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Linux in general

M

matt_to_the_max

Limp Gawd
2FA
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
407
Okay, I am a long time windows user, basically I grew up with Windows. My friend that is disabled is amazing with linux and I really like how fast it runs. I mean, I tweaked many versions of Windows to run faster but I like how in linux you go to a terminal and can download files, everything seems neat and organized. I don't know much about linux but my question is, how much is it used in the world? How many businesses and corporations use it for their server needs? I have loaded a distro on my usb disk and used gparted before, now I think I should dual boot with windows. Where should I go to learn more about linux and what distro do you guys recommend?
Thanks,
Matt
 
What are your PC specs? If you have a modern CPU it might be worth it for you to run your distro of choice as a VM with Virtualbox. Distro-wise, at the moment I'd think Ubuntu would be best to start off with since its very common and there a bunch of people to rely on for support.
 
Okay, I added the specs in my sig. 450 I have a dimension 9200 as well. Shouldn't I run it straight from the hd, or is VM good enough?
 
You can install it to a partition or use a VM. I recommend installing Linux onto its own computer so that you are not tempted to boot into windows. Ubuntu is a good distro to start out on but you will hit a wall on what you can learn. Once you have some of the basic ideas of how Linux works I recommend you install a distro like debian or archlinux with no desktop environment. There are plenty of how to guides and wikis for them.
 
The whole development team at my place (apart from the boss) use variants of Ubuntu, and it just plain works. Our main apps are built with Java and hosted under Linux, so it helps to be developing on the same platform as the target environment. I actually use it exclusively at home as well, and while I had plenty of complaints about 8.04 (particularly with audio apps), 8.10 is fuggin' fantastic.
 
Using freebsd here.
..................
2004: how can I improve win98's USB drivers
......what is this FreeBSD
.....5.n version, cd set at Fry's. "running linux 4th edition" book first
...................
2004-2005 learnt upgrading, /ports/ (programs), cli while dual booting win98/Freebsd
..................
installed too much memory. win98 (dual booting) won't run til I remove some probably,
though I can boot do Dos and do stuff in the windows subdirectories. the dual boot
...................................................
..............."mount /win98" makes the windows folders available
...............also for editing, copying, etc from Freebsd if the
...............windows partition data is put into the text file
.............../etc/fstab before a reboot.
..................................................
manager (GAG on other CPU's, BootIt Next Generation here) still manages the
booting as well as backups to image files.
Freebsd is running fine for everything but flash video. Current discussions on
the freebsd-questions mailing list detail how to get that working. that list is
browsable at groups-google-com among other places.
............
you can browse freebsdwiki.net for introductory paragraphs.
...........
the freebsd-questions list has had long threads about bsd-vs-linux, what-for-which
and people list their linux preferences there. I've written down preferred choices
but several major distro's which may suit you fine, are second choice here...
 
Download VMware on Windows and try a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or Debian. Those are fairly common distros that will not frustrate you and allow you to expand your knowledge. Just try and use the terminal or command prompt for as much as you can. Making a simple folder, changing folder permissions, creating a user, adding software, etc etc etc. All those tasks can be done from a GUI but you really start to see the speed and freedom of Linux when you use the command line interface over graphical. In a real workd situation most servers DO NOT have a graphical interface and if something breaks, you need to know how to fix it and find your way around with simply using a keyboard and text. All my Linux servers are text only (Init 3) and I never install any graphical environment.

As for who uses Linux - everyone does!

Gmail - all Linux servers
Google - all Linux servers
Wikipedia - all Linux servers
DoD - UNIX servers
My work - all Linux servers
Most vBullitin forums - Linux servers
World wide DNS servers - *BSD / Linux servers

Good luck!
 
matt_to_the_max said:
I don't know much about linux but my question is, how much is it used in the world? How many businesses and corporations use it for their server needs? I have loaded a distro on my usb disk and used gparted before, now I think I should dual boot with windows. Where should I go to learn more about linux and what distro do you guys recommend?
Thanks,
Matt
Click to expand...

Linux is used a whole lot in the "real world", and use is increasing. I'm the IT Admin at my company and we switched our production database servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux last year. Those are our first Linux production servers and they have worked great. We are exploring Linux as an option for some of our users. Also you will find some version of Linux on most thin clients, network appliances, and most anything that has an embedded operating system. I've heard Xandros Linux or some variant thereof is used for most embedded operating systems.

As far as distros try out Ubuntu to start ... it's very user friendly and the most popular consumer distro in the world. If you want more eye candy and have a strong machine another great choice is KDE based OpenSUSE. I also like Mint (which is a more "refined" Ubuntu), MEPIS Linux, and Kubuntu. After trying a bunch of distros I've settled on Kubuntu as my favorite.
 
Thanks for all the replys! I watched my friend install archlinux on a pc at school, I think I'm going to start out with ubuntu in VM, then move to something like Kubuntu, archlinux, etc on my laptop w/o windows. If I had linux and Windows do you guys think that will help me get a job in the IT field? I think it would, I need to start working in linux now! :cool:
 
Linux in general is good for older machines as drivers for new cards can be hit and miss depending on manufacturer. I have learnt all/many linux distros at a basic level. Once you have mp3/codec and other minor tweaks done, linux is very nice. it makes for a very good web-surfing PC. It will almost never get attacked by virus.

i like tiny things..like weather on the toolbar.

All in all you can learn ubuntu first. great support too...and run it on a VM first to learn it. Then you can do it on a separate machine. i recommend its own machine because partitioning is a big pain and u can mess up your windows.
 
If you know Linux fairly well as a Network Admin it makes your day a lot less stressful and definitely allows you to do your work a lot more effectively. I personally think its a great asset to have on your resume. Remember, if your looking corporate IT get to know and love RedHat (CentOS) as that is what the majority of the corporate world works with.

The best way to learn linux is just using it and doing what you want with it, and take the time to research on what the best and most effective ways of doing something accomplished. Most developers will chime in and say that linux is their preferred platform to do their work on.
 
ArchLinux for me :) CentOS for my servers.

I don't know whether or not to suggest Ubuntu to newcomers anymore.. I mean sure it makes everything point-and-click but in doing so it cripples the learning process.. If you really want a (fairly) simple install and to learn a lot in the process go with Arch. I love it because it's exactly what I need and nothing else. No bloat whatsoever.

The distro you choose depends greatly on what you intend to use it for ;) Gentoo and CentOS are used on lots of servers, the Ubuntus are pretty common for desktops (along with many others).. Arch is great in that it's a Metadistribution like Gentoo but without all the compiling. The only thing I dislike is that the package manager is very limited compared to other distros.

Check out http://www.distrowatch.com and see what you like. Ubuntu is a great way to get your feet wet and you may end up sticking with that, but I wouldn't limit yourself to just that.. try a bunch of the more popular ones :) experiment a little ;)
 
450 said:
If you really wanted to learn linux wouldn't Linux from Scratch be the best option?

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
Click to expand...

No.

I tried Linux From Scratch. It's a great way to learn how things work, but definitely not a good option for someone who doesn't have much experience with Linux.

If you wanna learn Linux, you're probably best off starting with Ubuntu, then branching out from there.
 
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