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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.
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.
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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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)
Yet there are plenty of books out there that teaches one how to use MacOS and Windows. So by that logic, all desktop OSes are difficult to use. And these days, any time someone writes a book about how to use these, they instantly call it "Hacking Windows/OSX".
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.
They are all difficult to use. Have you ever participated in any usability studies with people who have no computer experience? There is nothing intuititive about using a computer. There are things that seem intutitive after years of using a computer, but to someone with no background they're all overly difficult to use.
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!
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.
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