Converted (Introduction)

[NIHILUM_APPARATUS]

Hey, folks.

So, I came to the conclusion that I was tired of the general OS crap. Crashing, Viruses, Programs not working randomly an hour later from when they were working just fine. I'm sure Linux is far from perfect, but I heard it's a hell of a lot better.

I grew up with my dad using Linux. I believe it was Red Hat, so I'm pretty familiar to the general control. I currently am using Ubuntu on a Windows machine, though.

I'll take a look around the forums for any information - I want to have a minimal windows installation (for basic principle purposes) and make Linux my main OS.

I've been screwing around with WINE so far, and setting up my music player and stuff, so if theres anything anyone can offer as far as cool stuff to play with, let me know. I love customizing stuff and doing layouts and all that stuff.

I'm a code-junkie. I love screwing with HTML, CSS, and I'm always into learning a new language. The Terminal on this OS is amazing, so I definately want to get used to it and it's commands. So, let me download some knowledge from some of you Wizards. Apprenticeship engage! xD

You can call me NIHILIM or NA, btw. =P

[GNU-Fan]

Howdy,

I've been screwing around with WINE so far, and setting up my music player and stuff, so if theres anything anyone can offer as far as cool stuff to play with, let me know. I love customizing stuff and doing layouts and all that stuff.

Watch out for .xml and .glade files in the /usr/share directories. They describe the looks of the programs and can be changed with an text editor or graphical editors.
The icons&bitmaps of most applications are in the /share directory as well.

I'm a code-junkie. I love screwing with HTML, CSS, and I'm always into learning a new language.

Learn C then
You can draw the source code from any package of the Ubuntu main archives with apt-get source. You then do your changes, recompile and replace the program with your own version. It's a bit hard to begin with though. I recommend to become confident with the shell (terminal) first.

[NIHILUM_APPARATUS]

Howdy,

Watch out for .xml and .glade files in the /usr/share directories. They describe the looks of the programs and can be changed with an text editor or graphical editors.
The icons&bitmaps of most applications are in the /share directory as well.

Learn C then
You can draw the source code from any package of the Ubuntu main archives with apt-get source. You then do your changes, recompile and replace the program with your own version. It's a bit hard to begin with though. I recommend to become confident with the shell (terminal) first.

Thanks for the input! I'll definitely look into Shell and maybe bump up to C once I get used to it. ;D

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

If you're looking for some info on the terminal, try this one: LinuxCommand.org: Learn the Linux command line. Write shell scripts.

[NIHILUM_APPARATUS]

Thanks for that link!

I picked up a couple books the other day. Might help me get something going.

"Systems Analysis & Design Methods"
"COBOL Structured Programming Techniques for Solving Problems"
"Practical Guide to the UNIX SYSTEM"

Recognize any of these?

Hope they help. I was just browsing around a book store for anything that looked particularly interesting.

[GNU-Fan]

Holy cow! Please put that Cobol book back into the vitrine before the museum starts to miss it.

Seriously, I don't think you will much learn from it, unless you plan to maintain 1960s banking software.

[jayd512]

Holy cow! Please put that Cobol book back into the vitrine before the museum starts to miss it.

ROFL!
No doubt!

[Kieren]

Holy cow! Please put that Cobol book back into the vitrine before the museum starts to miss it.

Gave me a smile too

Hello NIHILIM, and welcome to Linux and the Forums. Try not to get too tied down in the books. They are useful and do use them but nothing is better than experience so just dive in.

I would start by looking at setting up a separate /home partition. Then if you break your installation you can reinstall and have all your files and settings kept over each reinstall. However, remember to keep a backup of anything important as chances are you will nuke your /home directory at some point!

Just out of interest, what are you using Wine for? The only Windows apps I use are games and I keep a dual boot of Windows for that. You may want to check out the table of equivalents for open source alternatives to software you might be used to

[keikun2004]

Welcome to the linux world
type man bash in your shell, it is the best book for bash scripting