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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.
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 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.
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.
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..."