Re: What are your top tips for a Newbie?
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:47 am
This is a thread intended to assist new users
Please don't derail it with bickering
Please don't derail it with bickering
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https://forums.linuxmint.com/
What a great post.Catbuntu wrote:I suggest a thing which may be a bit radical, but it's what I did and I'm so happy with Linux. Just use the Patented Three Steps to be a Linuxer®* (:P) by Catbuntu!Follow this three steps and you'll have a nice free computer. Note that those three steps are only for radical people who wants to get rid of Windows.
- Uninstall Windows. Yes! While installing Linux, don't create a new partition for living alongside with Windows. Just delete its partition! Of course, backup your data before. If you don't do this, you'll always have the temptation to go to Windows and use Photoshop for a while. Of course, if you need it for work, don't do this
- Read that you should read before asking. First read, then, if you can't find nothing, ask! Google is your friend. Asking without firstly searching on Google will let the people think you're a lazy Windows noob, but you aren't... Are you?
- Don't hop. This is very important. Don't start "trying distros for fun", because you'll end like me: a crazy man who can't stay in the same distro for two hours. Luckily, I've been healed when I found Mint. So stay on Mint! Or Ubuntu, if you preffer. Or Fedora, or openSUSE, but don't hop or you'll regret!
Catbuntu
*No refund will be accepted. If you can't live without Windows, Catbuntu®, Inc. won't be responsible of your fail.
Yes, many intelligent companies are doing that. But I remember I had to do a presentation for the school, and I happily did it with LibreOffice. Result: Complete fail when we saw it with PowerPoint on school. I could ask the teacher to install LibreOffice, but he is so stupid... He thinks HTML is a compiled language!widget wrote:What a great post.Catbuntu wrote:I suggest a thing which may be a bit radical, but it's what I did and I'm so happy with Linux. Just use the Patented Three Steps to be a Linuxer®* (:P) by Catbuntu!Follow this three steps and you'll have a nice free computer. Note that those three steps are only for radical people who wants to get rid of Windows.
- Uninstall Windows. Yes! While installing Linux, don't create a new partition for living alongside with Windows. Just delete its partition! Of course, backup your data before. If you don't do this, you'll always have the temptation to go to Windows and use Photoshop for a while. Of course, if you need it for work, don't do this
- Read that you should read before asking. First read, then, if you can't find nothing, ask! Google is your friend. Asking without firstly searching on Google will let the people think you're a lazy Windows noob, but you aren't... Are you?
- Don't hop. This is very important. Don't start "trying distros for fun", because you'll end like me: a crazy man who can't stay in the same distro for two hours. Luckily, I've been healed when I found Mint. So stay on Mint! Or Ubuntu, if you preffer. Or Fedora, or openSUSE, but don't hop or you'll regret!
Catbuntu
*No refund will be accepted. If you can't live without Windows, Catbuntu®, Inc. won't be responsible of your fail.
I agree completely. Probably because that is just what I did.
Makes the learning curve just a hair steeper but a lot faster. It is really an easier way to go.
Only thing I would suggest differently is that if you need MS for work, change jobs. This is, of coarse, easier for a ranch hand (me) to say than someone that actually needs to use a computer for their main work. A lot more companies, however, are becoming open to the idea of letting folks use Linux on their company computers. I would ask about that at the very least. Libreoffice will handle all the files and produce files compatible with MS Office.
Many companies using MS are using Libreoffice anyway as it is a big savings for them.
Many companies using MS use Linux servers so they are not hostile to Linux.
Asking about it will, if not pushed to hard, cause no trouble and even if turned down may cause thinking to happen.
That's great!meteorrock wrote:I provided a blog for us over in the cyanogenmod nook color forums on using linux and virtual boxes for teens of our age group from our point of mind. Come check over in these forums here at this link. I got lots of videos and other helpful hints over in my forums for that device. My blog on how android works is also in that forum at this link here. http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/5099 ... w-to-code/
How I got started in learning about linux and commands is using an android device, you can input into the terminal for scripts and everything just almost like linux does. It don't have the apt-get fetch package functions but allot of the basic understanding of that OS and its commands is just the same as linux. I did lots and lots of lurking up in the XDA forums and picked up on it that way.
Lots of helpful people from around the world up there from different cultures and ages, I got into linux now because of my desire to try to develop custom android kernels for the device I have running cyanogenmod. The developers up there are really helpful and spot on. Learned the git and the github commands by watching and learning from developers up in XDA.
I just found out how to build my first module on this linux mint box just yesterday trying to get host file control for my VMware hypervisor that is using linux mint as a guest OS right at the moment, and just learned how the <make> command works.
Menu - Cinnamon Settings - Hotspots(UPDATE) The desktop problem was "Hot corner" was on by default and apparently the Top left corner extends well below and to the right of the center of your screen.
Yes, i do:Haysdaddy wrote:does anyone have a command line (terminal) reference that they prefer?
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sudo apt-get install {package name}
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sudo apt-get remove --purge {package name}
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sudo apt-get autoclean
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sudo apt-get autoremove
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sudo apt-get update
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sudo apt-get upgrade
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sudo add-apt-repository {ppa}
Just to add to that.jamvaru wrote:best thing you can do is get (or check out from library) a book on linux and read it, preferrably one with a disc so you can follow along with your own installation of whatever version they are using as an example in the text
just make sure your computer can run whatever they are trying to use; should be system requirements in the back or on the back cover
this will be a bit better than lurking, lol
for the next level, get a book on linux system administration and certification; get certified if you like, but you don't have to take the test if you aren't planning on making money at it
Back up is a great idea anytime.Essexraptor wrote:For a Newbie, like myself
For the first few weeks:
1. Expect it to go pear shaped (wrong) because it will. You learn quickly ... by breaking it
2. Keep notes (written) of all the things that you do and command line tips that you find that work! It's quicker to get back to your last installation from scratch without having to Google it all over again. Don't be afraid to un-install and re-install if your not happy with your first few attempts
3. BACK UP all your valuable folders daily or after each session for the first few weeks at least !!
Number #1 top tip: Ignore this entire thread.7vn11vn wrote:I just took the time to read through this entire thread. I installed Mint 14 a few days ago and I have to say that I didn't do anything that all these good people suggest. I read nothing. I made no backups. I didn't know about downloading that program to make sure my downloaded file was correct and I just burned it to a dvd. I didn't know anything about Mint, or Linux. I just liked the screenshots. When I booted from the dvd I looked around for about two minutes and figured I had to have it. I even had problems with the touchpad, but that didn't deter me (I did figure that out later after it was installed). I installed it as a dual-boot with Windows 8 and just had to accept the default 129GB partition it wanted because I couldn't change it with the keyboard.
As it all turned out, everything works beautifully. There is a learning curve and I've gotten the help I need on this forum and it has been much appreciated, but Mint really isn't that difficult coming from Windows. I'm saying this from the perspective of being a user, not a techie. So, if you want to try out Mint, don't be afraid of it. But, do yourself a favor and read through this thread. There are tons of good advice here. I can see that I was EXTREMELY lucky not to have had any problems, but there are things here that you really should know before you install. Good luck. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Agree, but only if everybody goes off-topic here! Which in some cases already happened.bb333 wrote:Number #1 top tip: Ignore this entire thread.
And your best advise is?? Beside #1??? I don't see any good advise coming from you except some unsubstantiated complaints...bb333 wrote:These "good people" are posting some seriously bad advice.
Give us some good explanation why we should use a separate /home partition instead of ranting/laughing about this!bb333 wrote:No separate partition for /home?
Please, explain why we shouldn't.bb333 wrote:Use /home for multiple installed distros?
Are you using swap? Good for you! Some of us don't use it due to a large amount of main memory.bb333 wrote:Swap, what's that?
The problems a dualboot can create...you don't want to put a newbie in this situation..bb333 wrote:Number #2 top tip: Jump right in after you thoroughly test and have a working livecd available. I would still suggest a dualboot solution or know how to get windows working in a virtual machine.