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 Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:19 pm
Repeat of Intro from "Newcomer" thread in the general forum:
Live Distros Newbie:
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:57 pm
I am a Linux newbie that bought a magazine containing something called "Live Distros" on a DVD.
My IT guy at work has threatened me with undescribed penalites if I install Linux on any computer that he maintains, which is all of them.
So my only option (for now) is to try and learn about Linux by running Ubuntoo or maybe Tiny Linux (or both?) right off the DVD and not installing them. This means that anything that I "play" with while learning has to be saved to a disk or maybe printed out or e-mailed to my
hotmail.
Or, I could keep a thread here on Gaia.
My goal is to learn enough that I can then get SUSE Linux for a spare computer at work. SUSE is the only distribution that my IT guy will even consider, since Novell provides tech support for subscribers. However, before I do that, I have to know enough so that if the IT guy gets sick
or goes on vacation, I'll know what to do with the Linux OS myself...
It's a sad little problem. You Linux experts, please have mercy!
mrgreen
~~
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:15 pm Live Distros Newbie
I'm guessing that the Distros forum would be the place for my Live Distros Newbie thread.
idea
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Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:33 pm
* Live Distro Newbie runs around reading the threads in the guild forums. *
This method of learning works for babies, but they have 10+ years to become adept at human communications.
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Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:50 pm
Next time:
Description of the magazine and the DVD contents.
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Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:59 pm
Step 1: Tell IT guy to go screw himself.
Step 2: Get a dual boot setup going with Ubuntu or anything of your choice. This way you can save your settings and it loads a lot faster.
Step 3: If IT guy doesn't know *nix systems and keeps complaing, fire him and get a new one.
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:54 pm
Well, thanks for the support!
However "IT Guy" is a major shareholder and can't be fired! So, hobbling as the Live Distro teach-yourself-Linux approach might be, I'm stuck with it until I know enough to install SUSE and use it with confidence...
~~
August 20th, 2006:
Live Distro Newbie
Description of the magazine that the Live Distro DVD was in:
LINUX FORMAT June 2006, "Printed in the UK",
bought at a Chapters bookstore in Canada.
The "live distro" disk includes the following:
Side 1
Various magazine related items that I have not investigated yet,
including a Distro of Fedora Core 5 that the magazine says must be installed on the hard drive.
(This would not work for the Live Distro Newbie as it would draw down the wrath of "IT Guy".)
Various cryptically-named items that I'll probably learn the meaning of further down the learning curve! Including OpenOffice.org 2.0.2, some desktop items, some graphics items, some "system" and "essentials" items such as Amanda 2.5.0 (whatever that is), Sussen 0.17 (which is some type of security program); and including two of the "essentials which are GLib 2.8.6 and its pal Glibc 2.4 and might be some kind of "library" such as the LINUX articles seem to describe as standardized operating system modules???
Side 2
Distros: Damn Small Linux 2.3 (that turns out has to be burned onto a CD-R to run from); Games Knoppix 3.7; Looking Glass 3D Live 2.3a (according to the magazine this is just shown as a "snapshot" of 3D graphics-based operating system); Morphix 0.5 (not understanding what it is...); SUSE Linux 10.0 Live (which apparently is a demo version that cannot be installed but is said to cause a "WOW" reaction due to the wonderful desktop environment); and Ubuntu Live 5.10.
There is also a Help "Linux Doc Project".
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:00 pm
Live Distro Newbie
Action: Inserts Live Distro DVD side 2.
Response: Nothing happens until after the BIOS password that clever IT Guy installed. After the password, then the disk drive starts up.
The user is invited to type in the choice of OS including Suse and Ubuntu; Live Distro Newbie types Ubuntu.
Various prompts ask for language and keyboard type. Once these are input then the user is invited to select something to do with the CD-ROM and does so. The disk drive whirrs and then a bunch of system configuration notifications show on the screen; the user is warned that the graphics will go dark for a bit, and they do. Then a UBUNTU splash screen comes up. At length, a menu bar appears.
Action: Live Distro Newbie reads the headings and a lot of the info in the New User FAQ file.
Only some of it makes sense!
Action: Live Distro Newbie selects Application: Open Office Writer, and reads some of the help files and tries it out for a test drive.
Finding: The Open Office Writer program acts like a word processor should. Users are able to select the file format for saving documents as either Open Office file types or also Microsoft .doc or .txt formats.
Action: Live Distro Newbie tries to save a document file.
Finding: While a person probably could save such a file, it would only be temporary, since the whole disk file available is just session Linux folders, and is (or appears to be) only 2 levels deep. (Maybe?)
Discovery: A "Live Distro" Linux session cannot be saved to the regular file structure in the (Windows) file directory. Thus, Live Distro Newbie is going to have to learn how to go on the web with provided programs that are on the DVD, or else figure out how to print any documents, spreadhseets or screens ("Power Point" type using an Open Office module called "Impress") using a printer.
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 5:03 pm
Live Distro Newbie
Next steps:
Discover how to use an attached printer.
Discover how to use an e-mail program, which could be a whole other trick since who knows if the office LAN would let "stranger" e-mail out onto the internet?
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:34 am
Live Distro Newbie
The last work week was too taxing to allow time for learning about Linux. However there was a spot of good news: "IT Guy" said that if I obtain SUSE Linux, he will install it. Also, he won't relegate it to old surplus "-86" type computers, but will provide regular office models.
So, progress has been made.
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:24 pm
Live Distro Newbie:
Progress has been made, of a sort. "IT Guy" consented to buy SUSE Linux 10 on DVD, and it arrived in a box. The box has not yet been opened because of being too busy on the real work that earns us our paycheques. An older computer (but a Pentium) has been identified as the one that the SUSE 10 will be installed on. First.
Meanwhile, "IT Guy" has had to "rescue" one computer from PEBKAC and another from a virus that it got before its anti-virus definitions were updated. "Deputy IT Guy" rescued another computer from PEBKAC. And I myself helped out someone else that couldn't get their CD-ROM to work because the disk was in the drive upside down. gonk These are all Microsoft Windows problems, except I guess the CD-ROM problem could happen on any operating system ???
For those that don't know, PEBKAC means "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair."
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Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:18 pm
Live Distro Newbie:
More progress (of a sort):
I loaded and played around with the "Live Distro" of SUSE Linux 10. I couldn't use it for anything real but it was good as a trial.
The meeting scheduling module looks made for a really big corporation of the kind where they have a secretary that only preps meetings (!) but hey, room to grow... gonk xd
I opened the box that the (real) SUSE Linux 10 came in and found:
one installation manual
4 x CD ROM for x86 computer
4 x CD ROM for Intel computer
1 x DVD for x 86 computer
1 x DVD for Intel computer.
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Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:06 pm
Live Distro Newbie:
No progress.
Novell SUSE Linux 10 still sitting in its snazzy box on top of the computer it will be loaded on... but no one has had time to install it.
crying
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Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:37 pm
Live Distro Newbie:
Backward progress! gonk
The surplus computer that the SUSE Linux was going to go on proved to have a cracked motherboard or something -- it's fatal. So I'm Linux-less yet.
... This shows that resistance to Linux isn't just prejudice in the IT community. There are real world problems to overcome as well.
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:19 am
Futurist Live Distro Newbie: Backward progress! gonk The surplus computer that the SUSE Linux was going to go on proved to have a cracked motherboard or something -- it's fatal. So I'm Linux-less yet. ... This shows that resistance to Linux isn't just prejudice in the IT community. There are real world problems to overcome as well. I hope you'll find another computer
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