Tell me about the PC Linux

[superkully]

Hallo,

With all this talk of Apple - I decided to install Linux on my machine yesterday "Fedora 3". Installation took just under an hour (ya-boo Microsoft) and that up2date tool is the dogs bollocks.

Thing is... I'm now pretty much in the middle of a rather crowded tent with no clue as where to go and get stuff...

Any recommendations as to an Anti-virus programme? Is there a better firewall than that already built in?

And, anyone else use Linux?

[babs]

You essentially don't need AV software.

[kernow]

someone from cornwall!



you're right, no antivir software is needed really

a rootkit checker would be nice I guess, but meh.

have fun with fedora!

you talk of 'getting stuff'

what 'stuff' do you need?

I run Linux on all of my computers. can't afford windows or the pain involved with running it.

I'm a slackware man though, but use debian/gentoo/suse sometimes too


most important - have fun!

[Ish]

Yeah another Linux user here. I mostly use Quanta (for HTML and php work), Firefox and Gimp. Its a nice OS

[Resonance]

What is Ubuntu like? I hear it is suppose to be quite nice.

[weresheep]

I run Ubuntu and I really like it. Its the first GNU/Linux distribution that was easy enough to install/use to make it worth while (IMHO). The best thing about Ubuntu is that the defaults are almost completely usable. You don't have to do a lot of work to get a decent environment.

Check out the Ubuntu forums for more information.

As for some of the other points, as others have said anti virus isn't really needed (at the moment) and the default Firewall should be good enough. Especially if your computer is behind a NAT router.

Fedora Core is the free spin off of Red Hat Linux and uses the Red Hat Package Management system (RPM) for new programs. When downloading programs you should look for the .rpm package file (think .zip but with extra info inside it) and then double clicking on it should start the install process.

GNU/Linux has a bad reputation for installing software which is mostly well earned. Compared to Mac OS where you drag and drop new software, Linux has a LONG way to go. But it has also come a long way and at least nowadays dependencies are less of an issue (depandancies used to be the equivalent of "DLL hell" in Windows).

The problem with getting new Linux software is knowing what will work on your system. At least what will work without a whole lot of tinkering. A lot of software is distributed in source code form and the user has to build the program themselves, which requires knowledge of the shell and basic compilation techniques. Again, things are gettng better in this area.

I believe Fedora Core uses the GNOME desktop environment (so does Ubuntu) instead of KDE. A good place to start then would be GNOME Files.

Ubuntu installs Firefox, OpenOffice.org and the GIMP (the Linux equivalent of Photoshop) by default. Apart from the shell and the VIM text editor the only other program I use is VideoLan Client media player.

Hope that helps.

-weresheep

[Ish]

Fedora comes with both Gnome and KDE but defaults to Gnome. Personally I dumped them both and went for Xfce.

[Ciaran]

What are the windows emulators like for games? In some places you hear that its possible to get every game to work then in other they say nearly no games work.

[Valken]

There's one called Cedega that maps win32 and directx calls to native libraries in Linux and does a pretty decent job of running Windows games in a Linux environment. Not to split hairs but they wouldn't really be emulators as such though.

I've got World of Warcraft working with Cedega out of curiosity and I'm told HL2 works too but I lost interest and booted back into Windows for gaming.

The answer is it's possible to get them to work with some effort but truth is keeping a dual boot system is quicker, easier and will result in better performance.

[Ish]

I've been looking at Ubuntu and I think I'm going to give it a go. My Fedora install has got a bit messy lately as I've been trying out a bunch of weird stuff - out of boredom more than anything else

[oracle]

another vote for ubuntu,

i use it off and on for uni work:

the main benefit is it is based on debian and that means with a one line addition you can use apt-get, the best thing since sliced bread

[gingerj]

I've got Ubunto sitting on my desk waiting to be installed, just I'm suffering from Lazyitus right now

[weresheep]

Well I've got Warty installed at the moment but I am looking forward to trying out Hoary. The CD seems to be taking a while in arriving, but since there are sending it to me for free I'll let them off

-weresheep

[mt50]

hi, i installed Fedora 3 today sofar it's good nice selection of installed software, i'm finding it faster than windows on my pc aswell.

but i've got a few things that i need help with. 1st then i click on the wheel on my mouse when i'm in firefox go back to the last site i was on( ) anyway to stop this?
also how do i install software? i downloaded some files(from gnome files site) and it will instaall them but i can't find them where do they go?
and i downloaded video lan but i can't install it it gives me a long list of files which one do i install?

and is there a DC++ client i can use? looked on the website and it links to some but do anywork?http://dcplusplus.sourceforge.net/fa...n&onlynewfaq=1

thanks

[weresheep]

mt50: Not sure how much help I can be but I'll try.

When you install new software in Linux it is "generally" put in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin (in Linux / is basically the same as saying C:\ in Windows).

Can you give a bit more detail as to the problem you're having installing VLC?

Thanks,
-weresheep