Nougat
Group: Members
Posts: 8
Joined: Jan. 2006 |
 |
Posted: Jan. 26 2006,09:31 |
 |
Hi. I am a Linux noob and a Microsoft expert. I decided to dig into Linux again after learning that you don't (for the most part) have to compile source code to install applications. Here is my story, beginning about a week ago
I tried Debian and Fedora 4 on desktop machines with newish hardware - AMD 1Ghz, 512MB, 80GB. Although some things that are simple in Windows were painful in Linux (couldn't get an IP printer to work in Debian, had trouble with screen resolution in Fedora), it was simple enough to entice me to try something more involved.
I have a Toshiba Satellite 2535CDS laptop. Celeron 300, 32MB, 4GB. They always said that you can run Linux effectively on old hardware, but I knew from my experience with the desktops (the first one was a P2-400, not enough juice to run KDE really) that I would need to find a damned small linux distribution.
Yes, technically, it should be named *Damned* Small Linux, and I have just discovered that the iB code buttons don't work in Dillo -- but I digress.
DSL ran from the CD on this machine, albeit slowly. By holding a moistened finger up into the wind, I calculated that if it were installed on the hard drive, it would run well enough.
It did -- nay, does -- but there were a few bumps along the way. Keep in mind that I am a Microsoft admin, and know nothing of Linux commands or programs or anything. Smart enough to find the answers, apparently, since everything is working to my satisfaction now, but an empty vessel, waiting to be filled.
[Preface: When I say "dig around," I don't mean, "I had to go to Google and look at the first search result for the answer." I mean something more along the lines of, "It took me a good fifteen minutes of clicking around to find the right page which sort of had the answer that I figured out how to make work anyway." Also, there were a whole lot of things that I did look for online, in these very forums, and found good answers for right quick like. But humans tend to focus on the bad and forget the good. Sorry about that.]
Bump #1: Had to dig around to find out how to create a swap space on the hard drive. (As you may know, Windows creates one automatically.) Started with a swapfile; tonight read that a swap partition is better, so that's what I have now.
Bump #2: Had to dig around a little bit to discover sndconfig in order to get the sound working. (Windows: Device Manager, PnP.) Thankfully, I was already familiar enough with apt-get to deal with installing it once I knew it existed, and it was really easy once that was done.
Bump #3: Although the DSL FAQ says my Netgear MA401 card is fully supported, I could not get it to work. (Again, Device Manager.) A few forum posts seemed to suggest that DSL 2.2RC1 was the key (I was running DSL 2.1b). I downloaded that, ran the CD, and got online. So I reinstalled with that rev tonight.
Bump #4: Java was a pain, and that's Sun's fault for not updating their install instructions for Firefox to reflect that the plugins directory is now in the user profile folder. Then, once I found that out, it turns out that this machine is just too crappy to run Java; it takes longer for Java to load and run an applet than it did to install DSL on the machine (I'm guessing, because I waited and waited and finally had to kill Firefox).
Bump #5: Mouse cursor speed. (Control Panel > Mouse - there may be something like this in larger Linux distributions than DSL) I dug around on this a whole lot until I found something about changing the acceleration using: xset m 5 . Okay, that makes the mouse cursor accelerate faster, but I just want it to move faster overall. I ended up with: xset m 3/2 1 by checking the options for xset and trying random numbers until I got something I liked. Still don't know what those numbers actually mean.
Bump #6: I have been so enthralled with doing this that I have been staying up way too late at night, even though I'm sick with some kind of sinus cold thing, and making my wife really really mad. (Windows, getting kind of boring, really.)
General thoughts on Windows vs. Linux, from the other side of the fence:
Overall, Linux distributions are written by programmers for programmers. I am not a programmer. Linux will have a high learning curve for me, but the curve has come down just enough that I can succeed if I put some work into it. And I've got ten years' experience in IT. Non-technical users won't pick up Linux until the learning curve is much more shallow.
I hear a lot about Linux being more secure than Windows. Maybe the programmers of the world know something that I don't. I know that a default install of Windows XP Home is not secure in that the user runs with admin rights, and default installations of Linux don't do that. I also know that a Windows machine can be secured if properly administered in a business setting. I also know that most businesses do not properly administer their machines, because users have a misplaced sense of propriety ("It's MY computer, I can install an asinine fishtank screensaver if I want to."). The insecurity of Windows computers should not be completely blamed on Microsoft; it's business management that doesn't want to enforce strict security policies, or pay IT staff enough to know what security policies should be enforced in the first place. I know this firsthand, by being the guy who knows what the security policies should be, but also knows that the client can't afford to pay a consultant to spend the time locking everything down and testing all the critical applications to make sure they still work, and the additional support time that goes along with it after the fact.
I am glad for Linux, though, first for finally grabbing my attention, second for allowing me to run (and maybe sell) this old laptop, last for having a good number of vocal fanboys that give me a good chuckle. Oh, and it's becoming more viable as competition for the big players, and it's free. Totally sweet, you guys.
Okay, enough, it's 3:18 AM CST, and I have to get up at 6:30 or so. Thanks for having me.
|
.
DSL Market ,
Great VPS hosting provided by Tektonic
