Re: Re: Experiment: Neophyte versus Windows XP
Hi, Mark. My two cents follow Simon's, inline.
According to Simon Kitching,
> On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 17:46, Mark e Plummer wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I have just read your article as best I could. I am confused, but not
> > by you but by me.
> > I have been using Firefox as a browser and Thunderbird as mailbox for
> > about a week and a half now and I love them.
> > I am thinking about dumping Windows XP because it is a pain, I was
> > looking at Mandrake and ReHat. Debian Woody I have never heard off
> > until five minutes ago.
> > Is it really hard to understand. Or as I am not a programmer should I
> > even be thinking about using it.
> > This is a vague letter I know.
> > What I am asking, I suppose, is would you go for it. Do I have to dump
> > Windows before I start downloading Woody?
> > Any help in the form of ideas would be wonderful.
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> You should definitely give Linux a go - it's got some great features,
> and gets better by the day.
>
> Provided you have a reasonable-size hard drive, you can have multiple
> operating systems installed on the same PC by "partitioning" your disk
> drive. Or if you're short of disk space, you can always buy another disk
> drive to experiment with.
>
> It is probably better to do this than simply wipe Windows; like all
> drugs, going cold-turkey can be hard :-).
I guess it depends what you do. If you mostly do web
browsing and e-mail, it can be easy. But if you are stuck
in the Microosft application file compatibility morass, it's
a lot harder. (Office folks I won't identify got anal when I
gave them back an OpenOffice-edited Excel spreadsheet that had had
the zoom factor or even printer settings changed even though it
was fine where it counted)
> With multiple operating systems installed (often called "dual boot" or
> "multi-boot"), when you turn your PC on you get a list of the installed
> operating systems to choose from, including your existing Windows setup.
>
> There are even Linux versions that run direct from CD without needing to
> be installed at all, but that is probably not what you're looking for.
Might be good if you want to just try it out. Morphix and
Knoppix are both Debian-based and run straight off CD.
> If you've got Windows 95/98/ME right now, then you can simply run a
> "disk defragmentation" from inside Windows, then boot from a linux
> install CD and follow the instructions to split off some spare disk
> space for the use of Linux. If you've got WindowsNT, 2000 or XP, you'll
> probably need the commercial tool "partition magic" to create a
> partition on your existing drive. Or buy that new drive I suggested.
> There may be a way to partition your existing windows drive with free
> software, but someone else will have to tell you how, because I don't
> know of a safe way to do this.
...
Xandros and Progeny do this for you. But do back up
your drive before you start.
> Regarding which linux distribution to install, both Mandrake and RedHat
> are good choices. Debian is a little harder to use initially, but more
> powerful once you get to know it. As your first entry into Linux, you
> might be better off with Mandrake or "Fedora" (what RedHat call their
> free version). But Debian is ok to start with, too. The "woody" (3.0)
> version you mentioned, though, is pretty old. If you choose Debian, you
> will probably be better off downloading the "debian-installer" program
> from http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/. This is "beta"
> software, ie not officially released, but it's a lot easier to use than
> the "woody" (aka 3.0) release of Debian. This will install everything
> over the internet, so you only need to make one CD. However you'd better
> have a good internet connection...
If you can, use Debian Sarge, installed from the new
"beta-installer net-install" cd image. It's a smallish
download (about 100 MB instead of 700MB) and features kernel
2.6.6, which supports so many devices most things are just
plug and play.
If you are too much a newbie to sucessfully download and
burn a CD or you have trouble with the Debian install, I'd
recommend a boxed version of one of the several excellent
Debian-based Linux distributions.
I've used and like Progeny Linux (no they are not dead,
they've got a new distrib on the way) and Xandros (formerly
Corel Linux). Xandros is probably the best migration path
for someone comfortable with Microsofty ways.
A Debian-based distro has several advantages over Mandrake
or Redhat/Fedora or Suse etc:
a) you are building on the famous strength and discipline
and moral purity (heheh) of Debian instead of a corporate
for-profit product (don't get me wrong- I love profit. but
corporations have split loyalties, so things like quarterly
reports and shareholder value and strategic alliances can
get in the way of Doing The Right Thing)
b) you don't have to unlearn redhatisms and suseisms and
mandrakeisms if you decide to switch to pure Debian later.
c) it's easier to move out of newbie mode (in my opinion)
because all (I think) technical decisions made in Debian have
been discussed in fine detail on searchable list archives.
There is no "why?" that has it's answer hidden in a private
organization's back room.
The downside of Debian is that they offer so much choice.
Some can't handle it. (There was a very good Scientific
American article recently on the Tyranny of Choice, by the
way.) The wonderful thing is you can get a dozen CD's worth
of packages. It is also the horrible thing.
So I'd recommend starting small, installing just the
programs you know you need. And grow and learn. Any
package out there is "just an apt-get away".
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