[wplug] Linux newbie

Christopher DeMarco cdemarco at fastmail.fm
Thu Oct 21 21:56:09 EDT 2004


On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 02:46:51PM -0400, Embery, Nathan wrote:

> Ahhh, that's easy. Dump windows and go full  steam ahead with Linux,
> break stuff, then ask us for help :)

It sounds religious  ("linux is the  path to true enlightenment")  but
really that's the  best way to  become fluent  quickly.  IFF you  have
proprietary apps which are required for some aspect of your life, then
you'll have to develop a work-around  (second computer, Remote Desktop
/ VNC connection, WINE) but IMHO a dual-boot system for anything OTHER
than games is a crutch that will hinder your progress.


> Your  choice  of    Distro  varies on  what   exactly   you  want to
> accomplish. If you want  to  be  completely  set up with  a  minimal
> amount  of fuss go with something  like fedora core  2 or  3. If you
> want to learn more about the  internals, go with something more like
> slackware or debian

Gentoo can be a  nice middle ground.  This  is entirely opinion,  so I
hope  distro  wars   don't  drown  out  what is    a potentially  very
interesting  and fruitful discussion, but  I've  found Gentoo to  have
most things   configured out-of-the box  very  nicely, but   with good
documentation  and hooks  into  'tweaking' your  system that  make its
internals more-accessible than, say RH's.


> It depends  though, is  learning   to manually  setup  your wireless
> connection / X server / whatever using only  config files even worth
> knowing these days???

YES YES  YES!  The first  few times  you have to  perform black magick
you'll feel totally  lost   but the first *success*   is exhilarating.
While many  tools  can automagically  configure WiFi, and  X is mostly
hands-free these days,  there are definitely times  when you'll need a
familiarity  with  XF86Config   and wlan-ng   (e.g.  Xinerama,   or  a
dual-mouse setup).   And mucking around in  the system  internals will
give you confidence.  The more exposure, the better.


-- 
% You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
Christopher DeMarco <cdemarco at fastmail.fm>          
PGP public key ID 0x2E76CF5C @ pgp.mit.edu
+6012 232 2106


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