linux. Furthermore, the LiveCD distro included is a good idea, just in case the person doesn't like what they see.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
a desktop OS should be easy enough to use that the idea of buying a book on how to run it would be redundant. One can dream.
One of the main issues with Linux Live CD's is the fact that it is rare for a live cd to properly initialize ALL the hardware on the computer. (i.e. sound card and wireless 802.11) Until something happens to allow universal driver support, live cd's will leave a bad taste in people's mouths who use obscure / cheap hardware (most windows users)
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Are you suggesting Linux users are migratory?
/ Don't get me started on the flight speed of African swallows.
The easily-missed colon in the title, combined with the fact that there have been a lot of stories about companies migrating to Linux lately, made me read the title as:
Linux Moving to Linux
That definitely elicited a double-take.
This space intentionally left blank.
Compare it with the number of 'Windows XP for dummies' copies sold.
Will this get my karma raised?
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." (John Maynard Keynes)
Could have been a 1 page book.
Get off pre Windows 2000.
Update drivers.
this sounds like a wonderful book for someone wanting to make good use of older hardware.
Stores are ripping us all of over this... don't pirate it but don't buy it either unless you can find a lower price that reflects the likely sales of it.
Perhaps John Carmack would like to comment on that...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
As great as Knoppix is, I stuck it on my wife's machine when she was having some hardware problems (as a stop gap until I could do a rebuild). All she could do was bitch about how slow everything loaded from CD, such as Open Office. Combine this with the change in gui and CD distros are not always the best way to intro new users.
Now that most Windows users don't even know what a "blue screen of death" is, the title won't attract them. That said, most computer users would prefer having a "blue screen of death" once in a while to having to deal with command line installs from rpm's...
Way to go, this is a fantastic argument to use to get people to switch. When was the last time I saw one of those... hmmm. Let's see. Since 1998 when I switched to NT4 and later through W2K, XP and 2003 (yes, as a desktop) on literally dozens of machines, I've seen four blue screens, and they were all on the same W2K box (the one I use for gaming and crap). Two were caused by stupid Creative drivers, and I forget what caused the other two.
Yeah, four blue screens in (I guess) hundreds of thousands of hours of operation on multiple machines is a definite reason to switch to Linux. I'm sold.
I ran Knoppix 3.3 and the newest 3.4 on Dells cheapest laptop. Inspiron 1100, Everything detected perfectly and runs great. Even the Netgear wireless NIC. Knoppix is good at even the cheapest hardware. As long as its common, thats what they shoot for. Ease of use.
Heres a good site for Linux on the Inspiron 1100.
http://www.geocities.com/randomnumbergenerator2001 /
List Price: $34.99
Our Price: $27.99 (Save 20%)
Barnes & Noble Member Price: $26.59
It should be $733.99 (Save -95.23%).
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Look, I don't use MACs but I respect that people like them. So can't all us smelly Linux geeks have a big group hug with all the MAC people in their Nautica gear, united in the knowledge that neither of our groups finance the great demon in Redmond.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I've installed Linux but I can't find solitaire. Does this mean I have to reinstall Windows?
His column usually has good Linux material, but his writing style is sooooooo LAME that it's often too hard to read thru the entire article. Sure, dropping his "funny bits" might disappoint the 2-3 people who find it funny, but the rest of us ONLY care about the Linux.
Just start trying to actually use the more esoteric features of your apps...
And replace it with a Kernel Panic!
Best Buy can have you arrested
Yes, games and multimedia are just so important to me when I begin learning a new OS! Not to mention specific examples of Linux games that I have never heard of and certainly wouldn't play. This right here ends the "importance" of this book for me and should also end it for everyone else.
1) You are not the intended audience of this book.
2) You are right, multimedia is of no interest whatsoever to the average user. I mean, who ever heard of playing music on their computer? Next you'll be trying to convince me that there is a compressed audio standard that is listened to by millions of users everyday...... For the average user, multimedia is one of the most important issues.
If you're going to troll, at least get it right. It's 503 errors. Idiot.
Lately I've been thinking about moving to linux to check it out - Gaming is still important to me , but I'm sorta interested to see how linux has evolved in the past 5 years since I last tried linux - and burned up a monitor since I didn't know what I was doing.
With that said - the big thing that puts me off from trying Linux (apart from switiching gears) is this "BSOD" reference from folks that are trying to tell me that their software is better.
Before you mod this "flamebait" just listen for a moment. I've been working as a programmer, and have used win 2k pro extensively over the past five years on at least 7 different machines. The only time I got a BSOD was on a Western Digital Hard Drive failure.
When I see someone tell me that their software will free me from the "BSOD" - I can't help thinking that they haven't seen or used win2k - or haven't configured their installations properly - and they are trying to tell me "Linux is Better" based off of 95/98/ME or poor computing practices.
And while that certainly is most likely the case that Linux is Better- I'd like an honest comparison on how it fares against 2kpro? Honestly - if you want to convert folks over to Linux - Do it positively - Tell me what's good about Linux - Don't tell me what's bad with windows - I know what's bad with windows and a Linux guy telling me what's bad with windows will get an eyeroll from me, and will outright be dismissed from conversation if they mistate or are erroneous on the latest platform.
Campaigns based on Negativity are self defeating. They won't sway the extremes, but they will force the fence sitters away from moving to the negative side. I want to know what I will gain. I want to know why it's right for me. Tell me the good parts and how and why they are so good.
But above all, Please - Drop the "BSOD" it left with Windows ME.
by the way - Microsoft does drop the ball - Windows CE
Win CE
WinCE - lol
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I went to barnes and noble to look at some books about linux, I always have problems with installing programs and stuff, and i read quite a few "newbie" books about linux, but i keep running in to problems
it seems like a good book, but for a non-geek, try linux for non-geeks
Hey, it made me laugh.
you have convinced me, where can i find the upgrade from Windows XP?
because my brand new workstation comes with that junk
so i want to upgrade that Operating system asap
oh you mean that OSX costs at minimum $700 for a brand new computer that doesnt even come close to what i have right now.;
OSX can suck me off for that much money.
And say hello to segmentation faults and core dumps! woohoo!!
Look, I don't use MACs but I respect that people like them. So can't all us smelly Linux geeks have a big group hug with all the MAC people in their Nautica gear , united in the knowledge that neither of our groups finance the great demon in Redmond.
I don't wear Nautica you insensitive clod... I prefer Ralph Lauren! Jeesh.
Funny about how the guy speaks only about RPM-based distros, and then his demo is based on Debian!
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Too bad the link is off-topic.
On topic though, I definitely want to switch over to Linux. Since ZSNES is available for Linux, that will suit most of my gaming needs as a dedicated console gamer. With that, OpenOffice, and Gecko-based browsers, I'm gradually seeing no need to hang on to anything made by M$ (although I admit I do like their "natural" mice and keyboards.)
Until they start packing better NTFS support (Captive NTFS is a pain in the ass, and still doesn't work for me most of the time) along with 802.11b/g/a card support in Knoppix, it's hard for a lot of current Windows users [XP users, mainly] to switch over. I'd love to try out more in Knoppix as I love that you can pop in a live CD, learn some Linux, and if needed, reboot and go back to Windows - and when I sufficiently knew enough about what I was doing in Linux, only then would I make the permanent switch.
One thing about all these articles is that they expect users to quit Windows cold-turkey and immediately jump head first into Linux. But from what I've seen personally, that's not necessarily the best approach. Those that I've seen try making the hard switch install their distribution of choice, then after a few hours of trying to regain the functionality of their last OS [figuring out what does what, where it is, etc] they get frustrated with Linux and wonder what made them give up their previous OS when it worked "just fine". I like the gradual approach that Knoppix and other live CD-based distros can afford. You can pop it in, screw with it for a while, learn some, then pop it out and go back to your old OS if you get frustrated or tired. I commend Gagne for using Knoppix as the teaching tool of his book.
The Kingdom of Retarsia
What is this blue screen you speak of? I vaguely remember it from my Win 9x and NT 4 days, but alas I have yet to see one in a long time. In fact the last blue screen I had was in 2001, the heat sink fell off of my CPU and Windows bluescreened at me..
Oh wait, I remember a second one - last year, when the hard drive died, I got the page fault blue screen.
Other then that, I haven't seen one in a looong time - and I use Windows a lot at home and work at a company with almost 1000 Windows servers. But hey, stereotypes are hard to lose I suppose.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
I read his book. I am a newbie (sorry: 'noobie' is it?). I like his approach. He is about the only Linux user who doesn't scoff at new users. What irritates me in the Linux "community" is that each time a new user asks a question, it is clearly lablelled ad a *stupid* question. He, we're not all uber-geeks. I just want the thing to work.
I also think that the haughty attitude portrayed by some Linux users actually puts people off - and gives them reason to stick with Microsoft.
Looks like Steve is still busy at work.
-]Phreak Out[-
seriously you need to ask why?
because they can.
its the same reason we charge $7 a beer at alpine valley.
because we can, because people are gonna pay that much for it. and honestly we could charge $10 and not serve any less.
it isnt about whats fair, it is how much you can charge that people will stilll pay for it.
Why does everyone insist upon Amazon and B&N? (see suggestive sell above: You can buy...")
They aren't the only stores in town and they aren't the least-expensive stores in town, either
Pay attention to where they rank with the suggestions below:
When one is tempted to buy from Amazon or B&N first, try going here: Moving to Linux via AddAll
or,
plug the ISBN into Froogle.Google. On top of that, look in the right margin of the Froogle search - it suggests "Buy 0321159985 for less" at a site named "www.chambal.com".
Whenever I see a suggestive "buy this book here" link next to a review or announcement and it's B&N or Amazon, it reminds me of those who have 'fessed up and admitted they get a kickback if purchases are made via that link. So either people are ignorant and settle for Amazon and B&N (only) or they are looking to steer some of your ca$h you could be using for Doom 3 into their pocket. (if this is the case, why don't they volunteer this up front?)
These book/CD combos are a godsend to those of us trying to convince friends and family to switch (so we no longer have to clean viruses, trojans, and spyware from their computers every few weeks).
I'm easing my family into it right now. The trick is to start by introducing the easiest open-source applications that are available on both platforms. Pull the old "Here, I'll 'upgrade' your browser for you, and you won't get pop-ups anymore" trick and get them used to Firefox. Follow it up with Thunderbird and OpenOffice, and they'll gradually start wondering why they put up with all the problems they used to have in the first place.
That's when you whip out the book and the Knoppix CD, and introduce them to the same applications they're used to on a different operating system. Get them curious, get them interested, and then they'll start doing the work for you.
A MAC is either a number in your Ethernet card or a brand of lipstick.
make sure you move to linux, and not bsd, or you will be in the world of hurt.
The only reason I have to use Windows at work is that all our mail/contacts/schedule is in Lotus Notes and I could not find a client for Linux (weird if you think on IBM's commitment to Linux).
Using wine is so painfully slow that is not a solution.
PENAROL: Seras eterno como el tiempo y floreceras en cada primavera.
Keep in mind a lot of windows users have invested a bit of cash in their machine, and asking them to just toss it out the window and buy a Mac isn't going to win many friends..
At least suggesting ( or assisting ) they migrate to Linux or a BSD variant will let them keep most, if not all, of their invested hardware...
Also, to be a bit more accurate, it would be communistic style, not socialistic.. ( at least by traditional definitions, not the convenient, but incorrect, ones that were dreamed up in the 50's to support the 'red scare' )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Linux for dummies, 5th edition Amazon.com Sales Rank: 751
Hmmm.. what does that say to you?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Notepad?!?
Big hug...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Just put a senior citizen who only wanted web and email on linux. Tried a Knoppix hard drive install to experiment, but:
1. Modem driver didn't claim to work with Debian, and, although the install script was "Debian-aware", it didn't.
2. How do I get _user_ level icons for mounting and unmounting removable media that a computer newbie can understand? Seemed like "auto" was broken after a hard drive install?
Fedora Core. Simple process. She's happy.
My conclusion was that Knoppix isn't quite there for the clueless home user's desktop.
But Knoppix is a clever insert for a beginner's book and, looking through a book store thinking about what my new user might understand, I can see that such a book is very needed.
Then that's fucking sad. Get a stereo or a MP3 player and hook it to your stereo. If that's the MOST important section of a book then the OS has failed.
... and why would I want to kiss his Blue Screen?
"... Microsoft continues to clobber them in the world's PC markets, with relative ease!...."
Is that what it is? There has to be a winner and a loser in the OS market? Is it like a sports game where being on the winning side makes you feel better?
I dunno, man. I for one like having an OS that is not main stream. And I don't see it as a competition of winners and losers. So what if MS has more desktops. Doesn't mean squat to me. And I think you have to be nuts to accept Microsoft's EULA. It is insane and only getting worse each year. So you're not a winner there but that doesn't matter, of course.
but TransGaming is too focused on FPS eye-candy to get the only three games I play (Simcity 4: Rush Hour, C&C Generals: Zero Hour, Monopoly Tycoon) to run under their software. Gaming is my prime reason for having a PC (and don't tell me to get a console, RTS and simulations, two mouse-requiring genres, don't do well on consoles and I have to step over my brother to get my console of choice, a Gamecube) However, Linux stability is a nice feature. But Windows 98SE hasn't let me down too much. Heck, most of my system problems are my BIOS registering an improper speed setting and hanging on restart or not detecting the hard drive.
Let me tell you all a personal story, at the moment im doing two CS courses over summer. One is a Linux course and one is a Windows 2003 administration course. For the Windows course i need two computers, one with Windows 2000 and one with Windows 2003. I've chosen to install Windows 2003 on my regular PC next to my normal OS that i use personally (Win2K).
The specs of my computer are:
AMD Athlon 1900+, 512MB PC2100, 8GB UW-SCSI, Gainward GF3 Ti500, SB Live Value.
Ok so dad has a computer too.. these are his specs:
Pentium 233Mhz, 128MB EDO-RAM, S3 ViRGE/DX 4MB, AWE 64 ISA, 4GB harddrive.
So I tought to myself that two operating systems are enough on my computer (Win2k and Win2k3) so i'll put Linux and Win2K on dads computer.
Now the Linux course is geared toward Mandrake Linux because of its easy of use and easy installation. So what i did was partition his harddrive like this:
2.5GB Win2K partition. 1.5GB Linux partition. Ok so on with the installing!!! (i've installed linux before, redhat 5.2 and mandrake and clarkconnect)
So what is the first thing that happens? 1.5GB is not enough for mandrake and the packages i need for the course. So i have to repartition the harddrive and make the win2k partition 1.3GB and give the rest, 2.7GB, to Linux. So i do this and i install Win2K before Linux (because i don't trust microsofts bootloader).
"Yes!! everything goes according to the plan" i think to myself! After one hour of the mandrake installer copying files to the harddrive it is time to choose gfx driver! At this point i know that the card is an S3 ViRGE 4MB so i select ViRGE(generic) which the installer preselected for me and then 4MB (which the installer also selected). Then it is finally time to test the screen mode, note "test" so i press the test button, i mean i can always go back if it didn't work right?
WRONG!!! The screen goes black never to return and im unable to finish the installer. I have to restart and has lost one hour of my time.
So i do it all again and this time i select the old generic driver. Same problem, black screen and reboot and start over again.
The third time the installer locks up around 50 percent (prolly because i had used the 'back' feature of the installer)
The fourth time i select the DX driver and i don't test the screenmode (i dont dare) and i finish the isntaller. When i reboot it finally works and KDE appears.
Now to the other problems. The S3 drivers are obviously buggy like hell and not hardware accelerated because the graphics runs so slow i can see the screen repaint. What i also see is corruption of the video memory when i move the mouse and the windows around on the screen.
So i look around in the configuration utilities of KDE to see if there is some switch i can click to make it go faster. Hardware acceleration perhaps? Don't expect me to search google and then edit some config file. This stuff should work out of the box because not everyone got the skill to do stuff like that. period. aspecially my dad who uses this computer to play stuff like solitare.
Anyways the Linux computer is almost unusable because it runs so damn slow, starting a program takes 30 seconds.. ANY PROGRAM! Even opening my home folder with konqueror takes atleast 15 seconds.
Conclusion so far, KDE is unusable on this computer with this old graphics card and i blame the following things:
1. Bad and buggy unaccelerated graphics drivers.
2. XFree86 or X.org (client server based graphical interface is not the way to go for desktop systems, huge bottleneck)
3. Lots of bloat in KDE.
Do you guys want some more facts? Windows 2000 boots faster on this old machine. Much faster infact. No graphical bugs either and it uses less RAM (50MB with 0MB paged out) and programs start after just 2-3 seconds delay. CPU usage is lower (0-1% idle as opposed to the 2-3 i saw in Mandrake when it was idle, i even tried turning off a bunch of services to speed it up)
Now why
Please don't pigeon-hole.
Because "people minus one" (at least) are gonna pay that much for it - the day I pay $7 for a beer (= £4 here in the UK) is the day beer gets served by the gallon.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
SuSE's live disc, since you mention it, apparently didn't support my Geforce 2 very well, it sent out an out of sync videosignal to my Samsung 19" monitor.
Trying to boot in "safe mode" didn't help either. Yes, indeed, a non-working live-CD isn't really what drives people to install the distro, or Linux consequently.
Fight for your digital freedom, join the EFF *now*: http://www.eff.org/support/
Being more of a long toothed techie, I went for the thick "Red Hat Linux 8 Bible" last year. It's nice to have a book that describes something that you also have immediate access to (the linucx and all apps are included in envelopes on the inside covers), and which wonderfully goes into sufficient detail on many of the underlying/administrative features of Linux to get you a leg up to get in groove enough to avoid serious flame responses whan asking questions on the various Linux newsgroups.
In leiu of a Windows or MacOS level of ease of install & configuration features these books help fill in those gaps nicely.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Who makes that operating system then?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
"...KDE and Gnome are definitley NOT up to filling those shoes...."
That may be true for you but not everyone. I (have to) use Windoz at work (2088 hrs/year). And it is a welcome relief to go home and use my Linux box. I find the X system to be better for me (virtual desktops, for example). So, you see, I'm not without experience on MS but give me a *nix system any day.
I should point out quite a bit of the radiation has died down or been absorbed into the ecosystem. If you don't eat stuff you grow in your garden you should be fine.
Solution; Don't buy games in retail stores. They are far too expensive. Buy them online instead. If you want Doom 3 for cheaper, go to Play.com where they have it for £27.99 which is a lot more reasonble.
Amazingly, That's exactly what I do for a living. I write aviation safety management software.
What that means in real life, is my company produce systems that people who have absolutely no previous experience with computers can pick up one of our embedded mobile devices and start reporting incidents/ jotting notes/ assigning tasks to other members of their team etc.
I stress it again, these people have NO previous experience with computers.
How do we do it? Simple, we strip all complications from the user, the back end handles them. The front end has a question and a back/next button. Answer the question from a list and press next. (its a lot more involved than that, but you get the idea). basically, the user can't break it because they don't get the opportunity to.
What this does mean is there is no room for "powerusers" people have to run at the speed of the Lowest Common Denominator.
I don't get why OS'es don't have different levels of visibility for user level.
i.e. Advanced user gets everything and probably a different run level that a desktop starts up in
Starter User starts into a stripped down desktop, with buttons for everything they might need. Even like the TiVo OS where you get page after page from a simple 4 arrow remote.
anything in the middle. I would expand but as I'm posting as Anonymous Coward this probably won't be read so I can't be bothered to continue.
Lately, every time a 'BSOD' comment is made in either a submission or a thread, a dozen people jump on this and scream "I haven't had a BSOD since X years ago, so why don't you Linux zealots shut it already!"
Lovely anecdotal evidence. Let me assure you, the BSOD was a very regular occurence back in the NT 4 days, and they still happen today. Yes, far less frequently than in the past (although personally I didn't see more than 1 or 2 a year on my home Win95 box, YMMV), but they still do.
XP seems to have some serious flaws with its hibernation function. I've been able to bluescreen my laptop with 2 different methods:
1. Hibernate with a PCMCIA wireless card plugged in. Remove the card, then power on the system. As Windows resumes, I can get a BSOD about 50% of the time, core dump, and reboot. I've experienced this on several different models of laptop, with different wireless cards.
2. Take a laptop with 256MB ram, that's been hibernated regularly, on a hard drive with (for example) 2-400 MB free, above and beyond the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) and swap file. Note: the hibernation file takes up roughly as much space as you have ram in a system. Now, shut the laptop down (ie: DON'T hibernate). Windows retains the last used hiberfil.sys on the hard drive regardless of how you shut down. Add another 512MB of ram. Turn the machine back on. For whatever reason, Windows tries to resume from the last hibernation file, which of course was created when you had 256MB of ram, and you now have 768MB. Guess what happens - BSOD. After a crash and reboot, the hibernation option is disabled, because of course you don't have enough free HD space to create a full 768MB hiberfil.sys. Again, different machines, different ram, pretty consistent BSOD.
To all you naysayers out there, the BSOD hasn't gone anywhere. *You* might not see them anymore, but work with enough machines and deviate more than a small bit from the norm, and you'll see them again. It's *not* just buggy drivers or failing hardware that causes this. There are some of us who still see them on a fairly regular basis, hence the jokes.
"At the same time, this book is not really for the Dummies style audience, either. It's for the Windows user..."
Is there really a difference between those two audiences?
...you just replace it with a different syntax.
In Windows it's the dreaded BSOD; but in Linux it's a kernal panic. Not much different. Some BSODs are worse than others, some you can recover from. Likewise, some kernal panics you can recover from, some you can't. It's all a matter of perspective.
Carmack needs to get over it, and stop pissing and moaning. He's dealing in a highly piratable medium. That's a fact. There's not a whole lot you can do about software piracy. That's another fact. If you know those facts and choose to go into that business, you can't then go about boo-hooing how unfair it is. It's like becoming a fire eater and then bitching and moaning, "Oh, that fire is so HOT! Something has to be done!"
Carmack, if the situation is so goddamned untenable, take your baseball and go the fuck home .
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Marcel Gagne has fun bashing the past of Microsoft. Now I'm not saying Windows is stable but 2K/XP rarely gives anything remotely close to a BSOD and knowing how many are using XP over 9X, can't see how that statement is relevant.
While no piece of large scale software (especially an operating system) will ever be free from bugs, Linux gives you the advantage most of the time over Windows precisely because you can see the bugs happen. Log files, proc, etc - all give you an "inside" look at what your OS is doing - or not doing - and maybe that information might be enough to fix it, or at least find a fix for it (if it is a common bug). Rather than "assuming" what the problem might be, you can know - even if that knowledge is "no fix for you kernel/distro - you need to upgrade to ???". From there you can make a decision on what to do, rather than just "wonder what caused that".
Also, while it isn't impossible (I have seen it happen, almost every Linux using geek has), generally the kernel won't die when an application dies. Mozilla falls over, everything else continues to work. Does it take X with it? Virtual console (or telnet/ssh) in to the box, and kill the task. There is always a way back in without a complete reboot (though sometimes, a complete reboot may be called for). Linux (as a whole) doesn't just "bluescreen" leaving you only the reset button to get back to where you were. Generally, there are several other avenues to try before resorting to the "final solution".
That isn't to say Windows hasn't gotten better - I think XP is pretty stable (most of the time), but at times I get annoyed when something happens to it, and I don't have the tools and logs (like I have under Linux) to check out the basics to see what really went wrong - it feels like a guessing game toy at that point. Even so, it is a damn sight better than the Windows 9x days...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
And shake hands with your new friend, kernel panic.
Who is panic, and what is he doing in my computer?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Is Linux really there yet in terms of accessibility? Last thing I used was Redhat 9, but that was a few months ago so ..
I guess what I'm really interested to see is what kind of hell a Linux tech support call from a 70 year old woman who just wants to e-mail her kids would be like - especially if it's going to involve going to the command line. And before anyone replies and says that tech support calls for a Linux system wouldn't be all that common because the system itself is so stable and secure ... trust me, if anyone's going to find a way to break a computer, it's going to be the people who could care less about the OS as long as their e-mail is working. But you all already know that. ;)
I'm not saying Windows is necessarily better than Linux, I think both have their strengths and I'm perfectly comfortable working in either environment. But from what I've seen so far I don't know if even a Linux For Dummies-style book is going to help get around the fact that the operating system itself still has awhile to go before it attains the user-friendliness of Windows.
um, yeah, so i've had windows XP crash exactly 0 times in 3 years. the blue screen of death is so yesterday!
Windows can be a stable platform is someone is on top of it, monitoring and updating as needed. What you describe just sounds like very bad or no IT support. I'd say it was a very badly run network as much as insecure Windows installations.
Both RH 7.2 and FC2 try to tweak device ownership on console login/logout, but ocassionally screw up (either that or using ctrl-alt-backspace to logout is not recommended -- I've been doing that since forever) device ownership -- they get "stuck" to some old console user -- perhaps because some process is still "logged in" to a console. With RH 7.2, this means that things like sound "stop working" for the new user (as the user does not have the necessary permissions to access the /dev/dsp and related devices). With FC2, you get hung at the desktop setup (at least running Gnone) after login.
I haven't been able to find any mention of this behaviour anywhere, or a recommended workaround.
You could've hired me.
It doesn't matter how long it's been since you've seen a blue screen... because blue screens are a trademark of the Microsoft experience, much like viruses. Everyone knows what a blue screen means, and Microsoft will never shake their reputation as being a shoddy OS vendor.
Besides, it doesn't help our IT department mandated daily rebooting for every Win2k desktop in the department. It seems that a reboot-a-day keeps the help desk away... We used to have numerous "strange" and intermittent problems until this policy was implemented. I've seen my WinNT/2k desktop crashed twice.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
"Ok, heres what hardware is supported out of the box. Everything else is likely to be a headache".
And for most people, this already is a turn off. Most people don't know, and don't care (rightly so) what kind of video chip they have, sound card, etc. This is pretty much useless information. What Linux needs to do is to support generic, industry standards. It needs to support Soundblaster compatible cards. Generic video cards, network cards, etc. I mean, can you imagine buying something as simple (to you) as a car seat cover, and it coming with a list of spark plug manufacturers that it works with? Most people have no idea where the spark plug (or video chip information) is, never mind what they have.
They might as well, every body else is....
There are a great many non-readers who have gone from TV to PC. When they screw up their windows install, I just give them a Knoppix disk and tell them to click yes to everything. The only hard part is explaining how to change the boot sequence to boot from their CD player first.
"What's a bios, is it dangerous?"
I do not mean illiterates, but people whose lives were formed around staring at a tube. To these people, a PC is just another tube with more variety.
I tend to recommend to people who want to get into Linux to buy a KVM switch (about $40 for 2 machines, including all cables), and a cheap computer (~$250, or you can use an old one).
...
This way the switch is instantaneous, rather than waiting 5 minutes for you to log out/restart/boot
Someone should put out a book on moving Linux users from the mindeset that Win98 and WinME and DOS are NOT Win2k, or WinXP...
BSOD, you are kidding right? If you see one of these with WinXP or Win2K you have serious hardware issues, PERIOD.
How about a book that get Linux users to open their eyes to the NT model and WinXp and get away from the world of hacker quality drivers and frequent Kernel Panic bringing the Linux system to halt.
Title should be:
"Kernel Panic No More - Move to WindowsXP!"
I truly don't even dislike Linux, I just wanted to throw a concept across the fence that people here seem to forget about.
Also, there are many people that use WindowsXP and 200x servers in production environments with consistent stability.
Windows may have had the BSOD back in the DOS days, or a infrequent one with the NT core when having a hardware or driver issue, but 99% of the users don't see WindowsXP as instable EVER.
If you keep harping on Windows as being instable you are never going to get anyone's attention. Mainstream users on XP just don't have the BSOD or other problems that you like to portray them as having.
So now lets talk about Kernel problems with Linux and the Kernel Panic of Death. (KPOD)
Which I have seen more often than the BSOD on Windows and we run 90% Windows/ 10% *nix systems. Ironic or just silly?
The simple/advanced interface you describe already exists in X (pretty much uniquely so in fact), the simple interface is called Gnome and the more advanced one KDE :)
What you're suggesting is that the best-selling games (and in a capitalistic society that means the best-quality games) are sold for a lower price. So the lower quality games (the ones which don't sell so well) will need to be sold for a higher price just to recoup the losses.
This is the exact opposite of hundreds of years of the free market.
I'm not so sure I agree with this post. There are professionals out there who support Linux, BSD, or other systems at a lower level: only infrustructure type work. Whereas our day-to-day tasks are done on a Windows machine (or otherwise). This book would be a good resource for us in our battles to free ourselves, companies, relatives, etc. from the evil empire.
My girlfriend's brand new laptop (well, when it was brand new a year ago) came with WinXP Pro and blue-screen'd regularly. But Linux doesn't.
I've been using Linux as my primary desktop at home since 1998, but I picked up the book primarily for my wife (who made the leap to Linux somewhere around 2001 due to a magical combination of getting tired of having to constantly reboot and the availability of StarOffice). My hope was that she would find Marcel's style approachable enough to dig into the things she was interested in on her own. That didn't pan out, though; she's happier just asking me a quick question when she runs into a dead end.
However, I found myself learning a few things about KDE from the book that I wasn't aware of due to my WindowMaker / Gnome past:
So I went from being a primarily command-line oriented guy to trusting a little more in the nice GUI apps that KDE supplies... and it has been good. I'm happy that I picked up Marcel's book.
By the way, he didn't write this book using the French chef schtick that he uses for his Linux Journal "Cooking with Linux" columns, for which I'm quite thankful. I enjoy the columns, but a full book of that would be too much. Instead, he adopts a personal tone that is straightforward and pleasant to read.
I hate to tell you chief, but Powertoys for XP gives you virtual desktops. And they're just as good as or better than Gnome's. And KDE's. Simple, fast, effective. Free.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
So Jobs is Jesus.. and i assume Bill is damian..
:)
Well it sonuds good anyway
---- Booth was a patriot ----
A great application of P2P would be learning Linux. Say you get stuck on something that is very easy on Windows but absurdly difficult on Linux; something like changing the video resolution from 640x460 to 1024 or vice versa. If you know how to do it, it's easy. If you don't then it's a fucking nightmare. Everything in Linux is like this, or used to be.
So you go onto the FuckThisStupidShit(tm) P2P site by pressing any of the keys on the keypad (by pounding your fist on the keypad repeatedly while chanting the name of the P2P site. I do this every day! Just ask my co-workers!).
The P2P front-end programs asks you what you want to do and you type a little message. Then the program includes the relevant configuration parameters of your machine and your text into a P2P packet and sends it off. Someone in P2P land sees it and answers your question. Your life is better. You are becoming a Linux expert. You feel better. Birds are singing. You co-workers are smiling at you again and some of the exciting ones are discretely unbuttoning their blouses.
Gee maybe they're affilated with textbook companies, who somehow can't sell millions of first year text books for less than $75!
Surely no-one on the planet is screwed more than university students at book buying time!
Three Squirrels
that the book "BSOD For Dummies" is out of print?
This really is a good thing, especially because it takes Linux to the English (and French) mainstream market; coupled with the release of pre-installed Linux laptops and desktops thins can really help the consuper market take off. In time, this should level out the rough edges - and Kernel panic is IMHO not one of them.
However I got there first. My booklet on the same subject is out since 2001, is FDL'd and there for grabbing. http://dazero.sourceforge.net/ldz-en.html/
Marcello Missiroli Vice-President of ERLUG
That whole "Windows is Crashy" thing must be a myth. Regular users must not really be getting them at all.
That whole meme must be a conspiracy by the powerful Linux cabal.
Thanks for settling that.
-- My Weblog.
It's nice that it comes with Knoppix, but I seriously question introducing new users to RPM distros. Knoppix is dpkg-based, which means you can readily migrate it to Debian without much hassle. Given that Debian just works and RPM distros send you through dependency hell on a badly fragmented format, it seems like the intuitive choice would have been to show new users how to get started with Knoppix immediately and migrate that over to Debian.
Help us build a better map!
I guess the blue screen has been kissed goodbye in windows 2000 for good.
Chris ,
Php Programmers.
The answer, of coursee, is at http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/