Linux & firefox

[An archist]

Since my brother and I are both studying and need the computer quite regularly, we were thinking about getting a laptop. Now off course, we don't want to waste too much money on Microsoft and other expensive software. So do you people have any good information, tips, ... on the subject?

[Vargha Poralli]

How much experience do you have with Linux. If you are buying a new laptop look out for the one's which comes pre-installed with Linux.

If you are already familiar with Linux and the way it works go for Debian (http://www.debian.org/) or Slackware (http://www.slackware.com/)

If you are unfamiliar with Linux but want a distribution that will be easy to install and work with go for Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) or Linspire (http://www.linspire.com/). I would recommend the later because i ahve worked with it.For the former I have not used it but many of my friends and peers speak positively about it.

I personally use RedHat EL 4 . Go for it if you want a good aftersales support but it is much costlier than other distributions.

Never go near Fedora if you do then you will start hating Linux at once.Avoid it all costs.

I also recommend trying all the distributions before buying. Some distributions offer Live CD's with which you can boot up the system form cd drive and work with it without installing it in HDD's.Make sure you tried using it.

For office works there is always Openoffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org/).It is relatively good and i don't know how it is going to handle recent versions MS office's properitay formats.I have never used other things so don't take my advice alone.

For browsing of course there is not only Firefox but also Konqueror which almost equals Firefox in features.


As for the other software's i don't what you are going to use. Check out SourceForge which hosts more than 100000 opensource projects in almost all categories. (http://sourceforge.net/).There is a FLOSS alternative available for every propeiriatry software so search well befor buying one.

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

if you want something easy to use, go for ubuntu or kubuntu (I don't know if there's much difference, apart from just interface)... I'm running windows, but my friend had 10 coppies of each of the aforementioned shipped to him for free... he gave me a copy of ubuntu, I've yet to install it, but I ran it from the CD and it seemed pretty neat... came with firefox, GIMP and an office package installed as well as connect 4 in the games menu!

[ComradeRed]

Can you program?

Yes? Get Debian Linux or Slackware.

No? Get Ubuntu.

You may want to also consider getting a desktop, since it's more of a bang for your buck.

[KC]

I dual boot with both XP and Ubuntu, and Ubuntu's really nice for someone new to Linux or that's really lazy. I'd suggest Ubuntu.

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by Zampanò@January 04, 2007 10:00 am
I dual boot with both XP and Ubuntu, and Ubuntu's really nice for someone new to Linux or that's really lazy. I'd suggest Ubuntu.
Have 80% of the HD be Ubuntu, 20% windoze. Or if you go with the desktop idear, get a 500+ GB HD and a 100GB HD and have Windoze on the 100GB one and Ubuntu on the other.

If you want a more mac look and feel, get Ubuntu; if you want crappy windoze like look and feel, get kubuntu.

[An archist]

cool, thanks for the quik response :lol: .

Yeah, I'm more of the lazy anarchist type ( ;) ) and I have absolutely no idea how to program, but my dad does, so I'll go ask him to supervise during the installation.
Cheers!

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by An [email protected] 04, 2007 01:10 pm
cool, thanks for the quik response :lol: .

Yeah, I'm more of the lazy anarchist type ( ;) ) and I have absolutely no idea how to program, but my dad does, so I'll go ask him to supervise during the installation.
Cheers!
Ubuntu has an easy installation process, if you know how to install a program, you can install ubuntu.

[cenv]

For a new user, I'd suggest either Ubuntu or SuSE. Ubuntu is more lightweight, cleaner, and less bloated, but SuSE has better hardware detection and support.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

And once you have Linux installed: OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/)

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 06:03 am
And once you have Linux installed: OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/)
That comes with Ubuntu (so get Ubuntu! ;)).

Ubuntu makes it so easy to install software too; the easiest damn thing ever done.

[Ultra-Violence]

A qeustion from me Who knows nothing and very little about computers

What is linux?
what are the advantages and disadvateges
All i know anbout linux is the pengiune!

srry...........

[ComradeRed]

Linux is an open source operating system that is more secure than windows, free, more stable than windows, etc.

It's also kick ass.

[Delta]

Originally posted by An [email protected] 04, 2007 06:33 am
Since my brother and I are both studying and need the computer quite regularly, we were thinking about getting a laptop. Now off course, we don't want to waste too much money on Microsoft and other expensive software. So do you people have any good information, tips, ... on the subject?
Just download the programs you need via Azureus for free.

[Sir_No_Sir]

Instant Mesaging: GAIM
Email: Mozilla Thunderbird
Internet: Mozilla Firefox
OS:Ubuntu
shipit.ubuntu.cm

thats the basics, you can fnd everything else yo need

[Global_Justice]

can you still use msn with linux???

[apathy maybe]

I installed Knoppix (which is based on Debian) on my HP DV1737TU, it worked except I had an old version and I couldn't get the wireless card working. So I "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" and shutdown the thing and go home (this using a wired connection). I get back to my place and, KDE has stopped working! Damn. I had uninstalled all the other GUIs so as to make less to upgrade (and I curse uninstalling Gnome 'cause it's nicer).

So I still can't use wireless under X/GNU/Linux and am still stuck using Windoze. And Abiword doesn't want to spell check my documents properly so I am happy for Firefox 2's ability to do this (and am forced to use Works when working on docs I want to save).

Anyway, I would say get the latest version of Knoppix (5.1 I believe) and check all your hardware works. Then install it. Intel has a driver for their wireless cards, but it requires the kernel 2.6.13 (I only had 2.6.12 would you believe).


On the specifics of Windoze. I would keep it on the system, I don't think that it is easy to get your money back for it. Unless you can buy a laptop with Linux preinstalled (which is possible in some places, do a search online). As well, you might need it to actually use the wireless card until you have the driver installed.

[ComradeRed]

What's with the KDE-fetish? :huh:

Get Ubuntu! Or OpenSuSe! Or Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc. etc. etc.

[apathy maybe]

I don't like it. But I couldn't install Gnome and now it is all fucked. Gnome is much nicer.

[atlas]

I use ubuntu. got all my wireless drivers working no problem, and i believe it has one of the best support communities, who develop drivers for whatever you will need (IR, Bluetooth, Wifi, Screens,h in my case, accelerometers for my IBM), it is also very easy to install packages, just go to the package manager, check it and install it.

[Delirium]

Am i going to need to back up all my files?

[ComradeRed]

Originally posted by Delirium [email protected] 21, 2007 11:47 am
Am i going to need to back up all my files?
Yes, everything that'd you want to keep back up. Good practice even if you weren't switching OSs.

[1984]

Ubuntu isn't as easy as they say if you have no previous experience with Linux... it will detect MOST of your hardware but not EVERYTHING... specially dial-up modems. And Ubuntu's functionality depends heavily on a stable internet connection...

It took me a month to get EVERYTHING working... I mean, the modem working - once you have a stable connection, you're in wonderland - almost everything you can possibly want is done via apt-get, and there's a large community of Ubuntu users online who WILL help you.

:P

Anyway, I got to learn a lot about computers in my struggle to get the OS on the trails. Anyone migrating from the 'OS whose name shall not be pronounced' to ANY Linux distro.

:lol:

[kommunist]

Personnaly I'm using Ubuntu, I specially like the Open Source and Free software philosophy. Its somehow more socialist friendly and a good alternative to propriatary OS like Micro$oft's windows.
I advice all activistes to use it and promote it in their local community.


--------------------
Microsoft gives you a window, Linux give you the whole house :-)
;)

[Invader Zim]

If you are utterly new to Linux or even computers for that matter, then you really need a friend who knows what they are upto to help you... with everything at first. Even mounting harddrives, if you don't know how can be an absolute pain.

[The Anarchist Prince]

I've found Fedora Core 6 is the best. That's just me though. (It'll cover all the stuff you need)

[apathy maybe]

OK. As I said in my previous post, I had a lot of shit trying to get stuff to work on my laptop. That is until I tried Ubuntu.

I downloaded the ISO and burnt it onto a CD (a RW but that is irrelevant). I then put it back in the drive, and had a look. It comes with Windows software! So, if nothing else, you should get it for the ability to get free software for Windows.

I then rebooted the computer and booted from the CD. It loads into the very nice GNOME desktop environment. Apart from the shitty (they look like shit, yucky brown) default colours, it is really nice. So far so good. I have a play around before clicking on the install link.

Installation is really easy, it offers you the ability to shrink a Windows partition (what you should do if you have a new computer with Windows pre-installed) or partition it as you like. As I had already partitioned my drive I took this option and assigned the partitions to root and home respectively (along with the Windows partitions).

After asking a few more questions (such as username and password) it copies most of the contents of the CD onto the HD. Strangely it then removes all the languages which you did not select.

(Some where in there it asks about GRUB. Just install it to the default (hd0) unless you know what you are doing.)

A quick reboot later and I'm in my wonderful GNOME environment. I rapidly changed the desktop around to my preferences (one bar at the bottom, no shitty brown colours and so on).

I try then to get onto the WiFi network, but I failed. I skip back to Windows and read that I need to know the name of the network, I find this out, back to Ubuntu and put this in (doesn't apply with wired networks). I'm on the net!

I let it update everything it wants and everything is fine.

I now have a working GNOME/X/GNU/Linux system that installed and just worked with no worries.


A few reasons why you should use Ubuntu (and GNOME) rather then MS Windows. Infinitely more changeable, it can look like anything you want, with no hassles. Try getting the clock on Windows to display the date. Or try moving the start button to the right of the screen. Try clicking on the clock and having it display a calendar. Try having virtual desktops. And so on.
And if you don't like GNOME, a quick install and you can have KDE, or IceWM, or any number of other desktop environments.

Ease of installing new software, in Windows you have to go and find the website for the software, download the installation file and run through a wizard. In Ubuntu, if the software is in the repository at least, you just go "Add/Remove", select the software to install (or uninstall) and it will download it for you, set it all up and no questions asked.

For example, I wanted to run a small Windows program I have (displays fortunes, this functuality is also built into GNOME by the way). I make sure that the Universe repository is in the list of repositories and then search for WINE and select it. It installs, I click zen.exe (the fortune program) and it simply runs! Much easier then trying to get a Linux program working on Windows.

WINE will also allow you to install bigger pieces of software from Windows as well, though you do have to answer all those stupid questions.


Just to make clear, Ubuntu off the CD came with all the software that I really needed, OpenOffice, Firefox, a number of small games (comes with GNOME), PDF viewer, graphics software, music and movie software and so on. It has power management and also those other goodies that you need. It detected my multimedia buttons and assigned the correct functions to them.


So, to sum up. Ubuntu, based on the greatness of Debian (which I couldn't get to work on my Laptop properly. The fucker.), and made a lot easier to use and install, comes with all the software most people will need, and has the ability to get other software if you need it. Easy to use, customise and so on.