I am trying to find out more about Linux operating systems. I've heard of Linux for a long time, but just decided to try it. I have a question though.

OpenSUSE 13.1 Linux, 4-disks DVD Installation and Reference Set
OpenSUSE 13.1 Linux, 4-disks DVD...






Can I use this disk to write over windows 7 and xp?? I am so tired of microsoft. Do I have to format HD first? Or will this program do that for me? I don't want to do a dual boot with windows, just Linux.</span> Can I use this disk to write over windows 7 and xp?? I am so tired of microsoft. Do I have to format HD first? Or will this program do that for me? I don't want to dual boot with windows, I just want to use Linux as my OS.

Backup anything important and yes plus next time ask in a better spot than "How Did You Get Into Linux and Open Source?"...

Run the Knoppix Live CD for a test. It was recommended to use it when things went wrong on your computer. Nearly dropped from my chair because I realised that I was looking at sheer quality. I continued to use Windows XP. But when the computer broke down, I bought a new one and I installed Ubuntu. Now I am a happy user of Crunchbang Linux.

In 2007. P3 Machine with 128 MB RAM. Windows XP froze frequently and pissed me off. Formatted and installed Fedora Core 6. Since then, I haven't needed a Windows except for some tiny things (which can be actually done in Linux, but academics, ugh) and I use a VM for that.

I purchased "Linux: The Complete Reference, Fourth Edition", by Richard Peterson, in 2001. It came with Red Hat 7.

The Nokia N900 got me fascinated about what open source software development can do,
and the power of the linux command line :-)

Excellent friends introduced me to Mandrake shortly after Windows Xp came out... fell in love with linux immediately! I loved xmms for audio and gimp for manipulating images. When ubuntu hit the scene I switched almost immediately, great OS back then and still. Used ubuntu up until version 12.04.X and switched to Slackware 14.X I am absolutely in LOVE with Slackware now and will prolly never use another distro! I love everything about it. It's solid, almost never locks up and I love watching the software compiles, it's neat to watch all the code zoom across the screen as I await my new software install. Been using Slackware 14.1 since it came out and am happy to report my system is fast, flexible and stunningly eye-pleasing with a theme I created which can be downloaded from gnome-look.org by searching for "Ambiance for Slackware"

LINUX, FTW!!!

I first heard the name Linux from a friend in 1997 who said he'd like to see it, but we were both busy with other stuff at the time so it had to wait. Around '99 I discovered Copyleft and was impressed with Gnuchess for Windows, both by the quality and the development philosophy.

Fast forward two years and I was a poor biochemistry student who'd just been offered a cheap ex-business base unit. I scraped enough together to buy the necessary hardware plus a second-hand copy of Windows. I had never liked Windows but after years of Sinclair and DOS, I'd come to see the advantages of having something that's still officially supported. I also didn't want to spend the time learning another system when I could stick with what I knew.

Then I spent a week studying Windows in an attempt to (again) fix my family's main box, and thought, "If I have to spend time learning the ins and outs of an operating system just to keep it running, it might as well be one I like using." Instead of £30 on Windows 95, I spent £3 on Mandrake 8.0.

Of course, it turned out I didn't have to do much at all to keep Linux running, though it took sweat and tears to persuade Mandy to run in the first place. By early 2002 I was wondering why anyone would ever choose to run Windows.

Around 2010 I finally left the then-ailing Mandriva for Debian, and now even Mrs Chomper seems to be happy with the system.

Freedom of choice should be exercised to the fullest extent... I saw the movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" with a good friend and began to like Steve more than Bill. What happened between Microsoft and Apple sure encouraged me to not want to pay for computer software, formatting my very soul. It indeed should be shared freely, but credit and charitable donations should go to the those who write and maintain the software.

I think this is a bit of a rehash of my intro message but here goes...

In my early days I started out with the TRS-80 Color Computer II. Shortly thereafter I upgraded to the Coco 3 which had Microware OS-9 available as an alternative (seperately purchased) OS. It was a real-time OS that while not Unix was very Unix-like in it's feel. They used it in a lot of embedded systems back in the day (including in street lights and on the space shuttle).
Eventually Radio Shack orphaned the Coco like what was happening with a lot of 8-bit machines and support began to dry up. In the early 90's I saw the writing on the wall but did not want to go the Wintel route. I started investigating this other unix-like OS I was hearing more about on the Delphi, Compuserve and BBS forums called Linux. I eventually got a beginner book at CompUSA and installed it on my fathers Packard Bell (remember those?). I had some success. I couldn't get X working on it though, but I was able to get to the command line and use some tools that were familiar from my OS-9 days, as well as a bunch of others. It was on a whole new level though.

Slackware was my first and my memories of it are positive. I eventually migrated to Redhat and then briefly tried other distros before settling on the Mandrake/Mandriva and now Mageia line since about the late 90's.

It took a long time but I eventually got my foot in the door only in the last couple years as a Linux Admin. I currently use Mageia at home as well as use Fedora/RHEL/Centos in a VM environment. Professionally I use a lot of RHEL as well as some HP-UX.

What a long nerdy trip it's been...

From 1995 using Sun OS 4.1.3, to Solaris 2.5, 7, 8, 9, and finally Solaris 10 where Sun was killing off Solaris in their own way until Oracle finally put the nail in the coffin, to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 now RHEL6.

I've never looked back, but I still (and only) miss ZFS file system and the ease and stability of it all.

Everything, and I mean everything, has been easier with Linux, including working with, researching solutions, and scripting with all the latest commands. I've had to learn all over again how great the tools are, without having to download OpenCSW or Blastwave packages on Solaris - just to function like big linux boys. LOL

Updating (patching) in RHEL has been a DREAM compared to Solaris too. I can patch dozens of Linux machines much FASTER than I can even one Solaris Sparc system, maybe even faster than a Solaris kernel patch itself. LOL

No regrets though.

I have never been happy with the most used OS that computers come with. Constant crashes with the loss of data etc.
Also my biggest gripe are the several versions sold with varying features removed for the lower price.

At the time, I was a member of a toastmasters group. I wanted to have a computer that did not have the cost and fragility of a Laptop.

So I took some old hardware and assembled "flivver-1".

I did not want the cost of windows, nor did I especially want a machine that was a temptation to others to want to tinker with.

I also had a friend who had worked with Linux as a career for more than 20 years in a local major university.

So we got together and "tore our collective hair out debugfging and sorting good hardware from bad, finally getting a version of Fedora to work. - "The School of Hard Knocks." (But this has been 95% of my "Life Schooling" anyway.

Now I have about 4 machines here on a network over 2 floors, having just purchased the latest one, and am doing more debugging - in Quebec, we might say "deverminage"!

I still keep a minimal capability in win XP around for use in a pinch (nothing's perfect - no panacea!") but that is always separated on separate physical hard drives, and boot selection is done from the bios - to keep them independent!

And now on to more "penguins"!

My first dip in to Linux was when I used the Braille+, a notetaker designed for the blind. I was impressed by how stable it was, and on inspection of the owner's manual, I had sceen the phrase Linux. This caught my attention and I looked further in to Linux, and discovered other blind people using it. As for why I use Linux is because I get a free screenreader, Orca, who comes with Gnome, and Speakup for the command-line. The first distro I actually installed and used myself was Arch, which, honestly, wasn't the best of ideas. Thank goodness the wiki was well documented, because that's how I installed it. But it broke afterwards, but that a different story for a different time.

Dear Hunter:

Thanks for your reply.

I am not blind, however I have had some nice experiences with blind people over the years.

Linux is more complex, and effectively a bigger system than windows, but versatility and complexity go, and will go to eternity, together - not only in IT, but ubiquitously (everywhere).

This also related to why Linux is more stable. Linux has about 8 (or now possibly more) layers in the operating system alone. Win XP had 3.

This makes updates, patches and fixes much more manageable for those who have to support us.

However, any good operating system needs hardware that is user-adequate without bearing exhorbitant cost.

What I have seen done for the disabled in the marketplace IMHO leaves a lot to be desired. also IMHO, improvement in this area does hold beneficial spinoff potential for many others who, not seeing themselves as having a disabieachlity, may find that some implementations made for thre disabled can also be helpful to others who may actually have minor disabilities that have simply been ignored, the imposed limitations so being ignored alike.

My Problem is more to do with small motor coordination - the kind of physical coordination that relates to manipulating small physical objects.

It also affects my typing and use of the Mouse/trackball.

While I prefer a trackball to a mouse, the trackballs I see have some ergonomic issues that don't seem to have been attended to in the marketplace.

Being a retired electroneachic technician, I habve plans to custom build a special type of joystick designed to replace a mouse, however this is not my only DIY project.

I have been a technology DIYer since the age of 14. I am now 67!

The "Joypointer":
=============

Much of that project is small metal work, as the problem I have with commercial mice and trackballs is more mechanical and ergonomic than electronic. This is going to be very time consuming - Rome was not built in a day!!

This approach could also be of help to blind operators, especially those who were blind from birth.

This is because the operator will place his/her hand on the joystick and likely not have to remove it very often. the device, as with trackballs does not have to move around the table, so it will take less space. (Overall size about 10" deep by 7" wide, and allow 2 inches free at the back to accommodate the cables.)

The electronics is handles by cannibalizing an old PS/2 non-optical mouse. The buttons are repolaced by button modules that can use ordinary pushbuttons - user replaceable! the buttons are mounted on top of the 10" X 7" X 2" aluminum chassis on sub-assembly plates that can be removed and/or replaced as needed.

The two resolvers are removed and their pulse inputs to the interface electronics are driven from an oscillator and dividers. The 4 independently divided pulse trains are switched by switches in the joystick, after having been further split to provide the 2 different quadrature sequences needed for each axis. Thus when the joystick is moved up, for example, a pulse train makes the mouse cursor rise at a rate determined by the speed setting for the vertical. If the joyustick is pulled down, the same happens in respect of down, using the opposite quadrature derivative of the divided pulse stream.

The same apples for left and right.

since this device will need power, the back of the box will have 2 connectors: a DB9F and a USB2 F or Type B.

The DB9 will connect to my wired 12 volt desktop modular remote control panel, and another switch on the "Joypointer" will make it possible to switch to a standard USB mouse or trackball plugged into the USB connector plugged into the back of the Joypointer box. This could be useful if the operator needs another person to operate the pointer function from time to time.each


Best Regards,
Bruce M.