SO many details !!!

[blackpoopie]

Hi y all....
I am from Canada.. I have wanted to get LINUX on a machine for quite a while.
So I finally got a new PC... with two hard drives and put Windows XP Pro 64 bit edition on the first drive and Mandriva Linux on the second hard drive.
I tried putting Mandriva first but it did not work out too well, so I thought I would switch them and it seems to be good now.
I do like the whole thing very much... the only thing is that there are so many details to try and get a handle on, and nothing downloads and works by itself.. I cannot even figure out how to unzip a file. With WINDOWS something like that is no big deal..
Anyway, I am going to stay with it.. I think the concepts are great.. I just need to study a lot more and experiment with the system...
The community aspect is very sweet... CHOW...... keep the FAITH.... later...

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums blackpoopie!


Yeah, Redmond doesn't like being installed second. There is whispers that it _can_ be done, but it's not easy.

About the details. Yeah, you're on a different system now, with a different design logic behind it. It's not just the GUI that is different. It takes some getting used to.

Unzipping stuff should be easy though. You'll find that most if not all day to day operations on Linux work just as easy as under any other OS. But you'll also find they do work differently. On my system, I just right click any archive and select the 'extract archive' option. Or, most of the time, I dive into the command line and 'tar -xvf *tar.gz' but both options are equally valid methods.
That said, and I may be stating something obvious here, you cannot run Redmond executables unless you install Wine. And even with Wine you don't have any guarantee. It may, it may not.

Most Linux archives come either in the tar.gz or the tar.bz2 format. The tar.gz format is exactly the same as the well known zip format.


Don't hesitate to post if you have any questions

[jayd512]

Hi, blackpoopie! Welcome to LinuxForums!

I'm glad you decided to take the dive into the world of Linux, and hope you have fun with it. And I have to agree with Freston, in that you'll find that some of the tasks you come across will be different from the Windows world, but after you start to get a hold on it it's actually way simpler to get the things done that you want to do.

And again, post if you have any questions. Hope to see you often!

[blackpoopie]

Hey there FRESTON,
Wow, thanks for the comments. I appreciate that. I have a dual boot system I guess. It seems to work fine now but lately now the Mandriva side does not give me the option to shut off the computer just end the session... oh well...?? And about right clicking to extract a zip file .. I tried that and it just asks me what program I want to use to extract it.. and there are none on there that I know of.. However, I do think that I will give the console/command line a whirl...
I did appreciate your experience and I can see the wisdom of what you said about the new system.. I do like to learn new things.. I like to get books on things to study.. I think I will get some dummy books on LINUX.. there are a lot on the news stand... Hey, thanks again for the tips.. see you around...

[blackpoopie]

Warm greetings to you JAYD512 !
Thanks for the nice welcome.. I appreciate that a lot and also for your comments about the new system.. One guy said he did not like to have updates.. well, I can see where he is coming from.. but maybe he should have about three computers and just keep one basic one that would be safe always... I like to experiment and play and work with the system and learn how it all works.. that pleases me.. but I also like to have a durable system that I can count on because I want to do the Stock Market thing... One guy suggested to forget about Windows if you are going to have anything very special you want to keep safe... he said go for Linus or get a MAC.. much more secure...
I think he is probably right... that is one reason I have gotten LINUX now on my computer... Not sure if my Charting Program will work on it though... but maybe they have some good programs for LINUX.. they have everything else it seems...
OK, that is about it... take care and see you around...

[Freston]

Hey there FRESTON,
Wow, thanks for the comments. I appreciate that.

Sure

I have a dual boot system I guess. It seems to work fine now but lately now the Mandriva side does not give me the option to shut off the computer just end the session... oh well...??

Did it use to work? What did you change? There are some common causes and solutions for this (and I admit it's annoying behavior). But I can't see your machine from here.
And some behavior may be Mandriva specific. At least I remember something similar from the time I ran Mandriva. I was able to solve it though. Maybe a Mandriva user knows this from the top of their head?

And about right clicking to extract a zip file .. I tried that and it just asks me what program I want to use to extract it.. and there are none on there that I know of.. However, I do think that I will give the console/command line a whirl...

Is it a Redmond zip file? What is in it? (Files, executables, something else?)