Linux for Luminaries (Formally Last Post)

This is officially my last post....scroll down for farewell
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Goodbye Laptop running Windows 2000...hello Mandrake Linux. Cross your fingers, see you in a few hours (If all else fails...from my dads computer)

Good lucky Saaby...see you soon!

I ran away and got a haircut and when I came back I expected it to be done nope wants disk 2...ok, rounding second...

Ryan

And a Profile udate with the new looks...

Tada! It's working...needs a little tweaking (For example, the fonts need to be just a touch larger) but I am sure I can do that later. Fow now I'm off again.

Ah! Linux and I'm loving it...

(This Post brought to you by Mandrake Linux 9.0)

I don't know, man. You still look the same on this end.

Ahh, but didn't you notice? His text has that 'typed using Linux' look to it

Graham

Ok well I'm back and I've managed to delete the thing that shows which windows are open from my task bar type thing this is fun! (No really)

Onya, Saaby. I'll probably be reinstalling my web server with Mandrake one of these days, too. When I can find the time...

Graham

Well a day later and right now I am screaming...almost.

Got sound working, piece of cake. I am trying to get this Samba program working so I can get back on the home network and then I have to get network printing to go. I think if I can get Samba up the printer will be a breeze, but Samba is being a Pain in the @$$...

Saaby (or other Linux users )

I know Linux is basically free and has no user license's to worry about, which makes it considerably cheaper for large companies with lots of users.

But what are its advantages over Microsoft O/S's (lets say XP/2000) for simple home use ?

Originally posted by Saaby:
Well a day later and right now I am screaming...almost.

Got sound working, piece of cake. I am trying to get this Samba program working so I can get back on the home network and then I have to get network printing to go. I think if I can get Samba up the printer will be a breeze, but Samba is being a Pain in the @$$...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">If you just want to browse Windows file shares you dont really need to install all of Samba. If you want to share your linux drive to Windows computers then you do need to set it up (it isnt that hard.. really).

Im not sure how mandrake does stuff but in my old RedHat 7.1 setup I just installed the smbclient package and smbcommon stuff. For instance on the command line I would use this to see the shares on my windows computer:

smbclient -L /windows -N

The 'windows' being my computers name under network properties. Then to browse a share I would do:

smbclient //windows/E
<enter password>

Or if there is no password just hit enter or add the -N switch in the above example. And there ya are. then it acts somewhat like a ftp program. OR you could mount the drive and access it with any of the GUI programs.

mount -t smbfs //windows/e /mnt/anywhere/you/wantto/mountit
<enter password>

**EDIT**

The mount point has to exist first. so that
/mnt/anywhere/you/wantto/mountit would actually have to be there. To make a directory is easy.

mkdir /mnt/mounthere

Originally posted by x-ray:
Saaby (or other Linux users

)

I know Linux is basically free and has no user license's to worry about, which makes it considerably cheaper for large companies with lots of users.

But what are its advantages over Microsoft O/S's (lets say XP/2000) for simple home use ?

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Depends how much you want to do.. Theres OpenOffice or the older Sun StarOffice 5.2 series (the 6.0 series is now pay) for typing/database/etc. I havnt used OpenOffice but it is supposed to be based on the same code base as OpenOffice, just none of Sun's proprietiary stuff in it.

Be prepared for Major Tweaking (tm) in order to get linux running and looking the way you want it. Mandrake/RedHat are trying to get it more user friendly.

Well it's like this. I'm a nerd (Who would have guessed) and, well, there are 3 other Win 2k machines in this house (4 machines total including this one, now runing Lunix) and I would like to be familiar with it so that some time when Windows gets really really bad (I am thinking that will be their next release) I can go to Linux and love it for the rest of my life. Figure I might as well learn it while I'm young and have the brain synapsys to handle it

Thanks K A,

Reading your post, it would seem that you are saying that the main advantage of Linux is free or very cheap application software.

This would still seem to be important only to business users, After all most Microsoft O/S based applications are available for free download from the internet (if you know where to look and don't need your software to be 100% legal )

As a home user I am mainly interested in how Linux compares with XP/2000 in terms of performance and features.

Originally posted by Saaby:
Well it's like this. I'm a nerd (Who would have guessed) and, well, there are 3 other Win 2k machines in this house (4 machines total including this one, now runing Lunix) and I would like to be familiar with it so that some time when Windows gets really really bad (I am thinking that will be their next release) I can go to Linux and love it for the rest of my life. Figure I might as well learn it while I'm young and have the brain synapsys to handle it

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Good Idea, give us a full review after you've used it for a few weeks

Originally posted by x-ray:
Thanks K A,

Reading your post, it would seem that you are saying that the main advantage of Linux is free or very cheap application software.

This would still seem to be important only to business users, After all most Microsoft O/S based applications are available for free download from the internet (if you know where to look and don't need your software to be 100% legal

)

As a home user I am mainly interested in how Linux compares with XP/2000 in terms of performance and features.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ehh. To each their own. Everyone has their own reason for running it. I use it as a firewall/network gateway for a small home LAN. I have Samba setup on it for a small file server. (really it aint that hard Saaby!)

The computer sits in the closet connected to a UPS that will last about an hour. So it will still be up through most power outtages, once the UPS sends a low battery signal to the computer it will automatically shut down and shut the UPS off so when the power comes back on it will automatically come back up. You dont need a superpowerful machine to act as a firewall, this thing is a Pentium 233MMX computer with only 64mb RAM running on a 2.1gb HD. A slower CPU would work too.

"You dont need a superpowerful machine to act as a firewall, this thing is a Pentium 233MMX computer with only 64mb RAM running on a 2.1gb HD. A slower CPU would work too."

Oh thanks!..That's about what I'm running

Originally posted by Saaby:
"You dont need a superpowerful machine to act as a firewall, this thing is a Pentium 233MMX computer with only 64mb RAM running on a 2.1gb HD. A slower CPU would work too."

Oh thanks!..That's about what I'm running

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Heh. Have you got X running yet? If so what desktop are you using?

*POKE*

Goto the Chat if yer online.

Yeah, I'll be at chat in a moment...

I am using Gnome