First time with linux

[Klogg]

Hello there!

I'm currently a college student with a little extra bit of time on my hands and wanted to get a little experience working with Linux. I was planning to buy a cheaper netbook and using it to experiment with Linux. I am in no means a computer programming expert, but with enough time I can generally figure my way through the tough parts.

My ultimate goal would be to have a lightweight operating system that would be good for taking notes on or writing a paper on without all the extras to distract me. (I get a little ADD ) Also, I was thinking that maybe i could get a little more life out of the battery by cutting down on excess things running in the background.

... So I have a few questions heh

Do you guys have any recommendations for Netbooks I should look at to buy?
What do you think about getting extra life out of my battery? From my research it seems that linux is on par with windows on power consumption.
What are some skills or programming languages I should try to strengthen before diving head on?
Any fair warnings?

Thanks for you time in advance

[reed9]

Which netbook depends on your needs and budget.

If you're going to be typing a lot, I would say look for one with a close to full size keyboard. Most of the newer netbooks with 10 inch screens have this. I'm personally not a fan of the Asus EEE keyboards and touchpad. I prefer the Dell or HP netbooks in that area.

Power consumption is on par with Windows, as far as I know. You probably will not get more life out of the battery. There are tweaks you can make to reduce power consumption.
Simple Ways to Conserve/Improve Linux Netbook Battery Power | TechSource

Last, you don't need any programming knowledge to use linux. It can be useful to become comfortable with the command line, but it isn't necessary. (And if you're asking for help in forums, almost everyone will ask you to input some commands, as it's just much easier than trying to describe where to click in a graphical interface.)
Introduction to Linux Command-Line for Beginners | TuxArena Debian/Ubuntu

[Rubberman]

Most of the netbooks these days will run Linux just fine, and some can be purchased with Ubuntu or similar installed on them. Check out this site for Linux certified (pre-installed) systems: ZaReason, Inc.

They are great folks and their systems get high marks in reviews I have seen.

[dE_logics]

Linux is not at par with Windows in power consumption... you need to do rigorous tweaking for that, and ask the kernel to stop caching everything. Otherwise battery life is real low.

Since Windows is the world's slowest and most inefficient OS, even KDE (a heavy Desktop environment) will work on your system, while Windows (even with one of the worst desktop environments around) will not work well. It requres a quad core processor (one for 'anti-virus', one for Windows (or for Bill Gates), one for 'anti-spyware' and one for you) and 4 GB ram (to run all that + your apps).

As of a netbook, don't donate to Bill Gates, get one with Linux preinstalled. That will also help hardware comparability.

[Rubberman]

Linux is not at par with Windows in power consumption... you need to do rigorous tweaking for that, and ask the kernel to stop caching everything. Otherwise battery life is real low.

Since Windows is the world's slowest and most inefficient OS, even KDE (a heavy Desktop environment) will work on your system, while Windows (even with one of the worst desktop environments around) will not work well. It requres a quad core processor (one for 'anti-virus', one for Windows (or for Bill Gates), one for 'anti-spyware' and one for you) and 4 GB ram (to run all that + your apps).

As of a netbook, don't donate to Bill Gates, get one with Linux preinstalled. That will also help hardware comparability.

I don't see that power consumption is a problem with new distributions, such as Ubuntu 9.04 and later. It throttles back the CPU speed nicely, and supports system suspension and hibernation without problems, at least on my laptops and netbooks. In fact, I get better battery life with Ubuntu on my Dell D630 than with Windows, even when Windows is set to maximum battery mode.

[previso]

If this is a hobby, try getting your feet wet with an used laptop. There is no advantage in using new hardware over old when the purpose does not require muscle. However, that was my intro to Linux. Now, I can't remember the last time I booted up Windows, and I can't foresee a reason to do so. I saved my money on the initial learning curve and invested when my skills allowed me to take full advantage of the capabilities of the OS. Just saying.

[dE_logics]

I don't see that power consumption is a problem with new distributions, such as Ubuntu 9.04 and later. It throttles back the CPU speed nicely, and supports system suspension and hibernation without problems, at least on my laptops and netbooks. In fact, I get better battery life with Ubuntu on my Dell D630 than with Windows, even when Windows is set to maximum battery mode.

Reducing the CPU speeds, suspend/hibernation etc.. is just one part of the problem.
What matters here is how the kernel throttles the CPU, I'm talking about configuration of the ondemand governor. Also you have to configure the hard drive to make it consume less power.

Then we have things I've not yet learnt how to configure -- CPU power states, Graphics chip power states etc...

If you're getting a good battery life, I'm glad to hear that.

[ramin.honary]

I've been using a Dell Inspiron 10 Mini with Ubuntu Linux. I bought it new, and skipped the "Microsoft tax" (bought it with Linux pre-installed) which took about $100 off of the price. After upgrading to a 12-cell battery, (5 hours of constant use) 802.11 g wireless networking, and buying a 4-year extended warranty (which you should always do with portable computers since they break so often), it ended costing around $480 new. Windows really does add on a lot of unnecessary cost.

Although I bought it more than a year ago, I have found that neither the cost nor the Disk/Memory/CPU power has hardly increased for netbooks in the same price range. You could probably find a used one for cheaper online, but it is harder to buy a good warranty for used laptops.

I have had ZERO PROBLEMS with battery power, it is always able to suspend properly when I close it and always comes back to life when I open it. The biggest reason is that Dell actually did bother to write some Linux software for their laptops, and to my knowledge, Ubuntu still provides this software in their package repository.

I've seen other companies, like Asus, EeePC, and MSI release Linux laptops, but I haven't had any luck finding them lately. MSI laptops are very nice, but I have nothing but a good experience with my Dell.

[johnag]

What are some skills or programming languages I should try to strengthen before diving head on?

It depends what you want to achieve, and you dont actually need any programming skills to run linux. However, you couldn't find a better environment for brushing up on C or C++ [or any other language for that matter] Both the KDE desktop, and the Gnome desktop have their own programming language development environments, Kdevelop for KDE and Anjuta for Gnome and both are very mature. But on top of that Linux is open source, mostly written in C and C++, and so there is a mass of code that you can study to get the hang of it. There is masses of documentation out there too, and if you get stuck just ask on forums like this one and someone will know the answer. Start with something simple like 'hello world' then realise that there is a mass of header files and APIs already on your Linux computer, and learn how easy it is to incorporate them into your own code. You rarely have to re-invent the wheel on Linux. Good luck.

[MASONTX]

Welcome mayank. Why don't you start a new thread to introduce yourself?