Greetings from South Africa,

This is first time I am writing thread (ever), I hope there aren't going to be syntax issues.

How do you preview what you write?

Anyway, not knowing anything about Linux, I have decided to take the "compatibility test" which recommended openSUSE. I also noticed in one of the forums on this site that this distribution is suitable for beginners (apparently it has a built in manual). I have also downloaded the file rute.pdf which appears to be pretty thorough (will it take a year, maybe two to work through? Has anybody tried it?).

Tonight I will try to install openSUSE and see what the world of Linux has to offer!

If an experienced member thinks that my approach to entering the Linux world is wrong, please reply.

Cheers for now,
William

OK, I have just found the preview button.

Hi William and welcome to LinuxQuestions!

Mr Einstein has just cursed me!. I teach engineering, Mechanical Engineering!

Welcome to LQ. It looks as if you are off to a good start.

I would suggest sticking with whatever distro you start with for several months. Many Linux users like to "distro-hop," especially when they are starting out, but I think it's a good idea to learn a few basics before succumbing to that temptation.

You can preview what you write by clicking the "Go Advanced" button at the bottom of the "Quick Reply" window.

Fortunately (for me, at least), you can also edit what you write after you click "Post Quick Reply."

Thanks to frankbell & colucix for the welcome message. openSUSE 12.2 is now installed, it seems to be pretty fast. I think that I am going have to get my head around these binaries, repositories, packages and compiler thingies. I have managed (or should I say the the package manager managed) to install gnucash. However I think that installing the printer driver is going to be another issue. Cannon has a printer driver on their web site, which I have downloaded and noticed that two forms are available (Debian file, and a rpg file). Since openSUSE is not based on Debian I think I will try the rpg file. Wish me luck, I am sure I will be back with my tail between my legs!

Cheers,

William

(grin) I think you meant "rpm" files.

Here's a good reference on SuSe package management. I'd recommend your reading it; RPM packages are not necessarily compatible across distros.

http://en.opensuse.org/Package_management

Here are some other useful references for getting started. The About dot com one could be good prep one to check out because it has some pictures.

http://linux.about.com/. It's oriented to Ubuntu, but it's full of good info.

http://tille.garrels.be/training/tldp/. Machtelt Garrels's Intro to Linux.

http://www.slackbook.org/. Slackware oriented, but excellent on the basics, such as file structure, permissions, and the like.

And there's a wealth of stuff at The Linux Documentation Project.