Hi all

Stevo here, i am totally new to Linux. Been a Windows man for a few years, but decided to switch because there is too much crap flying that causes Windows to crash, i.e. viruses, spyware, addware - you know the score

I am not familiar with the command line (not even with DOS - I skipt this generation too), but eager to learn with the right help from a few experienced users keen to help me in here. I have opted for the Fedora Core 3 distribution (because it is the only one they had in PC world, that had a copy of "For Dummies" guide with it) - hope this is a resonable choice?

No Doubt I will be on this forum a lot picking peoples brains - hope this is ok? so don't expect me to know very much at the start!

SteVo

Hi and welcome to LQ As long as you search LQ and Google before asking your questions, there will be no problems: we're all pretty friendly round these parts.

Instructions:
-open packet
-eat the contents

linuxquestions is the best

Welcome to Linux! Here are a couple sites with command references...

http://www.ss64.com/bash/

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/cmd/

It may seems daunting at first, but generally only need to know a few basic commands to get by.

Type "man" or "info" and then the command for information about its usage.

ls - list files in the current directory

cd - change to the specified directory

cp - copy a file from one location to another

mv - move a file

rm - delete a file

df - information about mounted drives

ifconfig - configure your network devices

route - route your network devices

netstat - displays current connections

vim, vi, pico, joe - text editors

gcc - compiler

make - compiles a project

modprobe - loads a module (driver, etc...), if you want it to stay loaded you'll need to add it to /etc/modules.conf

startx - boots X, most distributions default to a window manager, you can change which with "wmconfig".

tar -xvzf filename is used to decompress a .tar.gz archive or -xvjf for .tar.bz2

Most programs are installed by "./configure" then "make" and "make install" as root. Check the documentation in the "INSTALL" file or whichever is provided.

Use the root account to install software, but for best security, stick to a user account the rest of the time. If you want to switch to root or any user temporarily you can type "su username" and then the password in a terminal.

If you want to create a new user, try adduser or kuser under system in KDE.

Here is a link describing directory structure... http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/...ilestruct.html

Here is a link about setting permissions...
http://www.zzee.com/solutions/linux-permissions.shtml

One more link about configuring X Windows....
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~reinh...ebsd/xorg1.htm

Fedora Core 3 is a good choice, it's pretty reputable and catered toward user-friendliness.

A couple sites for free open source software are sourceforge.net and freshmeat.net.

I hope this information is relevant, have fun!

Also, you may not want to install everything from source. If you can, download RPM packages intended for Fedora systems. It is not necessary, but it will save you some time. You can install them with the "rpm" command or alternatives like "yum".

WOW!! thanks for all your responses - some great tips already :-)

I will be sure to adhere to your suggestions..for hopefully trouble-free linuxing

SteVo

Moved to Member Intro forum. Your thread is an introduction, so this place is best for it.

Welcome to LQ!