I like Linux+ by Roderick W. Smith, published by Sybex. However, I would just skim over the first section and then jump into the commands in the second chapter. All that the first chapter has is partition info and some boot loader and distro stuff.

I use MediaTomb to stream to my portable devices. It has a web interface to configure what directories to share. It should be available in your distro's repository.

When running after a fellow man, please live some strength to take you back home. Install a dual boot as a fall back plan when things go wrong. Install wine if you love your windows apps that much.

Hi onebuck,

What about FreeBSD? That's also a UNIX-like OS and it can be installed practically on any computer, old and new.
But what are the differences between FreeBSD and Linux?

Well, FreeBSD, as all the BSDs are traditional Unix. Linux is a flavor of Unix. But note that the difference between the more Windowslike Linuxdistributions as Ubuntu or Mint and the more Unix like as Slackware or Gentoo is much bigger than the difference between for example Slackware and BSD.

But that's all theory, just install it and try it out. You will need to make your own experience. Linux is much more versatile than Windows. And the experiences and expectations of the people here at LQ vary in the same way. That means you'll get 5 answers and 10 opinions for each question about "which Linux" or "Linux or BSD".

Markus

Hi,
Agree with markush! My preference is Slackware as a UNIX-like OS therefore no need for change. I really do not need BSD at this point in time. But if necessary then FreeBSD would be a good choice.

As to differences, look at license for FreeBSD & Slackware or Gnu/Linux in general. Sanity is one reason for me to keep Slackware.

To make the transition a bit easier for you go with a Linux Base Operating System. When you install FreeBSD the Operating System doesn't even provide you with a graphical interface, you need to install and set up the X server in order to have a working desktop. It might be little overwhelming for new users and some might even give up after few hours or work. It might be fun for other people I guess it will depend on what you like to do with your free time.

Under Linux there are more support for different hardware and a vast of applications at the reach of a click. In FreeBSD you will have to do more hacking and tweaking to make some hardware work.

See you have a list of Applications that you say you most have chances are these application will have an equivalent in a Gnu-Linux distribution.

Good luck to you.

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know that I decided to go with Fedora instead of Mint.

I downloaded Fedora 17 Gnome (and KDE because I don't like Gnome very much) and I installed it on one of the spare computers at work.
It looks good. So far I don't see any problem in using it as a desktop, although it’s lacking some of my tools but for now I’m only using it for learning and testing. I find it a bit confusing to install new software packages, but I'm sure I'll get it in time.

I also started reading the Fedora documentation, specifically, the Fedora 17 System Administrators Guide. I feel comfortable using the CLI to move around the file system, search for files, creating and editing new and existing files using vi, and many more aspects. I feel like I might be a good beginner...

I haven’t been able to enable SSH, unfortunately. I also tried to set up VNC server to be able to get to the desktop from my Windows machine and it wasn’t successful either. Could anybody help me with these two problems please?

Speaking about Gnome, is there a way to reduce the size of the top bar of opened window? Let’s say a terminal window. There is a very wide bar on top where the menu bar is.


Thank you,
Arie

HI.
Another n00b here. FWIW I'm a blind wouldbe network / sysadmin. So the command line is my friend. I'm trying to get certs, experience, Windows / Cisco, etc but using Linux a lot now too and fumbling my way round. Messing around with networking tools, setting up a private nameserver, mailserver etc. My suggestion, is write notes. I forget a lot of command line swithces and the man pages are too involved sometimes. Also there are several excelent books by the likes of O'Riely. Maybe start with using a live distro. Get familiar with the interface, then grab something like Linux in a nut shell as you're nosing around the system... And Google. What's the /etc/ directory for. What's a simlink etc. Google these questions as they occur.

Oops. See you're up and running. I just wanted to make my first post... Don't know about VNC but not sure why SSH isn't running. I'm presuming Fedora comes with Openssh (I use a Ubuntu varient.) Is anything listening on port 22?

Try:
netstat --tcp --listening --programs

hi Arie01,

Glad you managed to install Fedora and are exploring the possibilities of Linux. I would like to elaborate about Slackware however just to give you a little to think about

As you saw from the experience of Fedora, it installed all by itself and when you first started your computer, it was mostly configured and you were presented with nice graphical login and desktop. That is the way "user friendly" distros are. They do a lot of black magic underneath and present you nice glossy interface. Slackware however has different philosophy.

Slackware assumes that the user is in command and that user is the king in the machine. Hence as other distros try to babysit the user by doing the black magic, Slackware sits there, its hands folded and waits patiently for the next command. That is the elegance of Slackware - it does NOTHING for the user. The installer even starts with login prompt. You have to login with root account to start installation, you have to use separate tool to partition your harddisk. Slackware does not partition it for you, because really computer is not supposed to know how you want your system to be laid out. After you have partitioned your hard drive, you explicitly start the setup routine which uses text-based menu system to guide you through the package installation and initial system configuration process. While it might be frighting to think about text-based installer, it is actually very clean and simple and easily understandable. After you have finished installation of Slackware, you reboot (again explicitly inputting the reboot command) and after the system comes up, you are presented with login prompt in text console. from there you log in, and first you get couple of emails which introduce you the concepts of Slackware. You are advised to use text-based tool to pick your graphical environmend (like KDE, or XFCE or windowMaker etc) and after that you can issue the startx command to get into graphical environment. You are also advised to add a separate user to the system using adduser command. As you can see, Slackware does nothing for you and leaves you all the power to do what YOU WANT.

Another philosophical difference of Slackware compared to all other distros out there. It does not have any dependency resolution mechanism. In linux, programs depend on other packages and libraries to work and for example Fedora does great effort to make sure that if your program depends on some library, that library is indeed installed before you start the program. Nothing like that in Slackware. Seems a problem? Actually totally opposite. The problems with dependency tracking come obvious if you have several versions of some library installed or there is a program that demands very specific library version - even if you have newer installed. So you get a lots of headache by the package manager trying to tell you that you need something else that you do not have. In Slackware, you are in total control what is installed in your system and what is not. You are free to install/uninstall anything you want. It is your system and you are solely responsible resolving all the dependencies your self. Slackware is probably only distro out there that allows you to uninstall the kernel package on a running system without any questions asked whatsoever. It is absolute joy to maintain Slackware box knowing that I am the responsible party and there is no babysitting going on. I install exactly those libraries and programs that I need. I know that if I break something, I can also fix it as system does not monitor my actions and allows me to do anything I want.

Once you've seen the dependency hell you never want to use anything but Slackware with it immence level of freedom.

You use Ubuntu, you learn Ubuntu, you use Fedora, you learn Fedora, you use Slackware, you learn Linux!

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi wigry,

Wow. You sure wrote a lot in your post.
I read it and it does sound interesting. I liked the last line the most though.

I will look into Slackware in more details.

Thanks for the info,

your ssh problem mite be becuz of firewall. please show us the result of this command:if it says it is active and running run sudo system-config-firewall and make ssh a trusted service.

For Linux equivs of MS SW http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...ndows_software
Loads of free to read manuals/books www.linuxtopia.org

Lots of distros to choose from www.distrowatch.com; each has its own quirks.

FYI Fedora is Redhat's R&D/unstable distro that is used to test SW that goes into RHEL (& therefore Centos; a free rebuild of RHEL).
It also has a high turnover of new versions.
On the other hand, RHEL etc is supported for many years http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/.

schneidz, I fixed my ssh issue, thanks for the advice.

chrism01, Thanks for the info aboutt he distros. Which one do you suggest I will start using?