Windows AND Ubuntu
 

My main operating environment is Windows XP. I have recently set up Sun's VirtualBox with a Ubuntu Hardy Heron distribution. It seems to work extremely well.

My problem is that I don't want to go back to square one to learn my way around the strange new Linux land. What i am looking for is a tutorial that I can access on my Windows XP notebook computer, which is right beside my Windows XP + VirtualBox/ Ubuntu machine.

This way I could do the tutorial exercises on the VirtualBox/Ubuntu, following along the instructions that I can read on my XP notebook screen.

I have to get away from the "either Windows OR Linux" dichotomy. I want to do "Windows AND Linux"

Any ideas?

It does work extremely well. :) What i don't understand is why you would want to use something that works very well in a virtual environment and use another computer to read "instructions." If it's up and running, and running well, why not read using the virtual system? Try to cut some XP strings? Having said that, I understand what you mean. You know XP well and you need to have it to be productive so you can't risk a complete switch to Linux. The problem is, that's like trying to learn to drive a car without ever getting into a car properly.

Why not dual boot??

Anyway. The best instruction manual I have found is right here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/search.php

Good luck and keep at it.

I can and do dual boot, but that is the Windows OR Linux approach.

I want the Windows AND Linux solution, and so fat VirtualBox seems to be a possible approach.

I want to be able to move easily from a Windows session to a Ubuntu session.

I don't know Unix, so I would like to follow some easy-to-read instructional material. For example, Ubuntu does not introduce the concept of the "Command Line", nor "Gnome". I have had to go searching the web (in Windows) for some basics,or digging my way through a one inch thick paper manual. I think these basic tools should be made readily available to a new Ubuntu user.

Remember the current estimate of operating system usage is Windows - 91%, Linux 1%. And this isn't changing too quickly.

I would dearly love to be able to abandon the Microsoft solution, but there is a high degree of difficulty in getting to a operational Ubuntu environment that is anyway comparable to good old XP.

I am confused. Sorry. I understand everything that you say. You are clearly a high level Windows user. Where did you learn all of your "cmd" skills? I would love to be able to do everything I have learned to do in Linux on the command line in Windows. Is there a special summary page of all of the commands etc that are useful in Windows? I had to read so much to get to my basic level of command line knowledge in Linux ------ it would be good if you could point me in the direction of the "quick way" in Windows.

If you want to understand the command line, try (I can't vouch for these sites because I haven't used them all) :

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/cli.html
http://www.ss64.com/bash/
https://help.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/deskt...ux-basics.html

... and so on .....

What don't you understand about Gnome?

http://www.gnome.org/about/

You posted interesting user percentages. Remember that 100% of forum member here use Linux.

Good luck with the reading!

People that say stuff like this around here don't get too far. Its like me going on a windows forum and asking a question on how to use windows and I keep on saying how much better linux is then windows. You can see how far I would get.

dragon topologilinux andlinux
 

Very common problem, whatever anyone says. Same situation here.
Virtualbox should have been good enough, but if you find that difficult, try "andLinux", TopologiLinux or dragon linux. I've heard that dragon is small and good. I have tried andLinux and it looks awesome - you get a full *native* KDE menu on your Windows desktop with a system tray icon!! TopologiLinux has many other options and is a larger distro, but I've not used it so far.
andLinux looks good. you might run into a couple of "port number not open" errors. Googling should fix that. But as usual, first backup all your data.
The good thing about Ubuntu is that a "windows installation" of ubuntu when unisntalled from Add/Remove Programs, generates a .iso file from your last ubuntu session that holds nearly everything that you had in the (Windows-) Ubuntu install. That is priceless to a newbie, if done correctly.
Learn the tech stuff. It is very very interesting. Dont get into market share and discussions like that, it's counterproductive and not useful. Take it from me, once you know core Linux skills well, you can do all the good things you want to, in a much, much better way (or if you choose the other way, you could just forget about it).
One thing that I feel is true about Linux users is that they have strong opinions, including myself :) Of course that typically should not mean they wont help out :)

There is a lot of information online or visit your local bookstore.

This has got to be a joke? You can't really be serious that the command line isn't available.

So 91+1=92, where does the other 8% of usage come from? And since this is the case, why even waste your time on such an obscure operating system that nobody is using anyways.

Seriously, perhaps linux just isn't for you.

If you already have computing skills you won't be starting at square one.

Why would you have to use Windows to do this? Didn't your Ubuntu come with Firefox installed?

Was this estimate taken before Vista? It is true that MS has a upper hand in the desktop world, but that is changing and changing fast. Linux on the other hand dominates the web server world last I heard it was 65% of all web servers run linux. In fact the fastest computer in the world is a ibm supercomputer called roadrunner, "with 6,948 dual-core AMD Opteron chips and 80 terabytes of memory." "capable of executing more than one quadrillion (1,000 trillion) floating point operations per second." Its OS is Red Hat Linux Enterprise version 5.0. IBMSC


You don't have to give up Window to use Linux, but on the other hand you will never learn Linux unless you are willing to invest some time, after all figure out how many hours you have invested in Windows. You didn't just sit down at the keyboard and BAAM you new windows did ya? So to sum this up, you will only get out of linux what you are willing to put into it (like anything in life).

If you are willing to spend a small amount of money, there are some good training videos at www.pctech101.com then you can put one in your windows pc and do the work on your linux pc.

Talking about the latest version, you should be able to do at least 80% of your windows works in Ubuntu without feeling any difference. If you want to master in Linux, I'd suggest you to download Putty on windows, ssh to your virtual machine, and start learning command line first. When you are done with most of that, you may wish to do a dual-boot....and so on...

My simplest idea of learning linux - Try to do everything in linux what you do in windows. I think I am more than 95% successful now.

--Dipu
----------------
Windows? reboot. Linux! Be root!!

I haven't made any claims about being a Windows expert. I do use the Windows environment for almost all of my computing. However, i have made the choice to increase my knowledge of Unix (Linux - Ubuntu) so that I can move away from dependence on Microsoft.
From my perspective, it is only sensible, not to abandon my proven performance using Windows,and plunge into unknown Unix territory.

I guess I come from the school that uses computers to perform work - not works to make computers perform.

Maybe the ratio 91:1 is a reflection of how the real world makes the choice of Windows OR Linux.

My case is simple: Find out how to both, on the same machine "Windows AND Linux".

I have, in fact, found what i was looking for at http://www.itee.uq.edu.au

This gives the reader an easy step-by-step intro to Unix functions. Combined with the excellent Terminal program (Ubuntu>Applications>Accessories>Terminal) it is relatively easy to follow along the tutorial lessons, viewed on my notebook screen. I can perform active execution of the exercises in the Ubuntu virtual machine on the Sun xVM VirtualBox operating in my deskttop XP platform.

So far, so good.

Many thanks for the discussion.

Here is what I was looking for.
 

UNIX Tutorial for Beginners
Tutorial originally created by Michael Stonebank. Used and modified with permission.
at
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~comp2303/...ers/unix1.html

=================================================================

Typographical Conventions
Introduction to The UNIX operating system
Tutorial One

* Listing files and directories
* Making Directories
* Changing to a different Directory
* The directories . and ..
* Pathnames
* More about home directories and pathnames

Tutorial Two

* Copying Files
* Moving Files
* Removing Files and directories
* Displaying the contents of a file on the screen
* Searching the contents of a file

Tutorial Three

* Redirection
* Redirecting the Output
* Redirecting the Input
* Pipes

Tutorial Four

* Wildcards
* Filename Conventions
* Getting Help

Tutorial Five

* File system security (access rights)
* Changing access rights
* Processes and Jobs
* Listing suspended and background processes
* Killing a process

Tutorial Six

* Other Useful UNIX commands

Tutorial Seven

* Compiling UNIX software packages
* Download source code
* Extracting source code
* Configuring and creating the Makefile
* Building the package
* Running the software
* Stripping unnecessary code

Tutorial Eight

* UNIX variables
* Environment variables
* Shell variables
* Using and setting variables

=================================================================

This is all I asked for.

I was not attacking the pillars of Linux civilization, in spite of the excesses expressed by some "friendly" forum members.

Well done.

yawn.