I'm a total n00b to Linux... I have no idea what I'm doing. :)

 

First of all, I'm having trouble picking a distro. And I'm not really sure what the advantages are for different distros... what's the difference? I'm looking at Ubuntu or Fedora, are any of those good for beginners?

 

Also, I'm concerned about getting internet to Linux. I have a network adapter (linux) which I use to connect to a router. It requires software to install so how would I get that to work on Linux.

 

How would I get software for my printer to work?

What about iTunes?

 

Also I tried to make a Live CD and tried to boot it up. I opened the .iso on a CD using MagicISO and all that came up was the title of the Linux distro.

 

Are you able to open .doc documents in Linux?

 

Thanks for anyone that helps, I'm so tired of Windows and looking for a more secure, faster, and greater OS.

First off, hey welcome! :)

 

Each distribution has advantages and disadvantages, however Fedora and Ubuntu are by far the best two for new users. A lot of members here use Fedora so it would be the first one that we'd point you to. Fedora is based on Redhat and uses RPMs to install programs, Ubuntu is based on Debian and uses DEBs to install programs.

 

If you have a router, then the router connects to the web and it most likely uses DHCP to allow new hosts onto your local network. DHCP is standard with every distribution, so you should find that its a plug in and go sort of thing.

 

As for your printer, it depends on the variety but most printers will work even with drivers intended for other printers. Software called cups is the one that will deal with the printers. You might find that it works out of the box, depends on your printer.

 

iTunes doesn't have a Linux release, however there is software that works iPod's. amaroK is the one I use but others exist for instance Banshee.

 

Word documents can be opened with OpenOffice, the support is pretty much complete, unless you are doing something very odd with Word files. In fact OpenOffice supports all the MS Office documents and it can save back to that filetype too!

 

If you are wanting to experience a distribution first before installing using a LiveCD is a good idea. There is an Ubuntu LiveCD that will give you a go of Ubuntu without needing to install it. There is also a Fedora one too check it out here.

 

Ask more questions if you got them, enjoy!

Wow, very informative! Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

 

I will use the Fedora Live CD, although I tried to make one for another distro, and I couldn't get it to work correctly. I'm using MagicISO - and I've never done this before. Hopefully I'll get it to work this time.

 

Again, I really appreciate the information and I'm hoping I can switch to Linux without there being too much disruption in the family. Is there anyway I can get games like The Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon to work in Linux if their made for Windows. I came across something that I think said it supported The Sims. I have the big set with all the expansions, so I'm hoping I can get this to work.

 

EDIT: I'm really having trouble making a Live CD. I have got the .iso but I don't really know what to do with it. I tried using MagicISO but I don't really know what I'm doing...

 

How do you make this? :P Such a n00b.

If you're having trouble burning the .iso, check out the free tool ISO Recorder.

 

Install that, then just open the .iso file in ISO Recorder, insert a blank disc and click the option to burn. :)

If you are running Windows there is a few program that burn ISO's. For instance Nero is what I use, it has an option "Burn Image" which allows it, then there is Easy CD Creator (we have that at work) you should just need to double click on the ISO to make it burn.

 

However if you don't have either of these then the next step is to find a utility that can do it. I haven't heard of MagicISO before so I can't comment on that. However the one that I have used before is Iso Burner so I hope you have more success with that one.

 

Running Windows Games under Linux is done either:

• Use Cedega (also known as WineX). This utility is effectively an emulator (with a bit more) and as such not everything runs and then not everything runs well. However there has been some major successes with this application (namely WoW).
  
  
• Using virtualisation, with something called VMware, (a found a really nice step-by-step tutorial just today!). Basically with this application you get Windows within a window on your Linux system. As such you should find that everything that works with Windows works under VMware.
  
  
• You might get away with using Wine (WineX = Wine with DirectX, Wine has no DirectX), some games still work under this.
  
  

I wouldn't say that support is complete under Linux, it definitely isn't, in fact I still run a Windows machine purely to game on. It is possible though and well worth a try :)

 

Hope you get the ISO burnt!

Thanks again for the replies! I tried using iso recorder and I thought it worked, but when I rebooted I got a black screen that said “isolinux” and then some #s and that was it. On a second try it said "loading stage2" for a long time so I restarted. These were both on the classic black screen w/ white text. Any ideas? [this was written on a Wii, so sorry for spelling mistakes and stuff]

ISOLINUX is the beginning of the LiveCD, loading stage2 should start the process to actually start the disk. This means that its definitely attempting to start the CD so the only other thing it could be is the burn not going right :( I can only suggest that you should try again (if you have a rewritable CD then this would be easier!), of course it could be a waste of recordable disks!

 

Make sure that you confirm that the ISO is downloaded correctly. There are utilities to check that the ISO is correctly downloaded (check out md5sum and the list of MD5SUMS to check against).

 

Good luck ;)

I'm really irritated now.

I've tried to work with Ubuntu now. I downloaded the Live CD for 6.10. When I was done making the CD, I popped it into my computer and I was met with a screen that said 'Ubuntu' and it showed me some open source programs and said that I needed to boot up this CD.

 

I was really excited because I thought I FINALLY got it to work... but no... I'm met with 'ISOLINUX UBUNTU' blah blah blah.

 

What is wrong here? :(

did you try to boot from the LIVE cd,

 

that's what you are supposed to do

 

cheers

anyweb

Quote:I'm really irritated now.I've tried to work with Ubuntu now. I downloaded the Live CD for 6.10. When I was done making the CD, I popped it into my computer and I was met with a screen that said 'Ubuntu' and it showed me some open source programs and said that I needed to boot up this CD.

 

I was really excited because I thought I FINALLY got it to work... but no... I'm met with 'ISOLINUX UBUNTU' blah blah blah.

 

What is wrong here? :(

 

as mentioned, live cd's need to be booted from which means that windows does not boot first.

when u turn on your computer press delete a few times to enter bios and ensure that the boot sequence has CDROM first and that u have the ubuntu live cd in the drive when u turn on the computer.

 

edit - just realised this is a old thread [img]<___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_wacko.png[/img]