Hi
I have been using a computer since dos, trying to find my why round linux, I can only surf, I have posted threads ( so I think) and been in contact with Jeremy, but it is the most complicated q&a form I have been on!!!.
No wonder Joe Public will not use Linux. I will post this and this will go into the wilderness.
Come on you Boffins make it simply. ( click and install) etc. You may know what you are doing but does Joe Public.
If not it is back to MS
Bert

no, this *IS* the only post you've made here. this site is *NOT* linux, this site is a moderately default install of vBulletin, which is used by thousands of sites on the net...

and it *IS* that simple. it really is... it's just not a carbon copy of windows - and why would it be? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...light=aptitude

It says Linux Q&A, but you say that it is not a LInux site?
Cheers Bert

no, i said the software running this site is not linux... vast vast difference

Obligatory link:
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Dave

First of all, not everyone on this forum is a developer.

Secondly, is the "If not it is back to MS" a threat? In all honesty, do you think we highly care? Not to be mean, but if you come onto a forum like this and make a post like you did, you don't make friends.

If you want a Linux distro like MS/click/install, see the many many thrs on the subject.

I have subscribed to this thread. If you have some burning questions, please post them again, and I will see if I can point you toward relevant information.

No, going back to MS is not a threat, but a case of having to.
Having seen so much said about linux, I thought that I would give it a try
( not a Windows fan)
Plenty of different Linux programs, so I downloaded some. To install was apiece of cake. next problem I could not surf, linux will not work with PC Chip motherboard, fitted on board card now ok tried for weeks to find and run a program like nero or dvd solutions, also a program to edit photos, the office program is ok.
when i go on the web people say things like remove this line add this line.
I then start to think is it me am I stupid ( no comment)It seems millions
are running linux, bar myself. Not actually found anyone locally.
You have a hard day spend hours trying to sort it out, go onto a help forum get lost, red mist comes down
Sorry to have troubled all of you, I will just keep plodding on
Cheers Bert

Which mobo is it? What model is your NIC?
Try k3b
GIMP is nice.

As to the rest, if you don't like Linux, just don't run Linux. It's that simple. Linux is not a hundred-dollar bill to be loved by everyone.

Hey welcome to linuxquestions! Sorry you've had a hard time, we all have those days though. How about you start by giving us some specs on your pc, and what flavor of linux you are trying to use. It may be you are using a linux version that is outdated. Also if you have a specific problem post it and maybe we can help.

It could be a old kernel hard to say without specs.

Well nero is a windows program, they may have a linux version, but I don't know that for sure.
k3b IMHO is far better than nero and k3b is a linux native program.

Did you try Gimp it's another native linux program thats for editing Photos.

Try to remember the first time you used dos, did you know your way around or did you spend time learning how to operate it?

Bert;

Welcome to LQ.

If you will start a thread with some specific problem, I think you will get plenty of help.

Okay, you've been running MS stuff since DOS days. So you've learned the little peculiarities about MS along the way, so you can easily set it up.

If you had been running Linux even little of that time you would be well on the way to solving some of the problems you've run into.

Linux is different. Once you learn it, it is GREAT! The initial learning curve does send quite a few folks back to good ole MS. No problem, Linux is not for everyone.

To start with maybe run a Linux box and a winders box. You can get on the internet with the winders box to get questions answered about Linux. And slowly you'll build a rock solid platform....and you'll then truely have an option as to which OS you want to run.

Good luck entering the Linux world. I do believe it is soooo worth the effort.
Cheers!

Thanks for your replies.
Problem is --- turn round once and you will find someone that can give you hands on with windows. With Linux all the IT People and people at computer fairs etc tell you how good linux is, then you say " do you use it "-- NO is the answer
Back to the point My son and I have been given Linspire and Nero for Linux from a IT gent that worked in a factory (he has now left) he could not get the thinks to run.
These programs will not boot, and have TAR.GZ files how do we boot and unzip the files, at the moment we have MINT installed, but we can change to another LINUX if it is easier, we have worked out the PACKAGE MANAGE in MINT, can we load NERO and LINSPIRE thro that?
Has any one come across a dvd that guides you thro any LINUX program?
Thanks Bert

When some people from IT were installing a Windows 2003 server at work, one of them had a usb pen drive. Windows wouldn't recognize the device. It was a Disney pendrive given away at NAB. I booted a laptop that had Mandriva on it. It recognised the USB device right away. Then I mounted a share on the server and copied the files needed over to the server.

During the same installation, we found out the the racks of devices (which had ftp interfaces) each had hundreds of files that needed to have leading zero's added to the filenames. Downloading the inventory and teeing the output to a file, using sed to generate a ftp script to rename them was a snap in Linux without having to install anything.

I needed to reinstall Windows NT 4.0 after setting up a disk array for a device used for video production. The NT install program wouldn't work because the filesystem was over 1GB. I popped in a Linux Mandrake install disk and repartitioned the drive. Then the install program worked.

A video server needed to be connected to a cable modem. It didn't have a web interface to be able to initially authenticate with the modem to get an address so we could fix it. The MAC address needed to be the same. Luckily it had a cdrom drive and was using an x86 architecture. I booted it up with knoppix and ran a browser that way.
Even in a Windows environment, sometimes Linux just wins the day!

I bet that there are hundreds of devices that will work with a 64 bit version of Linux that you can't get working in XP64 or Vista.

Even though most of the drivers for Linux had to be written by the Linux community without support from vendors, the second architecture that the linux kernel was ported to was the Alpha chip which is a 64 bit processor. So Linux has been running on 64 bit processors for over a decade.

I don't know about a DVD, but most distro's will have a couple of manuals that will cover most of the programs you will use. Most also have a package manager GUI program that should make exploring the packages available and installing them easy. It is best to install packages built for your particular distro (including the version). They will be built with the same library versions. Als o using the package manager, they will grab any dependency packages you need.

I think the distro that may be the most comfortable for you as a Windows XP user may be SuSE 10.3.
Ubuntu and Kubuntu are two distro's that are popular with new Linux users as well.

Good Luck. Any new operating system will take some time to get used to. Don't expect to learn everything at once, but do look through the manual that they provide. You may find some good gems in there.