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Topic: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux (Read 30809 times)

The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

The alternative title would be: Everything you always wanted to know about Linux but always were afraid to ask...

So, as you can see bellow my avatar, I'm posting under Linux. :)

Well, not entirely exact... I'm just experiencing Linux, I didn't installed it yet.
That's a good thing Linux has. You can see it "working" before install it.

Not only you can get a feeling about what this thing is but you can also see the kind of trouble you're in... :)
First thing I noticed is that I can connect to the Internet. Nice.
The second one is that I have no sound...

But first things first.
Linux comes in a seemingly endless variety of "distributions" (the natives calls it "distros") and "flavours".
Don't worry, they're basically the same just wrapped into different appearances to better catch us, the Windows Knights.

I've chosen a particularly attractive specimen that goes by the name of "Ubuntu Mate". She told me that she would be very light on consuming my old laptop resources so I kept her... besides "mating" was something that seemed to me interesting.

Now, for the scientific part. You have three options for the most of these distributions.
1. Install it. (no more windows)
2. Dual boot. (you'll have a screen asking you each time you open the pc what operative system you want to use)
3. What I've done so far. See how it works.

The third option will allow you to, if you want, jump to the second. Not my plan, I intend to jump directly into the enemy's territory... :)

To be continued... (depending on my mood... and survival :) )
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #1 –
Try Mint Mate. It's the same Ubuntu under the hood, but prettier on the surface. But if you are looking for "light on resources", then Xfce is lighter.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #2 –
Quote from: ersi on
Try Mint Mate. It's the same Ubuntu under the hood, but prettier on the surface. But if you are looking for "light on resources", then Xfce is lighter.


Yes... well, I prefer not to use something that remembers me 386 processor's times and that's what Xfce screenshots remembered me. I'm not sooo low on resources I can't use a bit of shining thinghies.
(I know you're a fundamentalist... I remember you defending the usage of text-only browsers... :) )

As for Mint Mate, I don't know. I suppose first love is the best love. :)
So I'll stick with this one.

----------

I discovered that I have sound but only at my headphones. I'll wait for install definitely at the pc for start solving that. I still have to discover how hardware detection and drivers works.

It has been a pleasant walk in the garden until now. Refreshing but a little bit strange.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #3 –
Xfce can look like many things. In Mint it looks more or less the same as the other Mint flavors. If you're talking about my Xfce, which looks a bit like Windows 98/Me/2000 — that's my choice and preference.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #4 –
Yes, Xfce can look many things. My Xfce is lately combined with Openbox. I'm not aware of any distro doing this by default.

If you're not low on resources, then I recommend Cinnamon, in my opinion the best out-of-the-box desktop available in the Linux world. It's the flagship of Linux Mint. And it lately acquired a fine XP theme http://segfault.linuxmint.com/2015/08/cinnxp-makes-cinnamon-look-like-windows-xp/

Quote from: Belfrager on

As for Mint Mate, I don't know. I suppose first love is the best love. :)
So I'll stick with this one.

Don't fall in love too easily. It can break your heart.

Quote from: Belfrager on

I discovered that I have sound but only at my headphones. I'll wait for install definitely at the pc for start solving that. I still have to discover how hardware detection and drivers works.

For some time, reorienting the sound from loudspeakers to headphones and vice versa went automatically, but currently there's some innovation that everybody is struggling with, so often we have to readjust it manually. When I first installed Manjaro Xfce, it took up HDMI display and sound automatically, but these days I have to adjust it in the controls to get it right.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #5 –
Okay... finally entered without fears into Linux land. Installed and working...

Sound problems were gone by magic with the full install. Maybe an update it did solved the problem, I'll never know.

There's a general feeling of things running smoothly and what's really really nice is that I'm using very low memory.
This is a dual core, 1Gb Ram with a 256Mb Nvidia laptop and I'm actually using just about 33% of memory using:

A desktop with Midori browser - 3 open tabs;
A second desktop with System Monitor (kind of task manager)
and a third desktop with Caja (files and folders), Transmission (torrents) and listening to some music with Audacious (kind of Winamp).

This is very good, while at windows I would be probably bordering 90% memory...

Now, some beautiful pictures.
Desk1

Desk2

Desk3


As you can see, Midori doesn't renders too much well our quotes here in the forum... :) But I like it, light and goes generally well. Firefox works fine.

Now, it's time to begin my Adventures... :)
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #6 –
How did you get the OS identify as Mac? Did you tamper with Midori's UA?

And does F3 do anything in Caja?

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #7 –
Quote from: ersi on
How did you get the OS identify as Mac? Did you tamper with Midori's UA?

No, the "Automatic" setting identifies as Mac OS, see here. The MSIE thing must've been set by me in some forgotten past, unless that was the default.

Quote from: ersi on
And does F3 do anything in Caja?

The split view thingy they removed from Nautilus? I guess it ought to.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #8 –
Yeap, sure it does, F3 gives you two separate panels, it adds a second tab. You can add more. Handy.

As for the Mac OS, I'm inoccent. :)

Changed the automatic in Midori for Midori identification. Now it's correct, it shows Linux, but I suppose I prefer Midori to "hide" under some other identification for certain websites.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Belfrager on

Yeap, sure it does, F3 gives you two separate panels, it adds a second tab. You can add more. Handy.

Good. In Xfce I don't have it and I miss it, so I made a workaround. I launch Midnight Commander inside the selected folder and I get triple panes!


By the way, the specs of your laptop look weakish. How big is the screen? Maybe you could benefit from a considerably lighter desktop where you can launch apps always maximised? My 1GB RAM netbook looks like this.


Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #10 –
Quote from: ersi on
By the way, the specs of your laptop look weakish. How big is the screen? Maybe you could benefit from a considerably lighter desktop where you can launch apps always maximised? My 1GB RAM netbook looks like this.

I can perfectly launch apps maximised without no problem, do it constantly. Screnshots were meant to show to those that never tried Linux how the desktop looks, not the applications per itself.

Screen is 1440x900. Using the maximum resolution at 60hz. I'll have to try with a second monitor, I'm used to that for image editing software.

Laptop it's an Acer Aspire 9420.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #11 –
Quote from: ersi on

How did you get the OS identify as Mac? Did you tamper with Midori's UA?

I've seen the same with Midori on NetBSD, IIRC Midori identifies as Safari by default. Or some people think anything using webkit is Safari.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Belfrager on

Screen is 1440x900. Using the maximum resolution at 60hz. I'll have to try with a second monitor, I'm used to that for image editing software.

Laptop it's an Acer Aspire 9420.

17 inches and wider aspect ratio. I have never had such a big screen myself. Mate should be a very good choice for it.

Quote from: Macallan on

Quote from: ersi on

How did you get the OS identify as Mac? Did you tamper with Midori's UA?

I've seen the same with Midori on NetBSD, IIRC Midori identifies as Safari by default. Or some people think anything using webkit is Safari.

I don't care much for Midori, so I haven't tested it much. I remember Midori had an additional interface option on Linux Mint that has been removed in other distros (i.e. removed in the official release of Midori and only Mint applies a patch to get the option back) but I have forgotten now what the option was. Probably it was the option to hide the tabbar with just one tab.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #13 –
The title of the thread it's not innocent.
I know perfectly that I'm being fooled by the efforts made to turn Linux accessible to everyone.

While things can be made/solved/fixed with graphical interfaces, just read it and choose what option you want, things are easy.
The moment that doesn't work and any Windows user will be completely lost at these Wild-Lands.

The problem is even worst. Anyone can Google "Linux" "how-to xxxxxxxx" "guide" "beginners". It will not solve anything.
Either you'll be redirected to "pure" Linux, I mean, you do everything at command lines or you'll need to search by "distributions" or whatever you have. In that case, you'll go directly to... forums.

Forget it. No "technical" forum will ever teach you anything, but a few and honorable posts at such forums. A rare thing to happen.

There's a gap for intermediate users that has no information.

I really don't know if I want to do such a boring path.
Tomorrow will be another day.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #14 –
So... ain't this a nice picture? :)
I wonder how many times Firefox will "have a problem..."
Currently it has been twice a day at least.

A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #15 –
Firefox problems are not Linux-specific. Firefox crashes with the same error messages on all platforms.

The best Linux documentation in the world is Archwiki which most directly applies to the distros called Arch and Manjaro, but other *nix users should be able to adapt and adopt from it too. And the net is full of solutions for Ubuntu that you are using.

For example subscribe to Nixie Pixel. She'll teach you all the helpful dirty tricks.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x73WTEltyHU[/video]

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #16 –
Quote from: ersi on
For example subscribe to Nixie Pixel. She'll teach you all the helpful dirty tricks.

I'll give it a look. My knowledge is probably spotty in places. :P

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #17 –
Quote from: ersi on

Firefox problems are not Linux-specific. Firefox crashes with the same error messages on all platforms.

The error message might be the same on all platforms but it never occurred to me on Windows since I'm using Fx alongside Opera Presto. I've started using Fx as soon as Opera anounced its move to Blink.

Side note:
It would be interesting for Nix noobs like me to hear about some honest pros and cons regarding Linux vs Windoze.
I've experienced myself a few, years ago when I was looking for a decent Windoze replacement. At that time I ended up with a Debian based distro called Katonix.
However it would be interesting to read the expertise of some dedicated Linuxistas who also have some sound Windoze experience. :)

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #18 –
Quote from: Frenzie on

Quote from: ersi on
For example subscribe to Nixie Pixel. She'll teach you all the helpful dirty tricks.

I'll give it a look. My knowledge is probably spotty in places. :P

Code: [Select]

sudo rm -rf /

There's a dirty trick right there.

I prefer Spatry's reviews and guides, for example check out Spatry's Xfce 4.12 review. Yup, I prefer the old guy who says "Awrright, guess what, kids..." instead of the young lady who says "Yay, we just executed a command... We wouldn't want our heads explode from the sheer volume of bash commands now, would we?" but the point is that Nixie Pixel promotes Ubuntu most of all, while Spatry is good for distro hoppers (with some special attention on Manjaro).

@krake
Spatry has at least two videos comparing major features of Linux with Windows, but you'd probably think he's dishonest. Anyway, YT is full of such comparisons from many aspects.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #19 –
I think I've discovered why had Firefox crashing. An extension.
Very handy thing, speeddial's like. Disabled it and having no more crashes for now. I'll wait a couple more days until I'm convinced that was the cause. Hope so.

I'll have a look at those videos Ersi, the command line (terminal, they call it in this system) seems to me to be where tricks are done for many things. I suppose it's used much more than a simple user will use it at Windows.
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #20 –
Quote from: krake on
The error message might be the same on all platforms but it never occurred to me on Windows since I'm using Fx alongside Opera Presto. I've started using Fx as soon as Opera anounced its move to Blink.

I've never seen that error message before in my life on any OS. :P

Quote from: krake on
It would be interesting for Nix noobs like me to hear about some honest pros and cons regarding Linux vs Windoze.

For most intents and purposes there are no differences. Most programs I use on a daily basis are cross-platform and don't differ too much from Windows and Mac OS. Mostly it's just harder to get settled on something because there's so much choice.

Quote from: ersi on
There's a dirty trick right there.

Yeah, I'm not spotty on what that means. :P But actually I shouldn't be that spotty anyway; it's just that all the shell can do so many things.

Quote from: Belfrager on

I'll have a look at those videos Ersi, the command line (terminal, they call it in this system) seems to me to be where tricks are done for many things. I suppose it's used much more than a simple user will use it at Windows.

You don't need to use it any more than in Windows. It's just so useful. Just try something like pngquant *.png in a GUI. In Windows I've long enjoyed the same usefulness through Cygwin, because the MS-DOS prompt is rather primitive compared to Bash, let alone zsh.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #21 –
Quote from: Frenzie on

Quote from: krake on
It would be interesting for Nix noobs like me to hear about some honest pros and cons regarding Linux vs Windoze.

For most intents and purposes there are no differences. Most programs I use on a daily basis are cross-platform and don't differ too much from Windows and Mac OS.

It actually depends on the specific intents, purposes (and needs too). My own experience with Linux radically transformed the way I related to computers. Both during my first baby steps with Linux about 15 years ago and after my decisive move to dump Windows, hardly anything was comparable or similar. 

For example, if you prefer the console, you definitely are much better off on Linux. 

Quote from: Frenzie on

You don't need to use it any more than in Windows. It's just so useful. Just try something like pngquant *.png in a GUI.

Or it runs things that are so useful, such as elinks+irssi+mutt which is as close as it's possible to get to Opera that we have lost.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #22 –
If I type at the line user interface
sudo apt-get install otter
it will install the otter browser in my computer without the need of doing anything else?
A matter of attitude.

Re: The adventures of an Windows Knight at the Wild-Lands of Linux

Reply #24 –
Eh eh, it works... :)
Thank you ersi. Now, I'm going to analize the Otter browser.

A matter of attitude.