i want to jump the boat to linux... will you help please?

[mortagen]

Hi,

I'm Mortagen and i'm a 16yr old guy living in Australia. Lately i've been hearing alot about "Linux" and how great it is... so i've read many reviews, forums, and even watched youtube videos about it. But i'm going to need help to swap teams to linux...

Now i'm really advanced with windows (i'm a computer technician) so i have some knowledge of computers. I have a few questions before i'm set.

1. How do i know which distro to go with? i keep hearing that there is no best distro nor no best distro to suit everyone...

2. When installing Windows on my laptop, i need to press f6 during the loading of the text setup to load a sata driver for my laptop harddrive so the setup can see my harddrive... I presume this is the same with linux because it is not seeing my harddrive why i try eg. Fedora

3. How do i install that compiz fusion thingo once i've eventually got linux installed?

4. How do i go about drivers for my hardware?

5. How will my desktop go when i'm finished building it? aren't ati radeon cards unsupported and therefor compiz won't run? (specifications are below).

6. I'm developing my own modification of windows... i use software like eXPander, winrar, dependency walker, nLite, and virtual pc 2007 for this... what will i do under linux? maybe i can use wine but what if these apps aren't supported? I don't really want to have to dual boot...

7. Apparently linux is for programmers by programmers... and is hard to learn because you inevitabley have to use terminal/console to complete tasks etc. How will i learn to do these things?

8. Where do i go for quick effective support when i need it?


My laptop is a HP Compaq 6710s which has a C2D processor, 2gb ram, GMA x3000 graphics, and a sata hard drive... how do i go about getting a linux installation to detect my hard drive? and what do i do about graphics drivers for compiz or whatever?

The specs of the desktop i'm building are more like a desktop cross server which is why i ask:

CPU: Dual Pentium 3 "Tualatin" 1.4ghz @ 1.4ghz 512kb cache each.
RAM: 4x1gb ddr2700
HDD: 500gb IDE/PATA
GPU: ATI Radeon x850xt (when i've used linux on other PCs i could never get my old x1950 pro to work because apparently linux doesn't support ati radeon cards past the 9250 card.)

Please help me out, i really want to join the linux community!

Would anyone like to see a photo of my dog?

Thanks in advanced!

Regards, Mortagen

[oz]

Welcome to the forums, mortagen!

1) see the link in my signature for lots of information on getting started with Linux, and which distro

2) the Linux kernel is sata compatible, but some distros have more trouble with it than others

3) some distros come with the eye candy stuff, but you can add it to those that don't

4) the drivers for most hardware are included with the Linux kernel, but you can add drivers later if they are available for Linux

5) nVidia cards generally work better with Linux, but lots of ATI users have successfully installed and used Linux

6) you can do just about anything under Linux that you can do with Windows if you are determined. There are mounds of Linux programming apps available. WINE won't work with all Windows apps but works with many. You just have to try each one to decide if it works well enough for you

7) some distros are more console oriented than others, but the command line works quite well in any distro

8) most distros have their own specific support forum, then there are generic support forums, like this one. Some distros like Red Hat offer a paid support channel

The main thing is to try to make Linux a fun experience.

Don't hesitate to start new threads with any new questions.

[mortagen]

Ok thanks... i'll run ubuntu dapper on live and try install to hard drive if gparted detects my hard drive... if not i'll try and mount it or whatever... if i have any issues i'll return to this thread and ask If all goes well, i'll just start threads when required.

Thanks!

Regards, Mortagen!

[coopstah13]

i would recommend against using ubuntu dapper as it is not the newest version of ubuntu and doesn't have much life left in its lifecycle, the current version is 7.10 Gutsy, also you will have less hardware issues in a newer version

[mortagen]

Dammit i downloaded dapper because it was LTS which lasted till 2009 like Gutsy... o well i'll download gutsy soon, i'll give dapper a test drive!

Thanks for the heads up!

Regards, Mortagen

[Ogion]

A good tip for the switch to Linux:
Linux is NOT Windows

One important thing (since you said it yourself):
Linux is not Windows! So in the most cases, it would not be a good advice, to use your Windows-knowledge for solving issues in Linux, because things just work differently.

@LTS
Well, for the normal desktop use, you don't need a Long term support version, since Ubuntu gets a new version two times a year, and upgrading is usually really no issue.

At your questions:
1. Yes, there is no "best distro" for everybody. There are many distros aout there, and they all have there individual characteristics. For a fisrt look, youcan try this website:
zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Chooser
But Ubuntu is a good choice, when you just want an easy distribution to start with. Unless you want to dig a little bit deeper in Linux Then you could start with Debian for example.

2. There should be no problem with sata-drives. But you can just wait and see.

3. That should be installed already in Ubuntu (i think, when your graphics-card/chip gets recognized)

4. Like ozar said already...

5. dito

6. Well, if you could explain that a bit...For example for what these programs are used, which functionality you need... (Since apart from winrar i don't know these)

7. Well, most of the distros 'for beginners' (like Ubuntu and others) try to get as much as they can in a GUI, but yes. The commandline is the basis in Linux, and you would serve yourself with 'learning it'. There are many webpages which teach the basics there.

8. The main points for that are forums, irc-chats and mailing-lists. But be a little patient, since everybody there is a volunteer who owns you nothing, and you have no right, to urge them, since you didn't pay for support... (see the "Linux is not Windows-Article mentioned above; it's really good there, when you read it to the end)

Hope that helped for the beginning.
Ogion

[mortagen]

Hey guys,

i tried live cd with dapper and this happend:



Also... i'm not sure if it is related to linux but now my laptop is really slow at posting... and has a white underscore flashing for about 5 seconds before the bios screen with the big hp logo is displayed. Then the power on password that i set is displayed and i type my password and press enter and nothing happens. I've turned it off, unplugged it... and giving it time to rest since i probably overuse it alot.

Any ideas on my laptop and the error i linked to above?

Thanks!

Regards, Mortagen

[techieMoe]

It's definitely a video problem. My bet is the ATI card you have. I would recommend you try installing with the "Alternate Install" disc. It will attempt to install Ubuntu from a text prompt and let you get your ATI card working after the fact.

[mortagen]

The ati card is in my desktop that i'm building not my laptop. As i said before it has GMA x3000 onboard graphics. I emailed HP about my laptop issue which is now happening and will post the solution if and when i get one for anyone else who has the same issue. So how can i fix the video issue that i'm having? If i use gutsy will that fix it? Ill have to wait until my laptop is working well i guess.

Thanks in advanced!

Regards, Mortagen

[Lupus_Yonderboy]

tuXfiles - the Linux newbie help files, tutorials, and tips is a great resource for learning aspects of Linux that alot of experienced users seem to overlook telling newer users (Because it comes naturally to them)

Polish Linux (don't worry, it's in perfect english) has some good documents, but they seem to fail to update it anymore, so I wouldn't take their word on individual distros as solid.

One thing I will probably get shot down in flames for saying, is that while Ubuntu is good for new users to get the feel of linux and moving around using the command line etc. I think you have to move on eventually, ubuntu kind of hands you Linux on a silver platter. I think venturing outside of it and getting stuck into the bleeding edge of other distros is good too