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coopns 01-19-2004 12:41 PM

Bunch of basic Mandrake 9 questions
 
Finally got W98 and Mandrake 9 dual booting. Lots of questions, sorry if they are in the wrong forum.

1. On boot, I choose GNOME. There is KDE, Win something. Are these just different desktops?

2. When I go to the Internet, I go to Google type my search, hit search nothing comes up, it stays on Google. It says the search is done. What am I doing wrong? I have to type the exact address in.

3. I don't like Netscape but it is the defaul, can I change it to IE or something else? It says Mozilla, is the underlying browser Netscape?

4. Can I access my Windows stuff from the desktop? Was reading somewhere that you can make a shortcut from the desktop and create a link to a partition. I right-clicked and didn't see anything.

5. I have a digital camera, where would I go for it to be recognized--USB connection. Is there an explorer type Window?

6. Is there a built in firewall? I thought there was? What do I use for an antivirus?

7. Will Spybot or Add-Aware work?

Keep it simple please, I am just getting going, but excited about Mandrake.

Thanks.


__________________

carlywarly 01-19-2004 01:48 PM

1 - basically, yes. Try KDE. It is closest to the window manager in windows.

2 - I'm not sure what you mean. Could you explain a little more?

3 - There are loads of browsers you can use. Have a look in Start - Networking - WWW. eg Opera for Linux.

4 - Yes. Click on your Home icon, and navigate to /mnt/ you should see a /win_c partition, or similar. Click on it and navigate to what you want.

5 - Which camera is it? Gphoto or gcam may well work. Try plugging it in and seeing if an icon appears on your desktop.

6 - Yes. Go into Mandrake Control Centre - Security - Drakfirewall. You can sort it out there.

7 - No, there is no such thing as spyware in open source software.

Hope some of that helps.

Thymox 01-20-2004 06:42 PM

Re: Bunch of basic Mandrake 9 questions
 
Welcome to LQ.

1. On boot, I choose GNOME. There is KDE, Win something. Are these just different desktops?
Sort-of. Gnome and KDE are the most Windows-like. I personally don't like them, but there you go. Try them both. If you find an application that you like under Gnome but you're not particularly impressed by its KDE counterpart, you can run the Gnome one under KDE. And vice-versa. The other one, Win-something is Windowmaker. If you've never used 'alternative' desktops for Windows like LiteStep then you're in for a shock! It is very different. It is pretty cool, but it is very different.

2. When I go to the Internet, I go to Google type my search, hit search nothing comes up, it stays on Google. It says the search is done. What am I doing wrong? I have to type the exact address in.
Have you tried other search engines to see if this is a recurring problem? How about other Googles? If google.com doesn't work, try google.co.uk, etc.

3. I don't like Netscape but it is the defaul, can I change it to IE or something else? It says Mozilla, is the underlying browser Netscape?
Well, unless you are into fiddling about, you're not gonna be using IE as it is a Windows thing. If I were you I would consider this a blessing rather than a curse :D Konqueror (under KDE) is a good browser. There are many Mozilla based (Gecko-based) browsers about, the most popular seems to be Phoenix.

4. Can I access my Windows stuff from the desktop? Was reading somewhere that you can make a shortcut from the desktop and create a link to a partition. I right-clicked and didn't see anything.
If the above doesn't work, then you will need a little-bit more work. Post back here with your progress.

5. I have a digital camera, where would I go for it to be recognized--USB connection. Is there an explorer type Window?
That all depends on whether your camera is 'well behaved' or not. Mine is not, and many others' are not. However, if you get a cheap card-reader you can (almost) guarantee it to work.

6. Is there a built in firewall? I thought there was? What do I use for an antivirus?
As above. You will not necessarily need antivirus software. There is a fairly lengthy discussion on this topic around somewhere, but in general you will only need anti-virus software under Linux if you want to make sure you don't pass on any Windows virii.

7. Will Spybot or Add-Aware work?
They will not work natively as they are Windows apps and not Linux apps, however, they are also redundant as there is nothing (to my mind) that is even vaguely like Spyware under Linux.

HTH = Hope This Helps.

coopns 01-20-2004 07:13 PM

I appreciate the detailed repsones.

....On to some playin' in Mandrake!


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