If you’ve heard about Linux and feel like giving it a go or if you want to try Linux but you’re too afraid it’ll shew up your computer, this article is for you. Read it, feel free to take what you need and ignore the rest. This is not a tutorial, it’s a README-FIRST-like article. It should help you to take that first dive.
Oh yeah. First, I’m not trying to promote anything; Not Linux, not Fedora Core and not KDE/GNOME. Test for yourself, find what suits you best, and use it. Second, English is not my first language, I apologize in advance for what I’m about to do to it.
1. Time:
Or: Make sure you have a good deal of spare time.
Linux is not Windows; while most Linux distributions can be installed and configured using graphical (GUI) tools, some tasks are easier to accomplish using the command line (cmd.exe/command.com like) interface. Be aware that Linux’ learning curve can be daunting at times, but once you get going, the reward is well worth the effort!
A couple of small examples: Burning an ISO image can be accomplished by a mouse click-fest in K3B or by typing a “cdrecord dev=ATAPI:1,0,0 speed=48 filename.iso” command in a console. A full system backup can be accomplished by typing “tar -czpf /media/backup-drive/$HOSTNAME-$(date +%F).tgz” or again, by clicking your mouse to death in a graphical application.
2. Don’t give up:
Decide, in advance, that you don’t give up. Period.
3. Try a Linux LiveCD First:
Download the ISO, burn it and give it a try. It’ll boot from the CD without touching your Windows partitions. Play around with it. Still find Linux interesting? Time to move to one of the fully-featured Linux distributions. (Though all of them can be installed and used as your primary OS.)
Here’s a couple of good options:
Both Knoppix and Ubuntu will run just fine on any Windows-XP able machines. Use DSL (Damn Small Linux) if you plan on using older hardware. It’s a 50MB wonder-OS that can run on a 486/66 with 16MB RAM and boot from a USB flash drive. Again, these LiveCD Linuxes are designed to be used without touching the main drive; your Windows will be safe in their hands. (Unless you do something really stupid…)
4. Choose a Linux distribution:
First and foremost, no matter what you choose, remember this: Linux is Linux is Linux is Linux. Linux distributions may have different install procedure, software package management (Kind of like MSI under Windows) and different configuration tools, but in essence, they are all the same. Don’t buy into the “My Linux r00l3z! Your Linux s0x3rz!” hype. (Sorry to the lousy Elite-speak…)
I personally use the Fedora Core 3/4 (http://fedora.redhat.com/) but it’s a matter of personal taste. Other fine options:
5. Internet connection:
It’s good to have a backup machine (running your regular OS) that has an Internet connection. It’s much easier to search google or your favorite Linux forum when you don’t need to dual boot for it.
6. Older Hardware:
Linux runs nicely on older hardware. Feel free to use that old AMD K6 500 or Pentium 3/450 with an ancient ATI Rage Pro 128. If you have sufficient memory, it will work wonders! (And will keep the Internet connection on your main Windows machine running.)
I’ve got an ancient Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop with a 366Mhz Intel PII, 256MB and a 10GB drive. While I can’t run Doom3 on it (See Linux software), it’s more then sufficient for writing code, reading emails, writing design documents and browsing the net.
7. Google:
Just in case you’ve been living on Mars: www.gooogle.com. Assume that your questions have been asked (and answered) 10,000 times before. Seek and you shall find!
8. Read the Manuals:
9. Help Forums:
Make sure you’ve got a good Linux forum in advance. Don’t be afraid to sound stupid. We all made some amazingly stupid mistakes in the past (rm -rf / anyone?).
10. Take Notes:
Make a note of everything you do. You may need it in the future.
11. Use Linux Software:
Or: Don’t plan on using Windows software under Linux.
While you may get lucky and get wine (Windows emulation layer, http://www.winehq.org) to run your favorite Windows application or game, it’s a matter of pure chance.
Linux has a very long list of native applications that will come pre-configured with your favorite distribution, ranging from the KDE (http://www.kde.org) and GNOME (http://www.gnome.org) desktop environments, Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/) Office suite, Evolution outlook-like email/group-ware client (http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/), K3B Nero like CD authoring software (http://www.k3b.org) and the list goes on and on.
Better yet, several games were ported to Linux: among them are Quake 1/2/3, Doom3, Unreal, UT, UT2K3/4, Enemy Territory and America’s Army. You’ll need the original CD in order to install them, of course.
12. Hardware check list:
Before you begin, search Linux Compatible (http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html) for your hardware.
12.1. General:
12.2. Display:
12.3. Disk drive controllers:
12.4. Networking:
12.5. Audio:
Most sound cards are supported out of the box, at least the basic functionality. 5.1 or above may require some extra configuration, but should work.
For more information, go to The Alsa Project (http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/) support matrix.
12.6. Peripherals:
Good luck!
Gilboa Davara.
About the author:
I’m a 31 y/o software engineer from Ramat-Gan Israel. I mostly write kernel-level code under both Linux and Windows. I have been using Linux since 1998.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
IRC can also be a great resource; if you know of good channels to go to: There’s always gonna be some jerk yelling “rm -Rf /”!!!
Under internet connections wireless seems to be missing, be sure to check which cards have open specifications( openbsd’s site is good for this) and which cards are supported by ndiswrapper
Under internet connections wireless seems to be missing, be sure to check which cards have open specifications( openbsd’s site is good for this) and which cards are supported by ndiswrapper
I for one love the idea of an OS that’s not MS nor Apple. The only problem though is after three years or more of messing around with Linux I’m tired of it. Specifically I’m tired of:
1) Fonts still suck, Linspire is the best here because of being able to buy fonts (which one wouldn’t have to do in Win or Apple)
While I prefer the Bitstream fonts you do realize that you can get all those MS core fonts? With most distros it is simply one command.
I really don’t see much of a difference in font rendering at all between linux and windows but they seem better rendered in Mac OS X.
2) Printer support and other peripherals are still spotty requireing jumping through hoops to get to work and even then they never work quite right. Even more impossible to get to work through SAMBA. The problem is the new printers are dirt cheap and thus use subpar drivers as is the case with HP inkjets. Those printers are made to NOT work on a network, they want us to own a printer per computer instead. It can still be done on windows but via samba is spotty at best.
Huh? The CUPS tools once again from Suse, Fedora and Ubuntu have all done me well even with a HP Photosmart printer and of course with my simple HL 1440 Laser printer.
Sharing a hassle? Maybe I have just dealt with samba for awhile but I find samba sharing to be more consistent and easy and certainly more easy to troubleshoot than trying to share out resources from Unix itself. Come on Redhat has that samba configuration tool and Ubuntu has an option to share a printer right in the printer setup menu? Heck if you want to share a directory in Ubuntu just right click on the folder and choose —> share folder.
Other peripherals? My Nikon camera works and my iPod with Gtkpod works and my … I don’t know I have not had a problem in a long time maybe 3 years ago with an off-brand of USB scanner I think.
3) Still there is no standard media player for the ‘net that’s easy and legal. Linspire again wins out here because they have licensed the Quicktime and WMA codecs at least so one doesn’t have to use crossover. For those who do use crossover getting that to work is an exercise in frustration too, both the normal crossover install and the bult in one in Xandros 3 crash when win media player, quicktime and a host of other built in programs are attempted to be installed.
Give me a break. There are two standard media players.
Mplayer and xine. Codecs? No need for Crossover for years now. Every distro and community now has a Faq and ubuntu even has a postinstall setup script to set all that multimedia stuff up immediately. Btw, that same script will install your ms core fonts too.
It’s all just become one big pain in the A$$ and even harder to even think about recommending to anyone else.
Since Apple is still not going to open their OS to let people (why not just restrict retail clone sales of?) build their own it looks like we’re still stuck with MSFT monopoly.
You are stuck with a MSFT monopoly man. Not me and a lot of other people.
Frankly it sounds as if you are making excuses and using experiences that sound well at least 3 or 4 years out of date.
There are serious issues with moving to linux and the OS is far from perfect. Notice the autopackage discussion in above comments for reference or the fact many distros still do not detect hw on install and take the time to enable dma by default or install cpu-optimized kernels by default or … there are others. Too many distros or too much choice or come on you get the picture.
But for example I have a friend that just got his new Apple laptop.
Even in the grand Mac OS X it took him a while to get his apps and plugins and codecs for various formats of video and audio files straight.
Being old-school back in the day when linux was as hard as you describe I helped him hunt down the player for the codecs he was missing but frankly it took awhile.
It is amazing that some people troll by holding linux up to an even higher standard than the OS that came with their computers by default.
Someone else commenting got it right.
None of this matters till more computers come with linux pre-installed because only hardcore geeks ever bother to install a new OS on their computer.