On Wed, Dec 02, 2009 at 05:30:00AM -0000, rkzbos wrote:
> I want to thank those that responded to my first post to this group under New Member (Sun Nov 29). I am thinking about ordering "Knoppix For Dummies 2005 -with a DVD" According to the books description, I could run Knoppix without installing it into my XP computer.
>
Well, 2005 is awfully old in the software world. Do you have the
ability to download and burn a CD? If so, you're probably better off
getting the latest Knoppix, or any other desktop distribution'
> Because of all of the different Linux flavors (and I do not know what the differences are), I choose Knoppix mainly because I could get it in a dummy book.
>
I understand, but again, 2005 is pretty old. Still, in many ways, not
too much changes. It starts to get better, then shoots itself in the
foot, then gets better....
> The main reasons why I want to try Linux, is because of my past awful experiences in working with MS Windows. It has been a difficulty since I started with Windows 3.1 back in the early 1990's. The difficulty had a lot to do with the constant upgrading and of course it's commercialism.
> At one point I started to study DOS, and I love learning and using commands in a complete text world, but unfortuanaly I was forced to upgrade the computer to a latter Windows OS and no longer was DOS being supported.
You can actually still do quite a bit with Windows command line. I'm
told by those who know it well that it can be suprisingly useful.
And each Windows OS upgrade brought more problems.
Heh, you'll find that in most Linux distributions as well.
Pulseaudio is something that very few people consider to be an
improvement for sound.
Between 2.6.29 and 2.6.30 kernels, they managed to lessen the support
for some Atheros cards, etc. So, keep in mind that stupidity and
careless programming isn't restricted to commercial operating systems.
:)
> Shortly after, I found a Unix server and I began studying Unix from a book. (The only problem I have with this Unix program "Puddytel" is that it does not work when I am off line). But I must say Unix is intriguing and it is amazing seeing the internet through LYNX.
>
> Graphics are great, but only when you need them!
Yeah, good luck convincing Linux developers about that. Rather than
making wireless drivers, they want to make sure the eye candy is pretty.
Rather than making sure it will boot properly, they spend their efforts
hiding the boot process behind a pretty splash screen--like, errm,
Windows and Mac.
Unfortunately, what you will often find, in the vast majority of
available distributions, is that the tendency is to hide more and more
from the user, and make it more difficult for the power user to veer
from the defaults. However, all is not lost. :)
>
> Questions:
>
> * I wonder if Knoppix will come with a Unix program with a command line?
Yes, they haven't yet considered removing the shell from Linux. In
almost all desktop environments, if you press alt+F2, it will open a
command line and you can type
xterm
Except in Fedora, which doesn't include it by default, feeling that
everyone will prefer the more bloated gnome-terminal. :)
>
> * If I am using Knoppix or another Linux OS, could I control & navigate throughout the OS from a command line?
Yes, you can. Despite my ranting above, everything can be done from the
command line.
>
> * Is the relationship between Unix and Linux like what DOS was to Windows?
Not exactly. A very brief history lesson. Unix was developed pretty
much by AT&T at Berkeley. Linux itself is actually just the kernel,
which is little beyond device drivers. Similar to a car chassis, with
no steering wheel, brake, or accelerator.
The Gnu founding (which stands for Gnu is Not Unix) created much of the
original software, all of which was very Unix like. The commands will
be the same, and indeed, O'Reilly includes RedHat Linux in its Unix
System Administration Book. (The others are AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, and
FreeBSD, which is also not officially a Unix. The Berkeley software
people had years of legal battles with AT&T and eventually completely
rewrote the code.)
However, although Linux is not Unix, it's basically the same. Any Unix
book will be full of commands and scripts, and they all work pretty much
the same. Ironically, FreeBSD which is a server designed operating
system, and Unix in all but name, is not, officially, Unix, but Mac OS X
is. (And, much of its Mach kernel is based on FreeBSD.) Being
certified as Unix basically means spending a great deal of money.
So, you can use Linux as you would any Unix system, and if you later
worked with something like AIX or Solaris, you would find much of it to
be the same.
>
> * Should I buy The Linux Bible?
I'm not familiar with it. There are so many good books out there, it's
hard to choose one (or even two or three).
I remember, years ago, finding Linux for Dummies to be pretty bad--with
all due respect to Mr. Hall, who wrote it, and has done an enormous
amount for Linux. The Linux Documentation project is usually pretty bad
too.
The free online Rute book is pretty good. (Just search for Rute Linux
book and you'll find various links to it.) Despite my previous
paragrahp, the Linux Documentation Project's old guide about installing
and running Linux, though the installation part is completely outdated,
has a lot of good introductory stuff to the actual use of Linux.
As I said, I'm not familiar with The Linux Bible, and it too, may be
excellent.
--
Scott Robbins
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