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The Linux Thread

Jackster

By Jackster
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Jackster Newbie

Jackster

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Well.... there's a Mac thread, why not have a Linux thread too?

 

What is Linux?

Linux is a Free, Open Source Operating System originally designed by Linus Torvalds in his bedroom in Finland. It grew from there and now has hundreds, if not thousands, of contributors from all around the world. Some of the contributors are paid to help, others do it for free but they are all working together to make Linux the best operating system it can be.

 

but linux is a kernel...

OK clever-clogs, Linux is a kernel and the operating system is GNU/Linux but that has a tiny potential to confuse some of our less technically able users

 

Why should I use Linux?

Because it's free, as in you don't have to pay for it, and it's liberating in that you're not restricted in what you can and can't do with it.

 

Where can I get Linux?

Because the source code for Linux is freely available there area few different distributions of Linux. In my experience there's only one type of distro that I can say I truly enjoy using and they are Debian-based distros, especially Ubuntu ones. Personally I use Kubuntu, but there's also Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, nUbuntu, zUbuntu and many more.

 

http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

Where can I get support for Linux if something goes wrong or I don't understand?

If you go down the Ubuntu path then by far the best place to get help is http://ubuntuforums.org/, where the people are friendly and no question is too simple, although you might want to have a quick go at the Search function to see if anyone's asked the same question before.

 

What Programs do I use for What?

Office

OpenOffice.org - A high quality office suite containing a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation package and drawing package. Compatible with and similar to Microsoft Office.

 

KOffice - Another high quality office suite by the good people at KDE. Similar to OpenOffice.org, I guess you'll have to try both to see which you prefer.

 

Abiword - A useful word processor with less 'bloat' than OpenOffice.org writer.

 

Gnumeric - A useful spreadsheet app, again with less 'bloat' than OpenOffice.org calc.

 

Multimedia

Totem - The default media player in Ubuntu, easy to use but not the prettiest thing to look at. Easily extendable using different engines, when trying to play a file it can't currently it will prompt you asking whether you want to install that capability.

 

Kaffeine - My favourite media player, another gem from the KDE people. Uses the Xine engine by default which is also my favourite as it easily plays all sorts of files, including mp3, out of the box and it can play many other files easily by just installing one package: libxine-extracodecs

 

Amarok - Yet another one from the people at KDE, a great little jukebox program like iTunes with a very nice user interface.

 

Realplayer - Just like Realplayer on Windows and OS X, good if you want to watch certain web streams, such as those from the BBC.

 

Web Browsers

Mozilla Firefox - The same FIrefox you know and love from Windows and OS X, a great all round themable and extendable browser.

 

Konqueror - Yet another KDE application, it's a very speedy and nice looking browser who's engine is used in Apple's Safari.

 

Instant Messaging

GAIM/Pidgin - The default IM app in Ubuntu, it supports simple text, file transfer and display pictures in many protocols such as MSN, Yahoo!, AIM and Jabber (Google Talk).

 

Kopete - In my opinion, a superior IM app, it supports the same protocols but with more features such as web cam support and custom emoticons.

 

XChat - An IRC client similar to mIRC.

 

Konversation - Another IRC client similar to mIRC.

 

Distro List

*Ubuntu

Ubuntu is based on the popular Debian Linux distribution and was started by Mark Shuttleworth's company, Canonical, to be a free operating system for everyone to use. The name comes from the African Ideology meaning, among other things, Humanity Towards Others.

Ubuntu is currently the top distribution on distrowatch.com, so that pretty much shows you how good this distro is, definitely a good distro for beginners and experts alike.

 

You can request absolutely free Ubuntu CDs from here if you don't mind waiting a few weeks for their delivery: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

 

Otherwise download it here: http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

OpenSUSE

A popular distro from the folks at Novell which started off as a Slackware based distro but it's now definitely it's own distro in many ways, A lot of work has gone into making it easy to configure and maintain.

 

Check it out here: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

 

Fedora

A great distro funded by RedHat (A Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor), unfortunately I haven't had much experience with this distro, so if anyone would like to contribute a summary I would greatly appreciate it :D

 

Check it out here: http://fedoraproject.org/

 

Your favourite distro not listed here? Contribute a description below or request one and myself or someone else may write one :D

 

Any other suggestions for useful applications? Or need any help? Post them in this thread ^_^

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KKOB Newbie

KKOB

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Does anybody here use linux?

 

I know that Ubunto has been quite popular. But i have the idea that linux is a kinda DIY OS, so not for the lay person.

 

Dell have the option to install linux on your new PC don't they?

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McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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I've used it, had Sabayon on my computer for a bit. That was very DIY, apparently Ubuntu is a lot simpler.

 

Im putting Ubuntu on my new computer when it arrives, will probably use it for most stuff providing it's compatible with all my hardware (i had wireless trouble with Sabayon).

 

Check out this vid:

 

Looks the shiz eh?

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Jackster Newbie

Jackster

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What is a kernel? And what is Debian? :shakehead

 

Lol, I put the kernel bit in small writing so that *maybe* people wouldn't notice but obviously that was a stupid idea. A kernel is basically a really boring thing that allocates system resources to programs, but it helps not to think of Linux as a kernel and just to think of it as an operating system like Windows or OS X.

 

And Debian is just a version of Linux (a 'distribution'), which has gained a lot of popularity recently due to a rich South African Cosmonaut starting his own distribution based on it called Ubuntu which seems to quickly have become the most popular Linux distro.

 

And McPhee, yeah Sabayon would be pretty DIY mainly because it's based on Gentoo so you have to build a lot of the applications from source, Ubuntu is a lot simpler.

 

Maybe tonight I'll make a list of distros and their pros and cons and post it here.

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Jackster Newbie

Jackster

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So are you saying a kernel is like a bios?

 

Not really, a bios is mainly just for getting the system started up as far as I know.

 

A kernel is just a program that sits there all the time and allocates system resources for different tasks. For example, say you're playing Doom 3 on Linux, then the kernel will allocate that game a lot of system memory and a lot of time on the CPU, but say you were just writing a document on Linux, it would give it less memory and CPU time because it wouldn't need as much in comparison to Doom 3.

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mario_jr Newbie

mario_jr

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yes its about time, although I don't use linux, I've been wanting to get a new laptop with linux. Now I have somewhere to look up some details and reference's thanks Jackster.:bowdown::yay:

 

For some reason when I logged on to my computer today I got a popup saying my version of Windows is not genuine. WTF!!! It pissed me off. So I thought I should "Factory Reset" it, and get rid of these annoying spyware that my sweeper can't kill as well.

 

ok now for my Question.....

 

Can I have both OS on my computer? Windows XP and Linux. What do I need Software Hardware wise, and what steps do I need to go through to make this happen, if its even possible.

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Bogbas Newbie

Bogbas

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Yes you can have both OS on your system. I think it's pretty easily done with the ubuntu installer. The preparing (formatting/partitioning)of the hard drive(s) might be a bit confusing since in windows you have c:, d:, etc. and in linux it's /dev/hda, /dev/hdb and so on for different physical drives (or /dev/sda, /dev/sdb for sata drives) Partitions of those drives are then called /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 etc.

But I'm sure there's a tutorial on how to do it somewhere on the ubuntu website.

 

And make sure that you install windows first.

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Jackster Newbie

Jackster

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I was seriously considering going with Ubuntu on my new computer, but the ATi driver problems are kind of putting my off :(

 

I'm not completely sure about this, but I know nVidia cards are really easy to set up in Ubuntu 7.04 and I think it could well be the case for at least some ATI cards. If not then hey there's always Ubuntu 7.10 to look forward to :)

 

Seriously though check out http://www.ubuntuforums.com and do a search to see if your card is supported. You might even want to just download the Ubuntu CD to give it a shot, you don't have to install Ubuntu to use it, the disc doubles a a Live CD so you can see if your hardware is supported.

 

yes its about time, although I don't use linux, I've been wanting to get a new laptop with linux. Now I have somewhere to look up some details and reference's thanks Jackster.:bowdown::yay:

 

For some reason when I logged on to my computer today I got a popup saying my version of Windows is not genuine. WTF!!! It pissed me off. So I thought I should "Factory Reset" it, and get rid of these annoying spyware that my sweeper can't kill as well.

 

ok now for my Question.....

 

Can I have both OS on my computer? Windows XP and Linux. What do I need Software Hardware wise, and what steps do I need to go through to make this happen, if its even possible.

 

Yeah, the Ubuntu installer can take care of dual booting with Windows for you. It might seem a tad daunting at first so you might want to try and look up some info on it at first but I can assure you that over the years it has gotten a lot easier to dual boot! As long as you know approximately how much space you want to keep for Windows and how much space you want for Linux and take into account you will need a 'swap' partition about double the size of your physical RAM you should be fine.

 

EDIT: And bear in mind the only way (as far as I know) to dual boot Linux and Windows is to install Windows first THEN Linux, I don't think you can do it the other way round.

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Jackster Newbie

Jackster

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I tried ubuntu last week but i couldn't get nvidia drivers to work properly (so I could get my actual resolution) and then the system froze when I loaded up firefox so I'll be sticking with vista.

 

I take it you tried the latest version of Ubuntu? 7.04?

 

If so then that's a shame, maybe your problem will be sorted in one of the next versions. That's the great thing about Linux, you only have to wait 6 months for a new version, not 5 years :awesome:

 

Who knows, maybe the Ubuntu guys just messed up and your display would work fine in other distros.

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McPhee Newbie

McPhee

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I'm not completely sure about this, but I know nVidia cards are really easy to set up in Ubuntu 7.04 and I think it could well be the case for at least some ATI cards. If not then hey there's always Ubuntu 7.10 to look forward to :)

 

Seriously though check out www.ubuntuforums.com and do a search to see if your card is supported. You might even want to just download the Ubuntu CD to give it a shot, you don't have to install Ubuntu to use it, the disc doubles a a Live CD so you can see if your hardware is supported.

 

Im gonna give it a shot anyway, but AFAIK the x1950 series of cards is only supported in 2D at the moment, thanks to rubbish drivers from ATi. I might get Ubuntu running but theres no way Beryl is gonna happen :(

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Ollie Newbie

Ollie

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I have tried Ubuntu before as I was very impressed with the live CD option, but decided against running it as my main OS. I do now have a test machine which I can use for this so I'm going to give it another go.

 

I watched the video of Beryl and have to say it is very sexy, but my test machine has a 9800 pro in it, so judging from what I have read, I don't think it will work?

 

Also, have they got rid of the horrible brown-ness yet? I really do hate brown.

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Twozzok Newbie

Twozzok

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We use Ubuntu for a programming class in Computing As/A2 level.

 

I like it, though it takes some getting used to having been a windows boy for about a decade. The only real thing stopping me from using it on my main computer is the fact Windows still has main support from the gaming industry etc.

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Ollie Newbie

Ollie

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Which is exactly why Windows will always be my main OS. I am interested in Linux more for its stability with regards to being a server type system rather than my OS. I know you can get most games to work these days though I think.

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Ollie Newbie

Ollie

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Ok, so I have the live CD and partion magic here, I am going to set a 20Gb partition for Ubuntu as I want to keep my XP install and I see partition magic lets you choose from a number of different linux options for the type of partition you want. Which should I choose? It can be Linux Ext2, Linux Ext3 or Linux Swap.

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