[ILUG] Newbie

[Steffen Higel]

Stephen McCune wrote:
> Ok, i am a complete newbie to linux and Wouldnt mind a bit of help. I am
> trying to use linux because i wanna start programming, want more control,
> sick of windows etc.
> 1) I have got DragonLinux and Corel Linux. Which should i install?

No experience with either, I'm afraid. Mandrake is very user friendly,
Redhat is also good. Debian is my distro of choice, but last time I
installed it, it wasn't quite so straightforward as the other two.

> 2) What should i read? (Online books, faq's etc)

Read up on things as you have problems with them... http://linuxdoc.org is
great. There are a lot of well written and informative Howtos there. Get
a distro installed, then try and set specific things up, while reading up
on them as you go along.

> 3) Have you got any advice for me?

Enjoy :) And if you are dual booting and want to go down the partition
resizing path, be sure to backup your data. It can go horribly wrong.

> 4) Should i get linux drivers for all my hardware before installing?

Not unless you have to. Most common hardware is supported by the Linux
kernel itself. I'd only download proprietary drivers if you have to.
Usually, they come as modules which can be loaded and unloaded when they
are needed, without rebooting.

> 5) Are there any good gui's or should i learn to use commands? (I loved dos)

There are a lot of good Desktops... the GUI thing under unix generally
consists of a hierarchy of software, at the top being your desktop
manager (I use Gnome, KDE is nice too, there are hundreds of others),
below that is the Window Manager (I use Sawfish, hundreds of others etc.)
and finally, the windowing system. Xfree86 is the usual choice under
GNU/Linux. Occasionaly its setup can be problematic, though if you own a
newish graphics card with a sane monitor, it isn't too bad.

Hope that's of help and best of luck,

Steffen