Fwd: Install Report from a Linux newbie - some comments
--- eric brown <ericdebianlists@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 09:06:21 -0800 (PST)
> From: eric brown <ericdebianlists@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Install Report from a Linux newbie - some
> comments
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
>
> Hello,
>
> I tough of posting my Linux experience as a complete
> Linux & Unix newbie that chose Debian to start
> playing
> with linux. (out of laziness and pure ignorance - I
> wanted to do a net install instead of waiting for
> entire cds iso to download and had no clue that
> Debian
> was an "hard distro")
>
> First the installers: tried the new one and the old
> one.
>
> My first try: sarge & new installer
>
> The new one is real simple to use but it scared the
> hell out of me: after installing x the only thing my
> sceen could display was: "warning sync error will
> shut
> down in 5 sec"
>
> But, after rebooting, magic, tadam!, I was welcomed
> by
> KDM! still didn't figure out what happened.
>
> I managed to got everything net installed by
> configuring pppoeconf right at the very beginning
> (and
> played for the first time with apt, wget and lynx).
> After choosing a rather random selection containing
> gnome and KDE with taskel, I never managed to get my
> dsl connection to work again (yes I was loggin as
> root, rebooted etc...)!!! After intense googling
> with
> my powerbook (I was installing linux on an old
> Aptiva
> desktop) I found some bug report on debian
> mentionning
> a somehow similar problem with the new installer and
> needing hacking in many .conf files that seemed
> obsolete... And went through too many cryptic
> howtos.
> I almost quit linux at that point... I had enough!
>
> Untill I found an excellent document in French:
> "Formation Linux" (this NEEDS translation)
> http://www.via.ecp.fr/~alexis/formation-linux/. That
> was way more detailed on how to install Woody and
> get
> some real things done (Play cds, burn, configure and
> optimize X etc...)
> I still haven't found any document matching it in
> english.
>
> That is what is missing from Debian. An interest in
> producing documentation aimed at getting things done
> and not about knowing all the possible ways to
> configure everything. Also the too many "use your
> brain to solve your problems" answers to newbies
> post
> I ran accross surfing many newsgroups are
> inacceptable, if Debian is to become anything more
> than a geek toy.
>
> Anyway, I decided to give Linux (for me at that
> point
> Linux and Debian were synonyms) a second chance
> following carefully every steps from "Formation
> linux."
>
> Installing Woody the old way:
>
> Actually I found installing the old way was simpler
> because now I had proper documentation and new what
> I
> was doing. I managed to get everything (almost) to
> work the way I wanted.
>
> After a week of Woody I easily upgraded to Sid.
> (following again the clear instructions from
> "formation Linux") I can now use my usb wheel mouse,
> print to my usb printer, surf web, play movies, rip
> mp3, get e-mail, burn cds, process my tex documents
> with Kile, run open office, run Matlab (I own the
> full
> product copy - but now consider mooving to python
> numeric) etc... Life is good!!!. Sincere thanks to
> the Debian community.
>
> Problems I still have to solve:
>
> Get pon dsl-provider to work for users:
>
> (still have to login has root everytime) and
> continue
> it to work evenafter I unplugged the ethernet cable
> for more than 5 minutes...
>
> Networking:
>
> After too many tries with samba SWAT to communicate
> with my osX powerbook, I gave netatalk a try. I
> didn't
> work untill until I ran classic on top of X and
> access
> the good old chooser from the mac side. Still don't
> understand this trick. I have connected many samba
> macs osX and windows box lately without problems.
> Would like to get samba working! (Still haven't
> played
> with NFS) Again clear instruction on how to achieve
> this probably trivial thing are just lacking.
>
> What package to get?:
>
> From a newbie perspective the debian choice can be
> overwhelming. I still didn't find a better way than
> apt-cache search to get packages that probably do
> what
> I want to do. I normaly guess what is appropriate
> but
> I would really appreciate a place where you can see:
> want to do this : this is the best tool.
>
> Finally I would just like to say that are truly
> enjoy
> the freedom Debian-linux now gives me: I somehow
> fell
> that I emerged from the MS matrix and now live in
> the
> free world. I think that if the Debian community
> put
> more efforts in documenting more with a DOTHIS than
> a
> HOWTO approach would help getting more people into
> Zion.
>
> That's it, thanks for reading
>
>
>
>
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