TOTALLY new to Linux
 

hi im new to the forum and this is my first post so....be nice :D

im a windows user always have been and hopefully never will be again, im hoping to swap over to linux, but have a few questions i would like to ask before i do so, i hope thats ok.

1, how much RAM does linux (in my case kubuntu) register i.e. is it maxed at less than 4Gig like windows 32bit.
2, how hard is it to learn linux for standard use. i.e. i am a 3d modeler by trade and would like to know how hard its going to be to get my software up and running and usable?
3, is there a "bible" or manual of some sought that i can learn the Basic operations of linux from.
4, how easy is it to get games working (i.e. is there a direct x emulator i will need or something to that effect)
5, do i use firefox or is there a standard browser i.e. as IE is to windows or safari to OSX.
6, and this should probably have been the first question but, is kubuntu the correct version for a newby like me?

i know these may seem like stupid questions, but iv always been told that linux is extremely complicated and difficult to use and ill be honest im a little paniced about swapping to it.

seriously thanks for any help you can give

Hello and Welcome to LQ!.. You will get a lot of answers to this post, so I just want to comment the quote above.

First, they NOT stupid questions, and you will have a few more before you become comfortable with Linux. Secondly, Linux is NOT complicated to use as the average desktop user would use a computer. No more so than Windows, but supremely more powerful. You will be able to configure your computer and operating system the way YOU want to and not the way Microsoft allows.

Kubuntu is just one of many good distros for newcomers to Linux. Others you may want to look at ar PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu (the standard Gnome desktop version.). These are all extremely easy to use and configure and will recognize almost all your hardware right away, with no Windows-style drivers necesssary.

Just wanted to welcome you and add my two cents first. As I said you will get a lot of replies to this one, so enjoy the journey!

Bob

Welcome to LQ !
Why don't you start learning from Linux Wiki,here on LQ,for wich a link is in the LQ main menu.

Linux can handle any amount of memory. However a kernel is usually compiled to handle a memory range. Usually a distribution provides two different kernels, one compiled to handle up to 4G and one compiled to handle over 4G.

I don't know.

I recommend "Running Linux".

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596007607/

Kubuntu is designed to just work out of the box with minimum demands for user configuration decisions. When you get to the point you want to start configuring kubuntu to your own tastes you could try this book:

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/...g-kubuntu.html


You will probably use Wine. Here is documentation on getting various games working with Wine:

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...DEX+Wine+Games

Linux has several browsers, Konqueror, Opera, Firefox, Mozilla, and Galeon come to mind. Neither Linux nor any of the desktops (Gnome, KDE, or XFCE) is biased toward any particular browser.

Distributions have a default browser though. Kubuntu defaults to Konqueror. If you don't like that you can change it to something else:

http://linux.about.com/od/kubuntu_doc/a/kubudg29t04.htm

Kubuntu is fine.

-----------------
Steve Stites

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

To expand on a few points. linux can not natively run windows applications. wine is an API for running windows applications but it isn't perfect. Check their website to see if you application works. Provide a list of "your software"

http://www.winehq.org/

Welcome to Linux.
No stupid questions, but some are best answered by you as you take things for a spin.
Just want to comment on your "paniced about swapping to it" comment.
Run Linux on a separate PC or dual boot until you decide if it is useful for you. No reason to be panicked about it.

Well I recommend getting a live-CD and run that for a while and see if it's what you want. The best way to learn linux is to use linux.

In response to what someone had said earlier about WINE, you'll find that nowadays quite a few programs work perfectly well with WINE (windows programs). Others require some finagling, and that can be a real pain. As far as your 3D modeling toolkit goes, you might want to check out Blender 3D. It has a native linux port (no messing around w/ WINE) and it's pretty wicked as far as features go. You can find d/ls, documentation and tutorial s out the wazoo here at http://www.blender3d.org.

There are also other solutions to running your windows games in linux, including Cedega and VirtualBox. Cedega is a commercial version of WINE (which means you'll have to pay for it) but it works MUCH better with games. VirtualBox allows you to have a virtual windows computer running inside of your linux, just in case you , you know, miss it and all.

Dual booting is also fairly simple to implement nowadays, as someone mentioned earlier. It's a great way to get used to linux, as you can just choose which OS (Windows or Linux) you want to start at boot time.

Welcome and Happy Hunting!

1. if you are going to use 4GB or up, you may as well use a 64 bit OS.
2. depends on what you use. Blender?
3. there is an "Ubuntu bible" and I strongly recommend books by Mark Sobell. "Running Linux" is mentioned quite often but I find it rather inadequate in that it scratches the surface of everything without going any further and that some information is simply outdated. Most applications have a site of their own where you can read/download manuals.
5. the standard browser depends on the desktop you use: firefox for gnome, konqueror for KDE - although there is nothing that prevents you from installing konqueror on Gnome or firefox on KDE. You can even install Opera or IE.
6. Yes, if you prefer KDE. If you prefer Gnome or XFCE, use Ubuntu or Xubuntu instead.

thansk for all the comments so far, iv just booted up linux for the first time, and its pretty nice, but it has raised a few questions straight away, first of all, i had a play round with the screen savers but most of the screen savers on there lagged out my system, now my computer isnt exactly a super computer but it isnt a slouch either, do i need to install graphic card drivers and such or does linux find them for me? also when loading up the disk i get an error

171179772076000 usb 6-2idevice not accepting address 6-110 i get the same message several times altering to 6-1 and a few others can anyone shed light

also i can seem to access my HDDs and the extenal ones arnt there at all.

thankyou for all your help so far, im definitly prefering linux so far, even if it is going to take some getting used to :D

What graphics card do you have? Linux has proprietory drivers available for both ATI and Nvdia. You will need these drivers to correctly configure your screen performance. In Kubuntu, you can get these drivers from the Multiverse repository, or you can (and also easier) install EnvyNG from the Ubuntu repository and this app will automatically install the correct driver for you.

What hard drive can you not access? Are the external drives connected via usb?

Bob

sapphire radion x1550 series cant remember the spacific one, the drive i couldnt access is an C D and E, and the external are both USB yes, all my internals are NTFS and one of my externals is FAT32 i heard somewhere that this can make a differance in linux although not sure

"2, how hard is it to learn linux for standard use. i.e. i am a 3d modeler by trade and would like to know how hard its going to be to get my software up and running and usable?"

What software do you use to do your modeling? If you're using proprietary commercial software like Maya, you will need to visit http://www.codeweavers.com/ and find out if the particular version you want to use works well with their software. The free version of WINE is more than likely not good enough. Codeweavers may have a limited fully functional free demo so that you can check out your software yourself before buying. Codeweavers make sure that their software runs with Debian, so it's almost certain it will run on the Ubuntu family.


"also i can seem to access my HDDs and the extenal ones arnt there at all"

You need the appropriate filesystem drivers, and of course drivers for any hardware that your external drives connect through (is it USB?). The 'FAT32' driver has been in Linux for many years, and recently the NTFS drivers, 3rd generation have been working well enough for the developers to say they're reasonably confident it won't destroy your data when you do extensive writes.

You may need to mount those drives manually just to make sure you have no problems seeing them. First of all, look in the /dev directory for devices with names like "sda" and "hda":
ls /dev/sd*
ls /dev/hd*
What you see are the disks (hda, hdb, sda, sdb ...) and partitions (hda1, hda2 ...) which are recognized by the system. You can 'mount' them onto almost any other directory in the system provided the partition is formatted with a recognized filesystem. The directory '/mnt' is often used for temporarily mounting things. Before you go further, look in that directory to see if Ubuntu magically mounted your drives in there - if it did, they would have been given names like 'hda1' and so on, not the "C:" and so on that you're accustomed to.

ls /mnt

If the /mnt directory is empty, then you can mount things there and see what they are.
First make sure the drivers for the filesystems you want are loaded:
modprobe vfat
modprobe ntfs

Then attempt to mount (we'll attempt to use the autofs feature):
mount /dev/hda1 -t auto /mnt

If that mounts, have a peek at what's inside:
ls /mnt

Then unmount:
umount /mnt

Mount a few others and see what they are.

When you've worked out what's what, you can put an entry in the /etc/fstab file to automatically mount these where you want them - or to let a normal user mount them, but that's a lesson for another day.

As for your graphics, the machine must be using the software rendering and causing your system to crawl. Once you sort that out and get the ATI drivers working, it should fly. It would help a tiny bit though if you can switch off all the fancy shading and stuff in KDE.

HI,

I'm new to Linux also,(since April) and thought I would point out some of the resources I've been using to learn.

Books
Linux Bible 2008
Linux for dummies
Ubuntu for dummies (by my limited understanding - ubuntu looks more like a mac and kubuntu looks more like windows)

I'm currently looking at a couple of bash (bourne again shell) books "Linux programming for dummies" and any of several of the O'rielly books. I'll try and update you on my success with these if your interested.

The "dummies" books aren't the greatest resource but for me they are usually a good starting point.

Good luck to you.

thanks all, im gonna try and run with what i already got here, sounds like its gonna take me a bit to get my stuff up and running but that was kind of what i expected, thanks for all the help