|
G'day
I am a recent newbie in Linux, having tinkered with Red Hat 7.2 and Mandrake 8.2 when they were released, but did not stick with it because of the learning curve involved. About 9 months ago though, I needed a secure method of having our three computers share our internet connection, and I was becoming increasingly alarmed at the prospect of upgading their Win ME OS's to XP when Bill decides that ME doesn't deserve his support. As luck would have it, I spotted an article in an Australian computer magazine - Atomic Maximum Power Computing (atomicmpc.com.au) - about using Linux to set up a computer as a file server and secure internet firewall; they called it the Uber-Linux Box Project (Issue 20). This was a perfect excuse to dabble in Linux again, guided expertly by the tutorial style of the articles.
The articles were based on Mandrake 8.2, but I used Mandrake 9.0, as I already had it. This required me to delve a bit deeper than the tutorial, so I could sort out how to fix problems caused by differences between 8.2 and 9.0. This was a good thing in retrospect, as it gave me more confidence that I could understand Linux and use it on a permanent basis.
Everything went well, and very soon after I started I had a stateful inspection firewall as an internet gateway for my network. Very recently I installed Mandrake 9.1 as a dual boot with Win ME on my main machine and now use Linux most of the time. (As an aside, I also learned that I don't need to buy Partition Magic, as Mandrake 9.1's installer can handle most partitioning tasks.) I also installed Roaring Penguin's pppoe on the firewall box to handle the broadband connection that we recently upgraded to. The installation was a breeze and the connection has been rock solid since day one.
I am now exploring the applications that came with Mandrake 9.1 and must say that I am very impressed. For example, I fired up OpenOffice.org Draw and within an hour I had been able to master its basic features and print out CD labels and jewel cases just by using the toolbars and the excellent help files. This was about a third of the time it took me to do much the same with Publisher 98. I think that Bill has much to be concerned about.
I was drawn to LinuxQuestions.org by Google when I was having troubles with installing Mandrake 9.1 on my main machine, and particularly with getting Samba to talk to the Win ME machines. The answers I found here were instrumental in getting my problems sorted out.
In summary, I'm a happy newbie, looking forward to learning more about Linux and how it can do my computing tasks for me.
Geoff.
|
