[BadVista Advocate] Linux for Newbies

[Jacob Maynard]

You are very correct. I learned a lot as well when I bought the book. But
a website getting people started could include all information and be free
for people to browse and learn. The books are expensive. I know because I
have a bad addiction when it comes to buying those geek books.

But people don't want this huge tome cluttering their shelves and
something they have to go through an index for every time they need
information. A website is great because it doesn't take any space and you
can produce it for a lower cost. People can find it on Google or Yahoo.
It's so easy. Searching only requires a few keystrokes. There are so many
benefits to it.

I have to stay focused, here. I agree that there should be a distribution
in the spirit of gNewSense. It should be entirely free. But that doesn't
work flawlessly because too many things are unsupported. If I was patient
enough, I would learn to program (They only offered VB in school). But I
can't focus on one thing for long enough, in case you couldn't tell. So
it's slow going. And people don't have the patience for something that
half works. I can tell you that right now. I couldn't get my dad to switch
because his wireless card wouldn't work. That's not good.

Anyway, before I write too much here, that's my two cents.

Jacob


> Matthew Flaschen wrote:
>> Jacob Maynard wrote:
>>> I hope I can say this without sounding brash, but your tutorial, while
>>> very nice in appearance and amount of information, is just another
>>> tutorial. What needs to happen is for us to have a centralized place
>>> with
>>> answers to questions that are not distro specific.
>>
>> Information that isn't distro-specific is by necessity somewhat vague.
>> Too vague for newbies to understand.  That's why I think newbies have to
>> be directed to a specific distro at first.
>>
>> Matt Flaschen
>
> Well, there are also books for Ubuntu.  I learned a little bit more
> about the command line interface by getting a book about Fedora Core 1.
>   The only reason I learned more was due to installation of nvidia's
> proprietary drivers.  While I understand that proprietary software is
> not seen in a positive light and can have problems all their own (can't
> be fixed without reverse engineering in a clean room environment, which
> is very complicated), something good did come out of it.  I learned
> about virtual terminals (Ctrl+Alt+F1-12 keys).  I learned how to use the
> init command to change run levels.  If it weren't for the book giving
> step by step instructions, I wouldn't know as much as I do now.  I can
> navigate directories via bash now and use nano to a degree as well as
> text based web browsers.
>
> There are many distributions out there that use the Linux kernel with
> GNU software and other tools and applications on top of it.  I pointed
> towards Ubuntu for one reason: for individuals, it's a great to try.  I
> remember running 5.10 and their help docs had specific step-by-step
> instructions for doing certain things via command line (in many
> instances, you could copy and paste into GNOME's terminal program).
> That's another reason why I liked that distro as one aimed towards those
> who are new to alternative Operating Systems.  What needs to happen is
> similar to that one distro that used features from other distros (before
> SCO backed out and started to threaten everybody with copyright suits...
> a clear drop in IQ points).
>
> Ubuntu has everything a person could generally want from a basic system,
> but lacks a decent control panel.  PCLinuxOS has a control center of
> sorts, but it's a pain to add new drivers to it.  SuSE's YaST was
> decent, but the distro itself is now potentially indirectly controlled
> by Microsoft.  Freespire's hardware detection is decent enough, but from
> what I've been reading, there was too tight of control on the part of
> the Linspire developers/team.  What needs to happen is a creation of a
> new distro that combines features that make the other distros appealing
> into one ultimate distro of sorts (not the ultimate mind you, but one
> that's pretty darn good).  If proprietary drivers are not liked, then it
> would be up to that potentially new distro team and those who support
> only Free Software to provide reverse engineering for hardware drivers
> as well as support for things such as the Open Graphics project (an
> attempt to make an open video card that would work out of the box).
>
> One final note: I would recommend changing the label Free Software to
> something like, say, Freedomware!  A word like freedomware would not
> only imply the potential of the software not costing money to
> acquire/compile, but it would also imply liberty at the same time.  Just
> a final thought.  ;)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Advocate mailing list
> Advocate at badvista.org
> http://badvista.fsf.org/mailman/listinfo/advocate
>