Absolute beginner question
Unidyne
After being a happy Macintosh user for about 5 years (and a somewhat
happy Windows user for about 7 years before that), I've discovered the
OS I have been using is now outdated, and I need to either buy a new
computer or install a curcuit board to use the news OS.
I've been reading about the Linux OS and how there are so many free
programs for it, that I've decided to make the jump to Linux. So, I post
these questions for anyone who is interested to answer for me:
1) I would like to have Windows on stand-by in case I need it (say, the
commercial income tax programs) so what should I look for in buying a
new PC?
2) Are there printer & scanner programs/drivers that will allow me to
use my existing peripherals?
3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
My thanks in advance.
Yours,
Steven F. Scharff
Henderson, Nevada, USA
Bit Twister
> 1) I would like to have Windows on stand-by in case I need it
Most major distributions create a boot menu option to boot Windows
> (say, the commercial income tax programs) so what should I look for
> in buying a new PC?
I would buy a 2 GHz cpu 4gig of memory pc if it were me.
That would allow you to install Virtual Box and run virtual machines
within your install. Example you could install windoze in a virtual
machine and run doze while you are still running linux. :)
> 2) Are there printer & scanner programs/drivers that will allow me to
> use my existing peripherals?
My crystal ball is out being polished for the upcoming Karnack convention.
We have no idea what peripherals you currently have.
I have a All-in-One HP scanner/printer and have no problem setting it up.
> 3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
Depends on what kind of user you are and want to become.
Also depends if you can find a usenet news group with helpful subject
matter experts who enjoy helping newbies.
If you are the normal Windoze user who use your computer like an
appliance then go with ubuntu.
If you are a windows power user and like to tinker under the hood and
you want windows like single menu control for tweaking your
computer and configuring your desktop, I'll suggest Mandriva Linux.
I suggest you download a Live CD for a few distribution you want
to choose from. Run it on your system to get familiar with the one you
want. Take a few to a store and run on the system close to what you
want to buy.
Live CDs allow you to run linux from the cd without installing.
Note: they run very slow since cd drive is slower than a disk drive
and the programs have to be uncompressed before running.
Current schedule shows Monday is the date
mandriva-linux-one-2010.0-rc2-KDE4-europe1-americas-cdrom-i586.iso
should be ready for download from the following:
ftp://carroll.cac.psu.edu/pub/linux/distributions/mandrivalinux/devel/iso/2010.0/rc2/
The free dvd iso has a tremendous amount of software for a power user.
Want to see install screen shots for a custom install on a windows system.
http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-mandriva-2009.0-i386
For the One CD install, you just click Install and answer a few questions.
ray
> (deep breath) Okay, here it goes...
>
> After being a happy Macintosh user for about 5 years (and a somewhat
> happy Windows user for about 7 years before that), I've discovered the
> OS I have been using is now outdated, and I need to either buy a new
> computer or install a curcuit board to use the news OS.
>
> I've been reading about the Linux OS and how there are so many free
> programs for it, that I've decided to make the jump to Linux. So, I post
> these questions for anyone who is interested to answer for me:
>
> 1) I would like to have Windows on stand-by in case I need it (say, the
> commercial income tax programs) so what should I look for in buying a
> new PC?
Nothing in particular. If you buy a machine with MS installed and then
install Linux, it will set up a dual boot for you so you can choose
either system at boot time. Another option would be to run MS as a
virtual machine within the Linux setup. One other option would be to try
to run whatever MS programs you 'need' via 'wine', though this choice
does not always work.
>
> 2) Are there printer & scanner programs/drivers that will allow me to
> use my existing peripherals?
That depends on what your existing peripherals are. Many are supported,
some are not - I'm not just trying to be facetious. If you do a web
search, you can find Linux hardware compatibility lists. Generally, most
PCL printers and PostScript capable printers are supported quite well. A
few makers, notably HP, Epson, Samsung and Brother offer very good
support. For one example, support for Epson printers and scanners can be
checked at avasys.jp.
>
> 3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
RedHat is a commercial offering - you have to pay for it. The free,
developmental version of RedHat is Fedora. If you really want a 'free'
RedHat, the best option would be CentOS which is recompiled from the
RedHat sources.
IMHO - Ubuntu would be better. One of the main differences between
various Linux distributions is the package manager. The two main ones are
RPM - RedHat Package Management and Deb - Debian package management. I
prefer Deb based systems because I've always found them to be easier to
deal with - other folks have the opposite preference. Ubuntu is Debian
based. It also has a large help forum. I'd suggest you visit
www.distrowatch.com to become generally more enlightened about Linux
distributions.
>
> My thanks in advance.
You're quite welcome - everyone has to start somewhere.
J.O. Aho
> 1) I would like to have Windows on stand-by in case I need it (say, the
> commercial income tax programs) so what should I look for in buying a
> new PC?
You can run qemu, it will not be fast but it works, I recommend you use an
older version of microsoft as it has less CPU usage and requires less ram.
> 2) Are there printer & scanner programs/drivers that will allow me to
> use my existing peripherals?
Yes
> 3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
Ubuntu don't support PowerPC.
RedHat only supports PowerPC on their free and experimental version, called
Fedora.
There are other options like Gentoo (may require a bit more skill to install,
but has a quite nice community which is helpful and can be reached via itc at
freenode #Gentoo-PowerPC)
Yellow Dog, originally a PowerPC version of RedHat, but has evolved since then
to an own product.
Debian still has PowerPC support, so if you want to run "ubuntu", then this is
the way to go as ubuntu isn't much more than a repackaged debian.
When it comes to questions like "which is best..", it so much depends on your
taste and what you want to do, so it's the question which no one else than you
can answer, if you feel unsure, try different distributions and get your own
opinion.
--
//Aho
philo
> Unidyne wrote:
>
>> 1) I would like to have Windows on stand-by in case I need it (say, the
>> commercial income tax programs) so what should I look for in buying a
>> new PC?
>
> You can run qemu, it will not be fast but it works, I recommend you use an
> older version of microsoft as it has less CPU usage and requires less ram.
>
>
>> 2) Are there printer & scanner programs/drivers that will allow me to
>> use my existing peripherals?
>
> Yes
>
>
>> 3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
>
> Ubuntu don't support PowerPC.
I have definitely used Ubuntu to resurrect a few Mac's
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/9.04/release/
Used it on Mac's before I ever switched over to it on my PC.
I think Ubuntu is a great choice...
but as stated elsewhere , though Wine is quite good, there are still a
few apps where Windows is needed.
All in all I have been using Linux essentially full time since The first
of the year...
only rarely do I need to turn on my Windows machine.
I have two main machines here...one with Ubuntu 9.04
the other with XP and use a KVM to switch over when I need to...
but I only need to turn on my XP machine occasionally.
J.O. Aho
> J.O. Aho wrote:
>> Unidyne wrote:
>>> 3) Which is best for a total beginner: Red Hat or Unbuntu?
>> Ubuntu don't support PowerPC.
> I have definitely used Ubuntu to resurrect a few Mac's
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/9.04/release/
From the Ubuntu PPC FAQ:
"Ubuntu 6.10 was the last officially supported PowerPC version of Ubuntu."
The release isn't supported by ubuntu, but the ubuntu powerpc community.
--
//Aho
philo
Irrelevant whether or not it's "officially" supported...
bottom line is : it works
Oscar Dres
Hmm, I have Gentoo Linux running on my PPC (Ibook G4) works like a charm.
Too bad Gentoo is not something for the beginner otherwise I would
recommend that, I would then probably go for fedora as they still have
support for the latter systems (Fedora 11 on PPC) as Ubuntu does not
And basically Fedora is Redhat just more "fancy" and targeted on end-users
Greeting Oscar
Steven F. Scharff
Please forgive my ignorance (I'm the one who started this thread) but
I was unaware that Linux could be run on a Mac. Exactly what version
of Linux can run on a Power PC (G3)? That's the type of Mac I
currently have.
Steven F. Scharff
(Who is going to visit the Las Vegas Linux Users Group in person this
Saturday)
Henderson, Nevada
J.O. Aho
> Hmm, I have Gentoo Linux running on my PPC (Ibook G4) works like a charm.
> Too bad Gentoo is not something for the beginner otherwise I would
> recommend that, I would then probably go for fedora as they still have
> support for the latter systems (Fedora 11 on PPC) as Ubuntu does not
> And basically Fedora is Redhat just more "fancy" and targeted on end-users
I'm not sure you should be so scared of recommending Gentoo for a beginner, as
long as they know how to read and follow instructions, they will manage to
install Gentoo in a fly.
--
//Aho
J.O. Aho
> Please forgive my ignorance (I'm the one who started this thread) but
> I was unaware that Linux could be run on a Mac.
Linux runs more or less on anything you can find out there with enough memory
to load the kernel and have a little bit in spare.
> Exactly what version
> of Linux can run on a Power PC (G3)? That's the type of Mac I
> currently have.
Yellow Dog is the one that I could recommend, in case you don't want to run
Gentoo (really good help by the developers if you drop in at the
#Gentoo-PowerPC at freenode).
There are a number of other distributions which has PowerPC support as debian,
fedora, mandrivia and there are some which has unofficial ports to powerpc,
but then you don't know how fast they will be on patching bugs and security holes.
--
//Aho