Linux beginner's guide

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 6:01 pm (20 years, 8 months ago)

as I'm sure many of you know, I use Linux full time (having completely abandoned Windows/Microsoft). In the months I've been completely immersed in Linux, I've learned a lot (most of the the hard way Smile

), so I've decided I'm gonna take a shot at writing a guide for beginners.

As with everything I do, I'm having trouble getting myself organised. So, I'm turning to you guys for help. What I'd like is some ideas for general topics that people think would be useful for someone who's just starting out with Linux. so, c'mon guys, lemme have it! Very Happy

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Just a quick reply here, but why not "Connecting to a network to surf the net"? I know that's what I'd most likely be interested in... Smile

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 11:11 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

lol, that's kinda vague...but basic network configuration isn't something I'd thought of, so thanks Smile

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Well, you know, if you have a router and you need to connect it to a Linux PC, how do you configure it to get an IP (or how do you tell it to use a certain IP?), and to surf the net via the router...

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:11 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

C'mon guys!

Leenox sux0rs!

You should all try BSD, the less bloated, less vulnerable OS.

In particular: http://www.netbsd.org

The i386 iso is 128mb!

Anyway you want to find out about DHCP Daniel, as that will give an automatic ip.

Otherwise it's very simple to set an IP statically - you need to try man ifconfig.

Luckily there is a great http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en available!

NetBSD has the best hardware support (not counting 3d graphic _drivers_ on winmodems) - has built in ntfs and sound support so you don't even have to compile a kernel to listen to mp3's etc.

Anyway, enough advocating! Of course netbsd is free too!

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:20 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

agreed, some linux Distros are very bloated (/me glares at red hat and mandrake)...though Slackware and Gentoo (I use Gentoo) are not, especially Gentoo

and anyway, Linux has a better name Smile

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:24 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

I use freebsd on my server/gateway machine, but am planing on making a desktop machine and putting a linux distro on it. Smile

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:35 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

I use netbsd as a desktop machine and... it's great

http://poff.sixbit.org/netbsd/screenshots

Linux just makes me.... turn colours. You should really try out the netbsd pkgsrc collection (or ports). Here's a demo:

# cd /usr/pkgsrc/games/armagetron
# make install
....

That's it! It will download the source, compile it with all the links it needs and you can use it straight away. And you could also do the same with a binary if you wished.

Mind you I've heard good things about gentoo.

FreeBSD also pre-installs stuff like Apache (IIRC).

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:05 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

yeah, with gentoo I could just "emerge armagetron" or whatever app I need and it'll download and compile it all Smile

anyway, back to the topic! hehe

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:17 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

I'd like to see something about printing to a windows network printer, but since you said you've diteched windows, I dunno if you could do that Very Happy

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:36 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

Have you tried samba?

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 3:46 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

I might try using samba, but I'll wait till I get my new desktop sorted, and need to print Smile

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 6:37 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

lol, yeah samba is what ya need for that Smile

never used it though

I've narrowed this thing down to seven broad topics:

Essential Basics (basic commands, directory structure, file systems, booting, differences with MS Windows, etc)
X Window System (graphics)
Networking (configuring, specific software, etc)
Office work (OpenOffice, Abiword, etc)
Programming (Compilers, IDEs, etc)
Kernel (what it does, how it works, configuring, compiling, etc)
Security (firewall, etc)

I intend to write and release each part individually on my site, probably over the course of seven months (that's one a month if you can't count Razz

)

how does that list look to everyone? the final aim here is to have a series of articles which show how Linux can completely replace Windows in a home desktop environment (going beyond just a basic beginners guide). Not included in this list is Gaming, as that is one thing I've yet to really explore - I'm not a big player of games.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Um... I guess this is basics, but you might want to have a seperate installation section Smile

Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:07 pm (20 years, 7 months ago)

I thought about that, but decided against it as each distro has a different installation procedure (each of which are already well documented). Perhaps I should include chosing a distribution in essential basics, and have links to various install guides for different distros.