Newbie2newbie's

[Learninlinux]

Hello all: Well here is a quick synopsis of how I did it! well not quite, maybe doing it is a better statement.
As more than a few on the site have said, diving right in. I currently have problems with startx half fuzzy pixels/half kde, lol. But enough of that, mainly I have chosen the command line route, being familiar with windows type systems, I was really looking for a learning environment. using the command line was extremly frustrating to say the least. But now I have somewhat gotten it. By joining the site here and few of the other known sites, esp:Linuxjunior I have been able to get over my frustration and begin to really enjoy the learning experience that linux offers. Get yourself a few good books esp:Running Linux. Well, enough for now. Enjoy the linux experience, always learninLinux.... :D

[Rakeswell]

Glad to hear you're starting to swim after diving in.

You're right, I think about just diving in. After putzing with Linux for about a year or more, last summer I just decided that I was going to start doing all my web and software projects on Linux. There was a period of a week in which it felt like growing a new skin, but after that, doing any sort of development in a Windows environment just feels so crude.

So it's been almost a year now that I've used only Linux at home, and I must say that I keep discovering the most amazing things that this OS can do right out of the box or with a little file editing/shell scripting.

So just keep having fun and be prepared to keep being amazed at all the stuff your computer can do now that you're running Linux.

[countcobolt]

I'm know that feeling. Some people at my dorm are always asking when I'm going back to windows. But it is just the same as me quiting smoking. You just need to hang in there. At first glance, I thought it would be so hard, as there are not many persons using it. I used it last year for about 3 months and then went back because of that idea. But now I saw there is a whole community arounc this beautiful system called linux.
Been running for about 4 weeks now, wouldn't want to trade it anymore. As I'm am studying for an informaitcs teacher in highschool, I am doing an essay on the use of linux instead of windows for school. It works!!!!

[mrBen]

Agreed. Perseverance is where it starts. It's like the initiation into this fantastic club.

All are welcome, but not everyone chooses to stay.

[u3mike]

The best way to learn about linux is get rid of windows, then install linux...that way you don't have a choice :D

The first time I used linux was when windows got a virus and I couldn't use it. Also I didn't have a windows cd either. So I went to a friends house and downloaded peanut linux! Now I know the system like a pro (well almost like a pro...)

[anacron]

Originally posted by u3mike:
<STRONG>The best way to learn about linux is get rid of windows, then install linux...that way you don't have a choice :D
</STRONG>

Ahh yes. The Linux Total Immersion Program. I like it!
:D

[fancypiper]

Another person with a CLUE! (Command Line User Environment).
You have the the power!

[stc_85]

I have totally removed windows from my machine but still don't know linux. thanks. :mad:

[ChrisDude]

Its like starting a very long journey with a new friend.

As long as your friend is not a complete Cr@p head your journey will be an exiting and enlightening time.

Lets face it. Using windows is like going camping on a cheap UK farm in bad weather.

Me and my mate mandrake have been together for 3 weeks now :)

[darkkill]

Originally posted by ChrisDude:
<STRONG>Its like starting a very long journey with a new friend.
As long as your friend is not a complete Cr@p head your journey will be an exiting and enlightening time.
</STRONG>

Lol even if he is , it can be a helluva interesting journey -p

[ee99ee3]

I started about a week ago. Well, not really. I've been running Debian on my server for 6 months (had Mandrake on it before that... got rid of Mandrake on week 2 I belive... never went back, thank goodness... not good for servers).

Anyway, been running RedHat 7.3 on my 1.33 Ghz system w/ 120GB and GeForce4 Ti. I'm very impressed, minus the fact that it's always crashing. If it keeps on doing this, I'm either going to move to FreeBSD or Gentoo.

But anyway, I moved from Windows 2000, which had gotten to the point in 3 weeks to where it was unuseable b/c it was so slow and unstable. I'm glad to be part of the Linux community, and really be using it.

-ee99ee3

[raimi77]

Originally posted by ee99ee3:
<STRONG>I started about a week ago. Well, not really. I've been running Debian on my server for 6 months (had Mandrake on it before that... got rid of Mandrake on week 2 I belive... never went back, thank goodness... not good for servers).

Anyway, been running RedHat 7.3 on my 1.33 Ghz system w/ 120GB and GeForce4 Ti. I'm very impressed, minus the fact that it's always crashing. If it keeps on doing this, I'm either going to move to FreeBSD or Gentoo.

But anyway, I moved from Windows 2000, which had gotten to the point in 3 weeks to where it was unuseable b/c it was so slow and unstable. I'm glad to be part of the Linux community, and really be using it.

-ee99ee3</STRONG>

Red Hat sucks!!!!!!!!!!!! :o

You should have kept Debian or try SuSE. SuSE is the most stable comercial distro.

[fancypiper]

:) RedHat7.2 :cool:

I tried 7.3 but too many things are broken, so I went back to 7.2 this AM.

What gives with the *.3 series? Is that replacing their *.0 that used to be the beta release?

[Joeri Sebrechts]

When I first came to linux (somewhere in 1998) my graphics card wasn't supported, so I didn't have any choice but to run command-line, which is indeed the best way to start running linux. Obviously I didn't go all the way at first. In fact, it took my until just a little over a year ago before I cut my last ties and went all linux all the time.

At the time I got my first linux CD I had figured out that all the doors I wanted to open in windows were locked for me, which had really disgusted me. And so I was quickly losing interest in my computer. Linux showed me the alternative, and saved me from losing my geekness :)

However, if I could travel back in time and say one thing myself it would definitely be: buy a book, you cheapskate! I wasted way too much time trying to figure out stuff from poorly written manpages. It wasn't until I went to debian (which at the time had much better documentation), and obtained "running linux", that I started to _really_ understand how some of the most essential parts of the system worked.

Luckily modern manpages are of much higer quality. But still, books are the best way to learn linux.

[njcajun]

Originally posted by u3mike:
<STRONG>The best way to learn about linux is get rid of windows, then install linux...that way you don't have a choice :D
</STRONG>

hehe. This is precisely how I started out. Less by choice - more because I screwed up my first dual-boot installation and blew away windoze. Then I RTFM'd about disk partitions and all that stuff, and realized what I needed to do - but then I didn't. I never did go to a dual boot. I just hung out in Linux and learned to do everything I did in windows in that environment. It's paid off, and now I can rattle off a million things I can do in Linux that I couldn't do in windoze. :)

[evulish]

Originally posted by Joeri Sebrechts:
<STRONG>I had figured out that all the doors I wanted to open in windows were locked for me</STRONG>

Ironically enough :D (Anyone else get it?)

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

I see the irony...

By the way, Hicksville? Where exactly is that?

[Odin]

Howdy everyone. Just thought I'd share a success story. For most, this won't seem like a big deal, but for me it's a great accomplishment so far.

I got Mandrake 8.1 about 2 weeks ago. After completely wiping the hard drive clean of anything resembling Windows, it took 4 installs to get it right (first 2 were due to a bad burn--the 3rd...cuz my mouse quit working when I tried to connect to my ISP). After the 4th install, I was still having the same mouse/modem problem. I decided I'd search the "Tech Support" forum here (there's currently 369 pages :eek: ). Anyway, after searching the forums and reading Running Linux trying to find what my error msg meant, I finally got it. I don't have the exact error message, but it had to do with a PID

/home/username/.kde/share/apps/kppp/kppp.pid
process ID=2070
delete PID.

After I found the PID, I tried to edit the file (thank god for Linux in a Nutshell for the exit command for vim). This did not work.

It was the IRQ settings this whole time. I finally figured out that my serial mouse was sitting on ttyS1 (COM2 in WinSpeak) and my modem was on ttyS3 (COM4). Both of these were using the same IRQ. I ended up cracking open my case, reseating my serial mouse to ttyS0 (COM1) which has a different IRQ, rebooted, and here I am! My first post from my brand new Mandrake Linux box.

One goal down. Now on to bash! :D

[1337_sux0r]

Congrats to all with your success' . I have been running linux for about a year and a half started with drake then went to freebsd and ended up with slackware which i absolutely love.I use it for my personal needs and i have it on a webserver and another for a firewall/gateway. I will not go back to windows, even my wife logs in at the cli then starts gnome -

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Odin:
<STRONG>
It was the IRQ settings this whole time. I finally figured out that my serial mouse was sitting on ttyS1 (COM2 in WinSpeak) and my modem was on ttyS3 (COM4). Both of these were using the same IRQ. I ended up cracking open my case, reseating my serial mouse to ttyS0 (COM1) which has a different IRQ, rebooted, and here I am! My first post from my brand new Mandrake Linux box.

One goal down. Now on to bash! :D</STRONG>

Com 1 and 3 share the same interrupt as do Com 2 and 4.