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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.
Well, nothing is foolproof. Especially when you're changing mindsets entirely. Linux commands aren't the same as DOS prompt commands, and installing tarballs can be a bit confusing if you have no knowledge of the system, somebody's got to explain it to you. Not everybody has an expert in the neighborhood to talk to. If Linux was more common, these books wouldn't be as necessary.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
Might add the fact that kernel 2.6 is incompatible with a lot of older hardware. My servers are still running 2.4 because my raid controller can't initialize with it. Works great for newer equipment but its a safe bet that if anyone were ready to switch they would be running older hardware. This used to be a strength of the linux platform. Not sure when, how, or why it changed.
Don't lead people on to think that they can just throw any old hardware at it and expect it to work.
MS and Apple have deals where HW makers get to put the logos on thier products if they can show compatibilty. It would be nice if some distro companies would step up and do something similar.(even better if they tested for general Linux compatibilty, not just thier distrubiton)
Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
When we have a live cd that can install 'smartly' and continously optimize its configuration (pretty much like windoze) is when joe average be happy and content.
I finally booted up Knoppix on my main workstation last night in fact. Booted up slowly, but once up it worked like a charm. I didn't really care if the sound card, networking, or other subsystems didn't work perfectly though. Besides, this will be a great demo disk in the future for my wife, other family members, etc. to see just how capable Linux *CAN* be if setup correctly.
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
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.
And it's been said before (including by your article) that nipples are not intuitive. You have to teach babies how to use it. Thank God they're fast learners. I don't think I could withstood someone freaking out about the kid not eating. ;-)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
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.
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
I'm probably not the best person to tell you, since the thing which caused me to drop Windows was a job in which I administered 120 9x machines. But, here goes...
Speaking as a techie, the thing which is good about Linux is that if something goes wrong (and it will - those who tell you it won't are either lying or inexperienced) the error messages tend to be more useful, as do the error logs.
You can usually communicate directly with someone fairly closely involved in developing whatever software/driver is broken. You're not stuck with Microsoft's "support", and I find that the signal/noise ratio in mailing lists tends to be significantly higher. Basically, you don't generally have a bunch of MCSE monkeys telling you what the problem is and getting it spectacularly (and obviously) wrong.
Programs tend to be relatively small and self-contained - an obscure bug with a particular package in userland won't usually affect much else in the system (unlike Internet Explorer).
The developers are generally far more open & honest about bugs. You're more likely to hear "Oh, that's new. Looks like a bug..." from an open source developer than from a Microsoftie.
I can sleep at night knowing that not a single byte of software on my computer is pirated.
It may be that none of these are convincing reasons to switch. Fine, then don't. The best operating system is the one that does what you want it to. (Hear that sound? That's my karma evaporating)
It may be that you find these things sufficiently interesting to take another look. Great. If there's a Linux user group in your area, get to know them. They will be able to help if (when) you encounter trouble, and you can return the favour by helping the next new person to send an email saying "Hi..."
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.
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
Good point. I only got one blue screen from windows xp after 2 years of use. It was when I connected my cell phone to my computer and tried to do something. I am going to assume it was entirely the poor driver's fault. Now that I'm running linux, I see the artsd segfault all the time.
Linux zealots continually babble about bsod and clippy and I can see how the "community" gets a bad wrap. I guess if the only forum you read about linux is slashdot then you're getting a one-sided view. The gentoo forums are a lot better.
All this windows bashing reminds me of a John Kerry speech.
It is rare for any Linux distro to properly initialise all hardware. I recently have had the plesure of attempting to install SUSE 9.1 Pro on my Dell 8250. I faced the following complications:
a) Had difficulty reading the CD on my Philps DVD+RW without loading ide-scsi drivers (a command which later had to be removed so I could access the drive once I had installed.
b) Manually install drivers for my Radeon 9700 Pro
c) Dell use a bastardised Creative SB Live! Card with a chipset unsupported by ALSA.
d) Winmodem (Drivers for RH 8/9 available, no Kernel 2.6 support)
e) Must convince my Pen drives/Nomad Mp3 player/Digital Camera to work.
All these things *just work* in XP, and very few people have the time, interest or ability to harass their hardware into working. I recognise that much of these problems lie at the feet of hardware manufacturers who do not wish to release drivers, but its not fair to blame windows users for their choice in Hardware.
Interestingly enough everything used to work perfect on my old Dell P2 233.
No I dont need zealots to tell me how bad Dell computers are, I recognise they have their faults, but very often its impossible here (in Ireland) to build a computer anywhere near the price of a Dell.
"they expect users to quit Windows cold-turkey and immediately jump head first into Linux"
;)
Actualy, I think they're targetting users who grew tired of spyware/bugs/viruses associated with Windows, people who'd do the jump if only they knew there was an alternative.
I, for exemple, am such a person. I design websites for a living, and I'm looking for sort of a "turn-key" solution to switch to Linux. I need an article that is actualy convincing enough to switch right-fucking-now.
"Maybe, perhaps sometime you may wish to try a bootable CD that'll show you, if it works, how Linux can be relatively OK after all". That won't make anyone swith to Linux, will it? I want to KNOW that Linux IS better, that it WILL work if I do THIS and THAT.
So, they're not expecting people to do anything -- people expect a sure solution. People just need to KNOW that, yes, you can "quit Windows cold-turkey".
In my case, I want to make sure that Corel Draw Suite 12 will be available and working just like I expect it to, that Macromedia Flash/Dreamweaver will stay the same, and that any other app I regularly use and rely on will be available or that, at the very least, something of equal quality is downloadable somewhere. I don't want someone telling me that maybe I could switch to Linux -- I know that already! I want someone to tell me "do THIS and THAT and quit Windows cold-turkey, dammit!
You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.
In fact, I run OS-X and XP here, and my Nikon D-70 ONLY works in Windows without a special driver. I had to go to Nikon.com and download software to get it to work on my Mac!
Best Buy can have you arrested