Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby Hamish Taylor » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:34 pm

In a continuing series of articles highlighting that GNU/Linux is a viable replacement operating system, today we're exploring how to do things the "GNU/Linux way".


Remember the good ol' days? Back when I was young, well things were so much better back then...

I actually remember using Windows 3.x. I also remember getting excited about Windows 95 when it appeared. I had it running nicely on a 486-DX25 then later a Pentium 166.

I tell you this, because until two years ago, I had really only used Microsoft products: Windows for the operating system (with the exception of ME!) and Office and various other applications for other tasks. I really am new to this whole GNU/Linux thing (which I will just call "Linux" from now on).

Over time, I have become a computer technician and then a networking "engineer" well entrenched into the Microsoft way. I have made my living doing such things from hunting down and "retiring" errant registry entries to setting up Exhange servers and so on.

I am familiar with Microsoft and many of the day-to-day things that I need to do are entrenched into my psyche, brain and fingers. Having done things so many times, I no longer need to think about them, they are ingrained and they just happen.

But this is a Linux blog, so what does that have to do with Linux?

I have been writing a series of articles outlining how good Linux is and how to use it. I have been reading and responding to comments, both on my articles and other iTWire writers. I have noticed that many people who are giving Linux a go, are still well and truly entrenched into the "Microsoft way" of doing things and are taking this approach over to Linux. However, this approach doesn't work very well and they are getting frustrated with Linux.

So, what is the "Linux way"? Please read onto page 2.



Article Link at http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20992/1162/
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby Matrix » Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:24 pm

Hamish wrote:So what does this mean to someone trying to move from Windows to Linux?

...it means go buy yourself an axe because you will soon be wanting to smash your computer out of frustration.
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby gnusci » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:45 pm

Well, as I said long time before somewhere in itwire, Linux is NOT for everyone. We have to admit that there is a big step from the extremely unsafe and promiscuous windows to the stable and safe system Linux, so we need to pay the price. There are some rules, one very important is to keep everything in order, another, do not install whatever you find in a website, make sure you are installing software form reliable sources.

Anyway now a days you can find almost all the software you need form the repositories of every popular distro, and you can install whatever you want. But most distros come with most of the normal user applications out of the box. Form the repositories you can install thousand of other application, we have to admit that this sufficient for the vast majority of people. After you install a distro, you can read, edit and print documents, open your address book, check your email, use IM, surf the web, play song, videos, watch movies, without install anything, without being an Linux expert, just give a try to the last Ubuntu.
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby Matrix » Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:08 pm

@ gnusci, I am a Windows user, however, recently I tried Ubuntu 8.04 and could not even work out how to load Adobe Flash player... does this mean I am dumb? or is it tricky for everyone? :?:
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby gnusci » Sat Oct 04, 2008 11:27 pm

Matrix wrote:@ gnusci, I am a Windows user, however, recently I tried Ubuntu 8.04 and could not even work out how to load Adobe Flash player... does this mean I am dumb? or is it tricky for everyone? :?:


Hummm, maybe you didn't ask in the ubuntuforums.org. It take three steps in Ubuntu 8.04 to get Flash player, Open a terminal and type this commands in the same order:

$ sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper flashplugin-nonfree lib32nss-mdns
$ sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/
$ sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.1/plugins/


In about 1 minute you will enjoy your best videos of the web. You will like this news guys:

http://www.thevarguy.com/2008/10/03/gam ... ntu-linux/

EDIT: The instructions are for Ubuntu 8.04 on AMD64.
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby Steve The Pirate » Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:05 am

the reason why Flash (adobe) didn't work in 8.04 for a short period was because adobe kept their download (which the packaged downloaded from their servers) in the same location. A security feature meant that the download was compared to a CRC to check it was the right one. When Adobe updated their version, the CRC failed and the package didn't finishing installing (however because of a fault in the install, it thought it had) This has been fixed now and better still Adobe seem to have started really getting their act together and are supporting flash on Linux much more.
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Re: Changing operating systems requires a change in mindset

Postby Jossie » Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:08 am

FilthyRichmond.com is packed with hepetitis and matted hair
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