Ok .... Im trying to learn some of the basics to linux so when I 'Move in' so its not as big of a shock as last time, heh ... It's actually pretty intimidating having to learn something new... Ive spent all this time getting WinXP Admin certifications and a few others and now Im loooking to starrt clean all over again Wonder what linux has in store for me ....

Anyway ...

Here are a few q's that have come up when I think about linux and usability etc what I will need to know to get started, after answering my questions if someone would be kind enough to point me to a site to begin learning, that would be excellent ...

Here is my situation .. Two hd's , one 400 gig and another 36 gig, 400 is full with sensitive data which can not be formatted .... 36 currently has a NTSF and a windows installation which I plan to wipe out during the linux install ... Nothing on hthe 36 gig is important ... Dont want windows, at all .... no dualbooting .... so if anyone has had a situation similar to mine is and did an install in Redhat please give me some notes on what to expect options I will have to choose, just some helpful tips if possible

Ok for the q 's ....


1. Installing Tar files .... please, in dummy windows terms what the command is , all im looking for is basics until I can learn more ..

2. Installing RPM's

3. My hardware specs are as follows ... is there anything which I will have to install drivers for and give me a hell of a day , heh

Mobo : MSI 6680 or something like that ... Msi mobo
Processor: Athlon XP 2100 1.73 ghz
Ram: (probably not applicable) 1.5 gig
Both hd's are western digital ..
Logitech wireless optical keyboard and mouse *Mouseman*
Deskjet 660 printer *HP*


4. I have read reports that linux's remote desktopprogram is not as good as windows ... Heard of a alternative called samba .... Need a little nfo here please

5. Installing files (Compiling :S) Whatever ....

6. Basics of wine ... if anyone uses it ... The only windows progs I will need are Macromedia's products since I am a web designer ..

7. A big Q I need answered is the diff in filesystems ... /home/ and all that ... Please let me know what some of the folders are and for and what the basic folder setup is, im aware its not C, D , G: etc crap , I mean just fill me in one whats what, for example (dont take this technically)

/ - root
/home/ - main directory
/home/linux/ - linux dir

just a overview of where and what things are, heh ...

Also, these are just basics I can thnk of in the back of my head to start me off, im very much willing to read and learn linux, this is just to get me started .. and excuse my bad spelling

I hope I can get some answers from people, much thanks to anyone who responds ...

I understand I am a newb on this forum but please no flame ...

Thanks

Well, I don't know what to tell you, just install it.

The redhat installer is as simple as it comes. If you have 36 GB to spare then I suggest you do a full install. Sure you'll have a bunch of crap you never use, but you won't have to deal with installing stuff manually which can be a hassle for newbies.

Redhat should do fine recognizing your hardware, allthough the printer may cause you grief, but one thing at a time right?

Just install it and have a look around, get a book like 'running linux' from o'reilley and if you have problems or specific questions post them here...we'll be happy to help.

I cannot agree more with bulliver.

Theoretically answering questions, is much different than actually practically doing things and running into bumps and then asking the questions.
Install it and check it out, and then tell us what you thin, alright bro?

zLinuxz

If you use Redhat or Mandrake's recent releases you won't have to worry about tar files to much. They use rpms a lot. It's also good for a newbie to get the feet wet with.
Make sure your hardware is supported, especially video card and modem. This two can be a real headache.
There is documentation that may help explain a lot about the file system and it's structure. It's at http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3 . You should get command line first. The file structure is on to the middle somewhere but it gives good simple explanations of what they are for. There is a lot of info that is relavant to all Linux distros in this one.
I would recommend Mandrake 9.1 for your first time, Redhat would be good to. After you get used to it you can get another distro and really customize it for your system and what you do.

I have a How to for Mandrake 9.1 install at this link, http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=108583 . Yes I want to put it here but no mods have not told me where to put it yet, hint, hint. If you install Mandrake make sure you get the patch for system with more than 1Gb of memory. There is a erreta section on the left, of the mandrakelinux site, that has the info.

Hope this helps a little anyway.

I don't mean this as a rtfm response but I would say that a lot of that is stuff you can find (a) by searching the web and, specifically, the sites of the distros you're interested in and (b) by searching your own computer after you install it - for instance 'man tar'. *Then* you can start trying to do things and start running into problems and start trying to solve them. *Then*, if you can't work something out, that would be the time for questions. I understand wanting to see what's in front of you before you jump, though.

For instance - filesystem
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/

Tar
http://hegel.ittc.ukans.edu/topics/l...an1/tar.1.html

That sort of thing.

In other words

Better to try to find out about it, try to untar one, and come back and say "I tried to untar this file fooapp.tar.bz2 using the command 'tar xzvf fooapp.tar.bz2' like it said in the manual and got error foo" and we could say "Read more carefully, that's for tar.gz files - you need 'tar xjvf'."

See? Because how are we supposed to answer? Are you wanting to know how to back stuff up or uncompress stuff so you can compile or what? It's best to narrow down your questions and get focused answers. In dummy terms, tar turns a bunch of little files into one big file. Gzip turns the one big file into one smaller file. Hence a tar.gz file. And tar with the xzvf options is the simplest means to reverse it - eXtracts the File via gZip in a Verbose way. But, like I say, when you come up against a bzip file or something out of the ordinary, you're going to have to learn from the docs or come back and ask again anyway.

Ok ... Your probably right, Ill have to wait until I dive in .... errrr ... Thanks for the files to read on http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-3.4.html especially that

he.....I think I'll try and help you here to save you some time [I'm relatively bored]
1.
gunzip foo.tar.gz
tar xvf foo.tar
cd tar
./configure
make && make install

2.
rpm -U bar.rpm

4.
what do you mean by remote desktop? if you mean remote access, most distros by default install ftp, ssh, telnet, and you can opt for vnc - I'm not sure what you're looking for. samba is useful for windows > linux interaction

5.
think I've done that already

6.
I would advise you to use a windows machine for installing the macromedia suite on, that's what I use windows for [and photoshop]

7.
cba,,,,,.......

hth

thanks