The Linux geek thread - The Bear and Badger

hunk

A thread for all things Linux!

So, what flava are you running, vm or otherwise? Tips and tricks?
Do's and dont's?

Short tutorial for n00bies on how to get Linux up and running:

From disk:
1. Get the latest linux iso from your favored Distro.
e.g Ubuntu here or choose a different flavor here.
You can choose between 32 bit or 64 bit iso's depending on your cpu.
Once you've made your decision you can burn the iso to disk and load it as a bootable disk from startup. To do this hold esc while pc is booting up and select the drive from which to boot. Well it's usually esc, but the boot menu can vary from pc to pc. Experiment a bit to find the boot menu button or just google it if unsure. Select live cd to testdrive your distro.

Bootable usb
2. Or......... you can create a bootable usb with Rufus.
Load the preferred iso into Rufus and write it to an usb stick. You boot the usb stick in exactly the same way you do the dvd. Hold down the boot menu button (usually esc) and select the usb from which to boot.

VM:
3. A third option is using a vm. In this case your running Linux inside another OS (Windows or MacOS)
I usually mess around with Virtualbox. Just download the latest version and install it by following the instructions. Once virtualbox is installed you can set up a vm by pointing it to your iso. If done correctly you can start the vm and you'll be able install and run linux in a window as if it were an app. An OS in an OS, pretty nifty.

edit;
Thread now includes n00b tutorial to make thread more accessible and focussed.
If you choose to do the above make sure you install linux next to your existing OS otherwise it will erase your entire OS. Backup your files for just in case shit.

Skerret

Hi hunk.

hunk

So, it's just me eh? I feel so alone....

acemuzzy

I'm a Linux geek for business, but not for pleasure. Love me a bit of vi/sed/grep/awk/posix, but only between the hours of 9 and 5.

beano

vim > emacs > vi

krs

What's so good about it? Aside from penguin use.

beano

It's free.

hunk

It's light, fast and free. In fact it's very fast
They still need to sort out the user experience tho' (ubuntu).
My printer didn't work out of the box. I had to google, download and install the proper libraries first and manually look for drivers online.
Then I had to install them through terminal (command line). Not fun.......

But I can print and scan now, yay!

Yossarian

I like the idea of Linux, but am not willing to learn my way around programming and command line stuff in order to use it.

hunk

And to think the situation was apparently worse a couple of years ago.
All this shit actually makes me appreciate windows update even more....

Diluted Dante

Is there a Linux idiots can use yet?

ChopperByrne

Installed Ubuntu on my dad's laptop last weekend. He hasn't called for help yet which is a good sign.

g.man

He probably just can't get his email to work.

ChopperByrne

Doesn't use email. He plays the standard hearts/solitaire card games and goes to the PGA Tour, European Tour and Paddy Power sites.

Diluted Dante

OK, but what about Minecraft?

hunk

Haven't tried minecraft but it's there if you like that sort of thing.
I did install steam and it runs great. The steam linux library is a bit thin now but it's growing, slowly but surely.

Yossarian

Humble Bundles are available for Linux too. I note that Linux users tend to be the most generous to HB, which is nice of them.

Diluted Dante

Well, they've not had to fork out for an OS.

Yossarian

Either that, or if you're skilled enough with computers to make Linux your OS of choice, you're likely to have a fairly well-paid job in tech.

Diluted Dante

Yeah, there's that too.

beano

It's a myth that you need mega skills, you just need to be prepared to deal with CLI, you might just might edit a script, let alone write one.

You can choose linux tomorrow. You just can't remember your first OS experience or the time it took to learn, file systems, networking, etc and also you're probably completely unaware that you've transferred most of that knowledge across multiple OSs.

Grow a pair, kick up a VM.

Yossarian

I barely have enough space left on my MacBook HD to save documents, let alone start installing spare OSes.

hunk

Linux' main strength is also it's weakness. It's extremely modular and customisable, you only install the libraries you need. That's why it's so zippy and light. You manage your ppa's manually deciding what does and doesn't get installed on your os.

On the other hand, when you're missing certain libs and drivers, hunting them down with google and installing them through cli can be a pain in the ass. Windows/osx update automates that process for you for a reason....

dynamiteReady

beano wrote:

vim > emacs > vi

Fuck that shit. Nano all the way. Yeah it's easy!

Yossarian wrote:

I barely have enough space left on my MacBook HD to save documents, let alone start installing spare OSes.

You're effectively already are using a *nix system. The commands are mostly the same.

I have a dual boot system but I spend most my time on Windows, because it's undoubtedly better for multimedia (will be for some time to come by the looks of things). But I spend a lot of time using shell commands, because I have a Mac at work, a *nix server for hobbyist crap, and use a Linux CLI emulator on my PC because... Why not.

If I had a Mac, I probably wouldn't dual boot. As someone who uses open source a fair bit though, I do appreciate Windows (say wwhhhhaaaaat? - ok... The big open source project maintainers work hard to support Windows... That's a good enough reason). If I was running a devco though (yeah...), I'd want most of the boxes running Linux, but if I was hiring an artist, I'd offer them a choice...

But then this is a gaming forum...

hunk

Yup, a *nix terminal is also buried somewhere in osx.

beano

My life, MacOS doesn't have a kb shortcut for a terminal window.

Yossarian

I know, but I've no idea how to use the Terminal in OSX. I wouldn't mind learning.

Edit: Dyno/Hunk.

Yossarian

beano wrote:

My life, MacOS doesn't have a kb shortcut for a terminal window.

Just had a look, it's actually got several (New Terminal at Folder, New Terminal Tab at Folder, Open man [sic, ?] Page at Terminal, Search man Pages in Terminal) they just need to be turned on in the System Preferences.

dynamiteReady

Yossarian wrote:

I know, but I've no idea how to use the Terminal in OSX. I wouldn't mind learning. Edit: Dyno/Hunk.

Tbf, you need a reason for it. If you're running Linux itself, just switching the PC on and off will provide you with a good enough frikkin' reason to use the console...

On Mac though, the UI is too sanitary to actually want to use the CLI for anything but work, but for a minor taste of it, open a Mac console, type - 'ps aux' (without the single quotes) - and press enter... You should see a list of every single thing running on your Mac at that moment.

Granted, there's a Mac application for that (and tbh, it's far easier to use), but it's sort of cool to get a low level look at what the machine's doing. :]

beano

Man pages are manuals, usually opened in a text editor call vi...

Yeah I'm talking about a baked in kb shortcut, it doesn't matter, just I could've sworn macbooks of lore had them.

Yossarian

They're baked in, they're just disabled by default. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by 'baked in'.

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