ok im am a total newbie. i went through the netwrk conection thing and made a new modem conection. then i changed its status from inactive to active. now how do i conect to the net. what icon do i click on to get connected? i use red hat 9.0


also how do i read a cd. you know on windows you click on my computer and then the cd drive. how do i access the contents of my cd in red hat?

Tried posting this as New Thread, but could not... anyway, problem #3 I faced is the same as above!!


MY EXPERIENCE THUS FAR...

Hi all,

Just wanted to share some of my recent experience with Open Source, Linux and the discoveries I have made vs. the problems I faced...

BACKGROUND
I am a Windows USER, familiar with program installations and configurations, but not with Registry tweaking or Network settings.

I also know how to do those things like removing spyware, optimising Windows using IEradicator, patching up via Windows Update, installing 3-4 different software just to do a quick job (eg. installing MS Office, Adobe Acrobat AND Palm software just to create pdf and Palm DOC files - of course, now I can do it easily with OpenOffice) etc.

What I hated most were Blue Screens, absolute hangs (where even Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work) and those "invalid page faults" dialogs.

Thus, I wondered if there is a faster way to do things with less crashes...

DIP
My first step to the wonderful world of Linux was OpenOffice. I stumbled across it and like probably many others, I had the impression that if it is free, it ain't good. If it isn't Microsoft Office, it's weak. (ie. lacks features and user friendliness)

Of course, using OpenOffice opened up my eyes and my interest grew... I liked it! Yes, it is a pity it does not have an "Access" like feature, and the startup/save speed is slow, but hey, it's free, and since it's open source, these problems can be addressed in time to come, I am sure.

I started to realise that software is NOT distinguished along free and paid versions, but between Open Source and closed source.

That led me to read and read articles upon articles of OSS news and I even completed the book, "Free for All" in 5 days! Knowing about the SCO vs IBM case made me want to support the Open Source cause too.

Now, I only have OpenOffice, and whenever I can, I would install a copy of OpenOffice for my friends. (with the default set to save formats in MS Office, sigh...)

MORE
Naturally, this new love for anything open source led me to discard as much closed programs as possible. eg. IE6 and Opera7+ were removed in favour of Mozilla Firebird and Thunderbird.

ps. To be truthful, I hated the clunkiness of Netscape/Mozilla Suite, not to mention their disadvantage when it comes to IE-specific pages (just try www.sdf.gov.sg, and you will see what I mean), and the ever-irritating "download plugin". That was why I ended up with "blazing speed" IE, but thanks to Firebird, my confidence has now surely returned!

LINUX
Then these all led me to... you've guessed it, LINUX. I tried Knoppix CD, elxLinux, Lindows, Xandros and Fedora Core on an old PC, and the results assured me that I won't go wrong with dumping Windows for this very powerful OS.

OK, time to share my discoveries vs disappointments...

PROS
Installing Lindows, Xandros and Fedora Core was absolutely easy. Slightly easier than the conventional Windows 98/XP installation. Perhaps because I backed up and formatted my hard drive for a fresh Linux OS, instead of trying to maintain dual boot.

The Linux Desktops were also splendid. My colleagues were awed by the many hi-resolution wallpapers already installed in these 3 Linux versions. I personally enjoyed the Fedora Core wallpapers and desktop look more than the other two. Now, I believe that Fedora Core uses GNOME while Knoppix, Xandros and Lindows use KDE, right?

The most user-friendly of all the distributions was LINDOWS. It was simply amazing in detecting all my hardware, and it all took only 10 minutes or so! It had almost no questions during setup, and the look and feel was truly funky. (COOL!)

Now, I have read some criticism about Lindows, but thanks to Lindows, it whets my appetite for more. That's when I started trying out the other Linux OSes to compare. IF Lindows was as speedy, configurable, offers more than the ClickNRun way to install new programs AND comes with more preinstalled software, I would stick with it. (yes, as a User, not Administrator... read about that one!!)

CONS
By now, it feels like a month, but in reality, it's been only 3 days since I touched Linux, and I am positive!!

If my 3-day experience has anything negative about it, it is here:

1. Lack of consistency between distributions. eg. Lindows detected my soundcard but NOT Xandros. Why one Linux can identify something while another cannot beats me, but I guess it has to do with the vendor selecting different device driver packages.

2. Installation/removal of programs on Xandros and Lindows is driving me nuts! eg. I want to remove Mozilla suite, and install Firebird instead, but it seems impossible!

Xandros installs only thru' Xandros Update while Lindows only thru' ClickNRun... I can't find the familiar "INSTALL" icon, not to mention that installation packages does NOT seem to "download, click and autoinstall" in Linux.

I said "seem" because I am sure there are answers, but it is taking too much effort to just learn how to install programs without touching the Command Line!

As of now, I still DON'T know how to install programs the Windows-way on Linux. =(

3. I had problems with VCDs and CDs. They seem to hang. And once they hang, I have to use a paperclip to eject them. I never had to do this with Windows! (ok, to be fair, I had to reboot Windows, hehe)

That is about all there is, so if anyone here can help, THANK YOU!!

EASE
btw, I don't mind configuring things, BUT it should come after installing and using a program for a while. I want to enjoy my movie first, then recce around the source code of the player.

LINE
As for the Command Line, I DO NOT wish to use the command line. It is like asking a Windows user to go back to DOS!

ICON
Lastly, I simply like that cutey Penguin with his/her many variations! Especially the "fat" penguin on the Lindows Login... what a relief from years of looking at that static "windows" logo!!

Thanks once again, all, and it is nice writing for this board. Cheers!!


Regards,

Rykel
Singapore

This isn't your operating system then......learn to love the command line after all, it loves you

If you have the kppp program you can use it for your modem: (asssuming you are in KDE) K-button>RunCommand>type 'kppp'>press enter. It should come up. Red Hat might have other programs for this purpose.

A filesystem (including cds) must be mounted to be accesed. Use the 'mount' command to mount. For example, to mount the cd in the secondary master ide device, the command would be 'mount /dev/hdc'. This assumes that Red Hat already set up the cdrom drive. THe contents of the cd will appear at a mount point (folder). The folders used for mounting are often in the /mnt directory. After mounting, go there and look for the folder with the cd's stuff in it.

rykel, you strangly annoy me, but maybe that's just because of lack of sleep and patience Actually I think it's my dislike of lindows. Perhaps you should try gentoo and/or lycoris. I have tried neither but I have heard that they were powerful/easy ones.
One good thing about you is that you know almost nothing about windows, you learned apps and you can relearn apps a lot easier then relearning the little stuff about a new OS. One bad thing is that you were probably too okay with knowing nothing about windows.....you may end up hating linux because of all the frustrations of having to learn stuff instead of clicking a button and the cruel but strangly sexy command line.

Installs:
First off as J.Q. Monkey stated, you need to learn to love the command line. If you're a slow typer and hate having to do things the hard way(which seems to be true because of your distro choices) you may want to return to windows and pirate all the software you need, thus negating the price issue.
But there is a non-command line way to do things but I would not suggest it to anyone although it is strangly popular. any file that is a .rpm means that you can double click it and it'll open up an installer window that isn't as obvious as the windows one but simple enough, check the little box if the green check mark isn't next to it and then click install. You will need to enter your root password and it'll install on its own AS LONG AS THE RPM WAS FOR YOUR DISTRO, well, there's a chance in hell that one that was meant for another distro to work, I just wouldn't bet on it. and I don't know the last time I have seen a lindows rpm or a xandros rpm, but there may be a repository out there.

mounting drives:
NOTE: some distros update their hdc's to link to scd0 which is the first SCSI drive, or basically a burner. If yours doesn't then you need to replace any code I give you with scd0 instead of hdc

I highly suggest using the manual files and really reading up on the mount command. the GUIs are not that good and I have always had consistency problems whereas the command line has NEVER lied
and it makes better sense when something fails to mount.

when you are done with a cd you SHOULD be able to eject the disc. if you can't then you must have the folder open then. Linux wants stability and you taking out mounted media while the filemanager is keeping an eye on it is not good for stability. Close all file managers and stop everything that could be using the cd and then try the eject button. If that doens't work then you want to go to the command line and type
umount /dev/hdc
and if it says device busy then something is still looking at the thing. I have had it get so bad that I had to exit x and go back in for it to unmount.
Or you can use the paperclip but Ithink that is probably not the best for the disk or drive or the poor paperclip.

Distros consistency:
There are versions of the kernel for linux and every distro has their own which they took an origional and added support. I think it's that the base kernel didn't support it because it would be foolish to take out support.

and with the ones you picked I wouldn't expect much consistenct between them


Removing packages:
programs are called pakages untill they are installed. The package manager is where you remove programs, just look around it for remove. If you install from source which is the best way to install you won't be getting that program off the machine without a small stuggle unless someone made a marvelous program for that.


other stuff:
Don't run your machine as root incase any of those distros let you.

Dos is horrid, bash is MUCH more user friendly.

Opera may be closed source, but it is good software, although better on windows it seems. I am sticking with it for the sole reason that I hate using IE and mozilla seemed too much like IE.