I've broken the Linux ice

[dankruitz]

I just got my week old welcome to Linuxforums.org email and wanted to drop a line in here with a couple of thoughts and can maybe get some feedback. I'm a Linux virgin and have been using it about two weeks.

I've been curious about Lniux for a while, but am a Microsoft guy going way back and obviously have a comfort factor there. The deciding factor was I wanted to build a used machine for my young daughter to play with for web and email, and didn't want to pirate an MS OS. So I poked around a bit found out I could download the free SUSE (all FIVE CD images!). I tried it and it worked - very weird seeing a PC boot without windows - well at least for me.

After I reloaed it again because we found out we had a bad keyboard and couldn't tell what the root password was, we started poking around with it. First thing I can say, is if the Linux folks are serious about pushing the OS they need some kind of tool to help the folks who know how to do things in Windows, but not in Linux/SUSE/KDE etc. I'm still learning what's what with those three - remember it's a very different concept than straight up windows. (I remember years ago Excel had a feature like that for folks who where switching over from 1-2-3)

It seems to run just fine on a 700mhz P4 with 256mb of ram. I'm very impressed with the number of apps, tools and utilities bundled in this package. I'm very rusty with unix commands (had some experience on Sun almost a decade ago) and it's starting to come back slowly - I picked up a book at the library to help.

Added unforseen feature; we're ripping CDs down onto the machine to use as a jukebox - very cool - ogg vorbis of course.

I'm also very impressed with the interface, security, and depth of desktop customization that can be done, and I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface. We've been using OpenOffice for about a year on Windows so that's an easy transition for us.

Problems I did run into is security on cd/cdrw drives for non-root users, and a couple of other fiddly things, but nothing too major. The biggest learning curve is just figuring out what's what, and where to find it. It's frustrating when I know what I want to do, just can't see how to do it - and don't necessarily know the terminology with this OS.

Overall I'm impressed, though have hit some speedbumps but not enought to disway me from further exploration and use - in fact I ordered the brand new SUSE 10.0 last week. I'm expecting that's $60 well spent.

Final question, how serious a threat a viruses to Linux now and in the near future? Is AV a must-have, and what are folks recommending?

[a12ctic]

im glad to see your enjoying it, right now there is one case of spyware, and it does not pose a threat at all (when you put in a incorrect url it shows you some stupid search site). As for virus's, im not sure, but there so few... you really dont have to worry, suse proly comes configured with SELinux anyway..

[jaboua]

Viruses ain't any big threat to linux no, and there's no need for some AV software. You can get hacked, and the hackers can install rootkits, but if you set up the firewall correctly that's not an issue.

Here's some more info on rootkits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

[celticgeek]

Welcome to linuxforums, dankruitz. And don't worry too much about the speed bumps. I have been using GNU/Linux for over six years, and still run into the occasional speed bump. Have fun at the forums.

[fingal]

Welcome to this forum. I think it's pretty normal to come up against obstacles when learning Linux. The thing is that as you overcome these your knowledge will increase and - I hope - your levels of interest. Good luck