Linux? LINUX???? HEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!!!

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pootle

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I am looking at buying one of these for general mischief: http://www.openpandora.org

It's open source so obviously runs Linux. Which is a bit of a problem because I know (or think I know) the following things about Linux

1) The penguin may or may not be called Tux.

2) It uses partitions including / for booting up.

3) Your applications will be stored in you user profile so as to help control privileges.

4) There are lots of different kinds and they can have very different interfaces.

5) Er...

6) That's it.

I have looked around for a basic guide and have found some interesting sites, but for the most part they don't do a very good job helping to explain the basics.

But they sell lots of laptops with Linux on these days, it's right in the mainstream. So it can't be too difficult to figure out, right? >stupid question, I know. It's as in-depth as you want to make it<

So, all of you who are successfully using Linux, is there a website you wish you had found when you were starting out? One that helps you to get to grips with the differences you will find compared to windows?

And if you have any more info on using Linux it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
In general it's not too hard, and if you have trouble doing something, you can be guaranteed that someone has written good instructions on how to do it.
 
Er, do some more research into OpenPandora and it's GP32/GP2X community heritage. Yes, it's Linux, but they're building their own customized version. You likely won't have to do anything. I believe it might even run the OpenGP2X (or whatever) firmware.

pootle said:
1) The penguin may or may not be called Tux.
Correct

2) It uses partitions including / for booting up.
So does Windows.

3) Your applications will be stored in you user profile so as to help control privileges.
They can, but that is silly and not how things are done.

4) There are lots of different kinds and they can have very different interfaces.
Not for little devices like this one.
Click to expand...
 
Lhadatt said:
Er, do some more research into OpenPandora and it's GP32/GP2X community heritage. Yes, it's Linux, but they're building their own customized version. You likely won't have to do anything. I believe it might even run the OpenGP2X (or whatever) firmware.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that! (Although I don't have a clue what OpenGP2X means!)

I would like to get more involved in the whole "Linux as an alternative to windows" thing, understanding what is going on beneath the surface as opposed to just taking the build as read. I think the idea behind what I want is to learn how to customise the whole thing.

I think it will be interesting, but I don't know where to start.

Is there an easy guide as to what I should be doing?
 
pootle said:
I am looking at buying one of these for general mischief: http://www.openpandora.org

It's open source so obviously runs Linux. Which is a bit of a problem because I know (or think I know) the following things about Linux

1) The penguin may or may not be called Tux.

2) It uses partitions including / for booting up.

3) Your applications will be stored in you user profile so as to help control privileges.

4) There are lots of different kinds and they can have very different interfaces.

5) Er...

6) That's it.

I have looked around for a basic guide and have found some interesting sites, but for the most part they don't do a very good job helping to explain the basics.

But they sell lots of laptops with Linux on these days, it's right in the mainstream. So it can't be too difficult to figure out, right? >stupid question, I know. It's as in-depth as you want to make it<

So, all of you who are successfully using Linux, is there a website you wish you had found when you were starting out? One that helps you to get to grips with the differences you will find compared to windows?

And if you have any more info on using Linux it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Holy crap that is one sexy piece of machinery. I want one!!! How much do they run?
 
pootle said:
Thanks for that! (Although I don't have a clue what OpenGP2X means!)

I would like to get more involved in the whole "Linux as an alternative to windows" thing, understanding what is going on beneath the surface as opposed to just taking the build as read. I think the idea behind what I want is to learn how to customise the whole thing.

I think it will be interesting, but I don't know where to start.

Is there an easy guide as to what I should be doing?
Click to expand...
If you're thinking in terms of the OpenPandora device, you're overthinking. If not, get thee a live CD of Ubuntu and play around. Live CDs can be booted to without installing anything on your computer.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Later on, once you're OK with using the Linux GUIs and know some command line stuff, you can experiment. I recommend Slackware. It's the oldest distro currently maintained and aims for simplicity, yet achieves a comprehensive system without sacrificing functionality. I once worked at a place that rolled their own distro based on Slack - once you know compiling, replacing kernels, etc., it's pretty easy to do.

http://www.slackware.com/

As far as Pandora goes, they'll have their own OS going for it at launch. This device is primarily meant for people who liked the GP32/GP2X Korean handhelds from Gamepark, but as it's more powerful, has a keyboard, etc. it's geared for vastly expanded usability. It's likely the first ultra-portable PC designed around gaming that has the power to pull it off.

Regardless, you'll be able to hack it, put other Linux installs on it, or whatever you want - but I don't think you'll need to KNOW Linux going in.
 
You should start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux and follow links if you want to gather information on a wide scale.

Here follows a simple intro to Linux that won't hurt you.

So you are new to this:
Try Knoppix. It's a Live CD, you don't have to install anything. That way, you can get an idea what it's like to click buttons in Linux.
http://www.knoppix.org

A lot of distributions give you a Live CD as well, they're usually all based on the Knoppix way to do things. Ubuntu is an example.
If you want to find more distributions, see Wikipedia link above.

About Look and Feel:
There are two main schools: The Gnome way and the KDE way. They both are pretty much self-explanatory. You've got a UI for anything you can think of, basically.
Gnome bases a lot of graphics code on GTK+ which you maybe already are familiar with; KDE tends to go for Qt. Both can handle the other side of the force very well, of course.
http://www.kde.org
http://www.gnome.org

What you should know:
Under Linux, you should almost always do things with an account that has restricted rights. Exceptions are making new users, editing system-wide configuration files, installing / updating software and so on.
While you will discover that you can do most things via UIs, sometimes it makes sense to handle stuff from a terminal. At the beginning, it may feel cumbersome to learn the commands and type them out, but in a month or two, you'll be thankful for being able to look how much space you've got left on your mounts with
df -h
or that you can check why this one device doesn't start with
dmesg | less
or that searching for files that end in jpg, JPG, jpeg, JPeG, jPasFFlkasdg etc and listing them into a file is as simple as
find / -iname "*.jp*g" > ~/all_jpgs
and so forth.
The terminal magic may or may not apply to said device, I don't know.
Find commands by looking into /usr/bin ; read what they do in their manpages, either from a terminal or HERE, a place where some kind person has stored a lot of manpages online.

If you've got a problem, use Google or ask on the forums that's associated with your specific distribution.

Have fun.

Edit: One thing: You should check the documentation shipped with your distribution to learn really neat things. They usually include tons of introductory material.
Edit: The manpages link wasn't actually THAT useful, replaced it.
 
Thanks very much for all the help guys!

I had already tried linuxhelp and justlinux but was a bit swamped by the amount of information there. Too much information is as bad as too little, if you know what I mean.

And yes, I had tried Google as well!

I started looking at the Pandora after my mate had a GP2X. Unfortunately he's off fixing radios in Iraq for the forseeable future so I'm trying to get into Linux on my own.

My plan is to get up to speed with the Linux basics before the Pandora comes out hopefully at the end of the year. I'm not sure how far I want to go with it, but I would like to be able to understand what's going on underneath the surface of the OS.

The problem was where to start when so many people who know what they are talking about all recommend going about things differently. Problem now solved!
 
1) The penguin may or may not be called Tux.
True.

2) It uses partitions including / for booting up.
Yup.

3) Your applications will be stored in you user profile so as to help control privileges.
Usually you install an application as root and then use it with your profile, your settings will be saved to /home/yournamehere/.programnamehere

4) There are lots of different kinds and they can have very different interfaces.
Lots of different kinds? Yeah. Different Interfaces? Well yeah. Very different? Not really.
 
You're blowing it out of proportion if you're thinking about linux in terms of that device. However, if you truly want to learn about linux, then I'd only have on site to recommend as a Linux user since probably 2 years ago when I saw the light: www.ubuntuforums.org probably the best source of information for anything Linux-related.
 
Consider this though:
1219318343.jpg
 
Don't over think, that is your first mistake.

Go get a live CD, give it a spin, you can even install Ubuntu in windows like a program and try it out without breaking anything. I hope the Pandora thing pans out because it will be a sexy little piece of kit...
 
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