Of course, I'll throw in a snapshot of my desktop.
Posted on 03/07/2006 7:08:01 AM PST by N3WBI3
From our "Linux is for Total Newbies" series, courteousy of Robert Milner for reallylinux.com.
Still hesitant to try Linux? I'd like to share a revelation with you. See, for me, Linux adoption always seemed a bit of a battle to get out there on the desktop. No, I'm not talking about getting it installed. The major flavor providers have made stellar strides in set-up, making it a breeze.
Take a look for yourself at the powerful and useful features in Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, and SuSe.
There are easy to learn graphical interfaces like Gnome, KDE, or XFCE to name a few. Installation today is often simpler than any Windows full install. Therefore, no I'm not talking about installation and use. I'm talking about winning the hearts and minds of the Joe-average user.
Normally, when you mention Linux to them you get an expression on their faces as if you had asked them the square root of 232,543. They just don't know it's there. More importantly, they don't know they have a choice. Even though they are not necessarily tied to their operating system from one particular big, famous vendor.
It's with this in mind that I tackled an infected desktop PC and a laptop. In the interests of anonymity (and just to keep things exciting) I'll name the owner Jen.
Jen came to me with her desktop PC, that she had never been too happy with. She had described its erratic behaviour and instability and its growing problems. She had this machine built and installed by a self appointed expert. As 99% of you have probably guessed by now, it wasn't just infected, it was crawling with viruses and spyware. The laptop had been acquired from said expert and this time the advice was that Anti-Virus, Firewall, and Anti-Spyware measures were not necessary under Windows XP. What's that? Not necessary under XP?
If you have a similar idea, then please review a few articles like this and this to understand the dangers. And you may want to review this article to see the difference regarding Linux use.
It was at this point becoming a bit of bug-bear that I had to re-build yet another two machines that were so compromised and so infected. Besides, I had several major question marks regarding their licensing, making them pretty useless PCs. See, I'm the type of bloke that keeps my nose clean. I don't do piracy. When I told her the price of buying two replacement, properly licensed copies of Windows XP, she wasn't impressed, and suddenly much more aware of the true cost of ownership of proprietary software.
It is indeed expensive paying for your operating system in the hundreds. The point not to miss is that she did not desire to continue spending money on OS licensing and software replacements -- indefinitely.
So here was my chance to share an insight with her no one else had done. I told her about an operating system that was free, secure, and stable. One that would significantly reduce her fears of another infection and that would get the job done just as well as anything else. And she did not have to pay hundreds to own it.
I could see that I was challenging the MS comfort zone. To help reduce anxiety, I also mentioned that there was always the option to go back to what she was used to. And to her credit, she said yes, she'd try it.
For those who caution this approach, perhaps I should briefly explain. Jen is not losing access to essential files and software by making such a move. She will not lose access to her essential programs like Photoshop (Linux GiMP handles PSD files and with GimpShop you get an interface similar to Photoshop).
"Jen is not losing access to essential files and software by making such a move."
She will also have full access to all her Microsoft Office files (OpenOffice works without issue with ALL Office formats). Even if Jen were to use more extensive things like databases, OpenOffice.org includes database importing for ODBC and JDBC -- if she ever got into all that.
She doesn't throw away access to her DVD movies (a few great Linux players include MPlayer and Xine) and she doesn't lose out on access to things like her work PDF files. Moreover, there are plenty of well written beginner documents on nearly every Linux subject. Whew. Okay, hopefully the point is made. She can try it out and see whether she likes it.
So what happened? Now writing this some time after the event, I'm please to say: unabashed success! On both PCs, Jen has taken to Linux like a duck to water. Jen is now more productive, the machines are stable and have yet to let her down. She is spending more time on her computer. For me, what summed it up brilliantly was the unprompted praise as I got from her one night. She said, "That Linux thingy is much better than Windows."
The downside? I've created a Frozen Bubble addict. If you are not familiar with the game, you ought to try it. It's one of thousands (actually over 10,300) of exceptional programs that run on Linux.
And this takes me to the revelation. No, not the Frozen bubble bit. The fact that a home user who was only ever a through and through proprietary addict, so seamlessly migrated to Linux -- and enjoyed it. What does she get? Reliability. Cost saving. Security. And what do I get in return for sharing this? Less call back. Less fear of another clean-up operation. Warm cosy feeling. Linux works, even for a total newbie.
Linux. Try it. You might like it.
AUTHOR BIO: When he's not making a noise on the drums, indulging in surreal multi-media urges or helping on reallylinux.com, Manfromthezoo (Rob Milner) pays the bills by working in technical support for a U.K. Hospital, supporting thousands of users on different sites. This article comes courtesy of Robert Milner, published by reallylinux.com with permission.
This brief opinion piece should not be construed as factual information, and only contains the opinions and personal experiences of the author at the time of publication. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows and WindowsXP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation both in the United States and Internationally. Notations MS and XP are included and refer to Microsoft Corporation and Windows XP. All other trademarks or registered trademarks in this opinion piece belong to their respective owners.
Yeah, but it sure beats talking about the Communist proclivities of Torvald's parents.
Yea what ar ethe odds that a huge company might have to push back an important upgrade or project?
In an interview here at its 11th annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, WinHEC, Jim Allchin, the group vice president of platforms at Microsoft, told eWeek that Longhorn was unlikely to ship before 2004. " -- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,42185,00.asp
Earlier this year, Microsoft projected that the initial beta of the server version of Longhorn would emerge in the first half of next year. But now the company is saying that the beta code is due in the second half of 2005. " -- http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/windows/story/0,10801,98368,00.html
Without the much-anticipated Windows File System, the client version of Longhorn is not expected to be a revolutionary change over Windows XP, or a must-have for businesses, which considered WinFS and its search capabilities a major innovation, Rob Helm, analyst for Directions on Microsoft said.
"It's good news and bad news," Helm said of the announcement. "The good news is scaling back the operating system means it's more likely to show up in 2006, which means we will see the benefits sooner and developers will get applications out there sooner. " -- http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=19521
haha! Good one.
Still, though, the original topic was desktops vs. workstation....er, adoption of Linux for personal use.
Of course you aren't, you're too busy perpetrating the fraud that it's easy to convert when reality admits even IBM can't succesfully do it.
And why should you, since that radical leftist Stallman owns most of the copyrights to GNU/Linux software anyway. So you saved $100, but sold out capitalism in the process. It's too bad that guy is so much smarter than all of his obvious pawns.
The obvious difference is, no one is posting articles here claiming it is easy for people to do. If it was, IBM and Novell surely would have completed by now, after years of trying, but they still won't even give out a new schedule. In other words, "never" seems the most likely answer.
Yea because its not Like IBM moving over thousands of employees across dozens of departments, with hundreds of custom written applications, while leaving in place a decades old network is that much harder than Joe Smith moving over his desktop..
Your statement above is quite literally the biggest display of ignorance on large scale IT systems to date on Free Republic.
If it's so easy, what's taking IBM and Novell so long? Why have they missed their schedules, and refuse to announce new ones? Obviously because it's not that easy, which you grazed the surface of with your post.
Integration with an existing infrastructure that dwarfs most companies out there let alone *an individual*
Obviously because it's not that easy, which you grazed the surface of with your post.
So you are saying that moving say IBM from 98 to XP should be as easy of moving my mother from 98 to XP?
I doubt people should take advice from someone who said you cant click a button or two to upgrade or install software on Linux...
Official instructions on how to install Firefox, which is as easy as it gets but apparently still requires typing some long and incredibly stupid command in Linux. Why must you constanly lie?
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/1.5.html#install
For Windows, Double click the Firefox Setup 1.5.exe installer to start the install.
For Linux, Extract the tarball in the directory where you want to install Firefox:
tar -xzvf firefox-1.5.tar.gz
http://howto.homelinux.net/swf/yum.html
The instructions on Mozilla site are for generic Linux (i.e. no distribution) Suse, RedHat and most others provide an easy interface for installing software. All I would have to do differently in this scenario is select Firefox and click install.
So as with every time you try to play this card I have to ask: Dont you get tired of being proven wrong?
There is nothing more entertaining than the sight of ignorance in action.
Cut the crap N3WBI3! Everybody knows your mother would beat you to an inch of your life (and then push you a foot) if you made her give up her Mac.;^)* Does make your point though, but the concept would be violent if implimentation is attempted.
*A little inside humour GE
Ridiculous, imagine you want to install a game. Take Quake II for example...you call this easy, much less fun?
Installing Quake II
Download the Necessary Files**
All the necessary files for Linux Quake II are available at id Software's ftp site, ftp.idsoftware.com. This site can be quite busy at times,so you may want to use one of these mirror sites instead:
ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/idstuff (California, USA)
ftp.gamesnet.net/idsoftware (California, USA)
ftp.stomped.com/pub/mirror/idstuff (Minnesota, USA)
mirrors.telepac.pt/pub/idgames (Lisbon, Portugal)
download.netvision.net.il/pub/mirrors/idsoftware (Haifa, Israel)
The Quake II files mentioned in in this section are:
Quake II Linux Binaries
libc5 tar.gz package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
glibc tar.gz package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-glibc-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
libc5 rpm package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-2.i386.rpm
glibc rpm package ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/unix/quake2-3.19a-glibc-2.i386.rpm
Quake II Demo Version for Windows ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2-314-demo-x86.exe
Quake II Game Source ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/source/q2source-3.14.shar.Z
Quake II Capture the Flag ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/ctf/102.zip
Other software mentioned:
SVGAlib graphics library http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.tar.gz
SVGAlib libc5 binary http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.libc5.bin.tar.gz
Glide runtime libraries http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS.html
Mesa 3D graphics library http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html
unzip archive utility http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/unzip-5.31.tar.gz
Create the Installation Directory
The first thing you'll need to do is decide where you want to install Quake II. Lots of folks like to put it in /usr/games/quake. Anal system administrator that I am, I choose to install anything that's not part of my Linux distribution under /usr/local. So for me, Quake II goes in /usr/local/games/quake2. If you choose to install somewhere else, please substitute the appropriate path wherever /usr/local/games/quake2 is mentioned.
So go ahead and create the directory you'll install Quake II in, and cd to it. The rest of these instructions will assume that this is your current directory.
mkdir /usr/local/games/quake2
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
Installing from CD
Place your Quake II CD in your CD ROM drive, and mount it:
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
If your CDROM is typically mounted elsewhere, substitute its location for /mnt/cdrom. If you're not sure where your CDROM is mounted, please see the documentation for your particular distribution.
Full Install The simplest install method is a "full" install, which involves copying the entire contents of your CD to your hard drive. This requires about 350 MB, and is accomplished by issuing the following commands:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
cp -r /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/* .
There'll be a bunch of unnecessary Windows files hanging around that you can safely delete:
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/*.dll
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/quake2.exe
rm -f /usr/local/quake2/baseq2/gamex386.dll
Medium Install If 450 MB is too much space for you to devote to Quake II, you can skip installing the movie cutscenes and link to them on the CD-ROM instead. This will reduce the space requirements to about 200 MB:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
mkdir baseq2
cp /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/pak0.pak baseq2
cp -r /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/players baseq2
ln -s /mnt/cdrom/Install/Data/baseq2/video baseq2/video
Note that this doesn't mean you have to mount your Quake II CD every time to want to play Quake II. If the game can't load the videos, it just won't display them.
3.3 Adding the Linux Binaries **
There are four Linux Quake II packages available for download:
a libc5 tar.gz package
a glibc tar.gz package
a libc5 rpm package
a glibc rpm package
Install just one of these packages. Each contains the same files, they're just linked against different libraries. Redhat 5.x users should choose the the glibc rpm package. Users of glibc based systems without rpm support should use the glibc tar package. The libc5 rpm is for Redhat distributions prior to 5.0 and other distributions that use the rpm package format. The libc5 tar.gz package is for Slackware and everyone else.
See the Download the Necessary Files section for the location of the Linux Quake II files.
Installing the RPM packages **
Installation of the rpm packages should be as simple as:
su root
rpm -Uvh quake2-xxxxx.i386.rpm
Rpm may complain that it can't find libglide2x.so. The Glide library is only necessary if you have a 3Dfx card and want to run Quake II in GL mode. If you don't plan to use the GL mode, you can override the glide dependency with the --nodeps option:
su root
rpm -Uvh quake2-xxxxx.i386.rpm --nodeps
Installing the tar.gz packages **
To install, just untar the file in your Quake II directory. Do it as root so the proper file permissions get set:
cd /usr/local/games/quake
su root
tar -xzf qwcl2.21-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz
3.4 Setting Permissions **
If you ran rpm or tar as root when installing the Quake II package on your system, the file permissions should be properly set already. The quake2 executable was installed setuid root so that it can access the graphics devices on your system. For security, the ref_*.so rendering libraries are owned by root and writeable only by him. If root doesn't own the libraries, or they're world writeable, quake2 will refuse to run.
If you plan to only run Quake II with the GL or X renderers, your quake2 doesn't need to be setuid root. See Running X and GL games without setuid in the Tips and Tricks section below for information on running Quake II without root permissions.
Quake2.conf **
For security reasons, there is a quake2.conf file, which tells Quake II where to find the rendering libraries it needs (ref_*.so). It contains only one line, which should be the path to your Quake II installation. Quake II looks for this file in /etc. If you installed Quake II from an .rpm file, this file was installed for you. If you installed from a .tar package, you need to create it like so:
su root
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
pwd > /etc/quake2.conf
chmod 644 /etc/quake2.conf
3.5 The X Renderer
Quake II should be ready to run under X now. Give it a try:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2 +set vid_ref softx
If all is well, after a pretty significant pause, a small Quake II window will appear with the first demo running in it. You should hear sound effects and possibly music, if the CD is mounted. If any of this fails to occur, please see section Troubleshooting for help.
3.6 The SVGAlib Renderer
You need SVGAlib installed and configured if you're going to use either the ref_soft or ref_gl renderers. (Quake II uses SVGAlib to process keyboard and mouse input, in case you're wondering why you'd need it for the GL renderer). SVGAlib comes with most modern distributions, and must be properly configured before Quake II will run correctly outside of X.
libvga.config is SVGAlib's configuration file. On most systems you'll find it in either /etc or /etc/vga. Make sure the mouse, monitor, and video card settings in this file are correct for your system. See the SVGAlib documentation for more details.
If you don't already have SVGAlib on your system, download it from the location mentioned in the files section above. If you have a RedHat 5.x or other glibc-based Linux distribution, see Glibc, RedHat 5.x, Debian 2 considerations in the Troubleshooting/FAQs section for important information about compiling libraries for Quake II. A precompiled libc5 SVGAlib binary is available at http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/graphics/svgalib-1.3.0.libc5.bin.tar.gz for those who don't want to deal with the hassle of compiling for libc5.
You should run Quake II from a virtual console when using the ref_soft or ref_gl renderers. It won't run from X unless you're root when you start it, and that's not advisable. So if you're in X, do a CTRL+ALT+F1, login and then:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2
Running SVGA and GL games from X in the Tips & Tricks section below explains how to launch SVGA and GL Quake II from X without manually switching to a virtual console.
3.7 The OpenGL Renderer
Hardware-accelerated OpenGL Quake is Quake the way God intended it to be. There is no substitute, and once you've experienced it there's no going back.
To run Quake II in GL mode, you need a 3D card with the Voodoo, Voodoo2 or Voodoo Rush graphics chipset on it. There are specific issues to be dealt with if you have a Voodoo Rush card, and I won't go into them now because frankly, I wouldn't know what I was talking about. A future version of this HOWTO will cover Rush issues (If somebody wants to write about Voodoo Rush issues, I'll gladly include it here).
The SVGAlib, Glide, and Mesa libraries must all be installed and configured properly on your system for quake2 to work. The following sections will very briefly cover what you need to do to get them going.
Bernd Kreimeier's ( bk@gamers.org) Linux 3Dfx HOWTO ( http://www.gamers.org/dEngine/xf3D/howto/3Dfx-HOWTO.html) is good source for further information.
The 3dfx.glide.linux newsgroup on the 3dfx news server (news.3dfx.com) is another good source of information about the intersection of Linux, glide, Mesa and Quake.
SVGAlib
Quake II uses SVGAlib to get input from the mouse and keyboard, so you'll need to configure it as outlined in section SVGAlib Renderer section.
Glide
Glide is a library that provides an API for programming 3Dfx based cards. If you want the Mesa graphics library to use your 3Dfx card, you've gotta have it.
The latest version of glide can always be found at http://glide.xxedgexx.com/3DfxRPMS.html. Select the package(s) appropriate for your system, and install according to the instructions on the web page.
Note that unless you download the 3Dfx device driver package in addition to the Glide library, you will only be able to run Glide applications (like GLQuake) as root. Install the /dev/3dfx module and you can play GLQuake as a regular user.
Once you have glide installed, try out the test program that comes with it. Remember this program: it's a good way to reset your display if you ever have a glide application (like GLQuake) crash and leave your screen switched off. NOTE: run this test from a VC, not X! It's possible for the test app to lose mouse and keyboard focus in X, and then you'll have no way of shutting it down.
/usr/local/glide/bin/test3Dfx
Your screen should turn blue and prompt you to hit any key. After you press a key you should be returned to the prompt. 3dfx.glide.linux on 3dfx's news server (news.3dfx.com) is a great source of information for Linux glide-specific problems.
Mesa
Once glide's installed, you need to install Mesa, a free OpenGL implementation by Brian Paul (brianp@elastic.avid.com). Luckily, you won't have to look far, because Mesa 2.6 is included with the Quake II binaries. All you have to do is move it to the right place:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
cp libMesaGL.so.2.6 /usr/local/lib
ldconfig
If you want to upgrade Mesa to a more recent version (Mesa 3.0 is the most recent version as of this writing), you can download the latest from ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa If you have a RedHat 5.x or other glibc-based Linux distribution, see Glibc, RedHat 5.x, Debian 2 considerations in the Troubleshooting/FAQs section for important information about compiling libraries for Quake.
After you've built it according to the instructions, you will have to do two things:
Remove your old Mesa installation. If you previously installed a libMesaGL.so.2.6 as described above, you must remove it or Quake II may not use the new version.
cd /usr/local/lib/
rm -f libMesaGL.so.2*
If the new Mesa has a major version number that's greater than 2, you need to create a link to it with the name libMesaGL.so.2:
cd /usr/local/lib/
ln -s /wherever/you/installed/it/libMesaGL.so.3.0 libMesaGL.so.2
ldconfig
Now switch to a VC (CTRL+ALT+F1) and start Quake II:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
./quake2 +set vid_ref gl
lib3dfxgl.so **
With Quake II version 3.19, an alternative to the Mesa library is available. lib3dfxgl.so is a mini-GL driver optimized for Quake that provides slightly better framerates than Mesa. This is a port of a driver that 3Dfx developed for Quake under Windows, and apparently not all of its features work properly yet. So hopefully we can expect its performance to improve with time.
Like Mesa, lib3dfxgl.so requires Glide in order to access your 3Dfx card. The Quake II packages come with a script, quake2.3dfxgl for running Quake II with this library on glibc systems. The next paragraph explains how to run Quake II with lib3dfxgl.so on a libc5 system. On a glibc system, the glqwcl executable must not be setuid, nor should you run it as root. glqwcl will silently load Mesa rather than lib3dfxgl.so if it runs with root permissions. This non-root requirement implies that you have the /dev/3dfx driver installed.
On a libc5 system, the non-root requirements mentioned above apply, but you also need to create a symbolic link to lib3dfxgl.so called libMesaGL.so.2 like so:
cd /usr/local/games/quake2
ln -sf lib3dfxgl.so libMesaGL.so.2
Then start Quake II from a script that tells $LD_LIBRARY_PATH to look in the current directory:
Then again, I'm still partial toward Slax ;)
Of course, I'll throw in a snapshot of my desktop.
Point browser at: http://liflg.matrixau.com/torrents/quake2_3.21-r0.16.1-english.run.torrent
Open with your choice of torrent app.
When completed:
#sh quake2_3.21-r0.16.1-english.run
Idiot.
"Of course you aren't, you're too busy perpetrating the fraud that it's easy to convert when reality admits even IBM can't succesfully do it."
You don't have to lie to find things to argue about with me, Turkey. I never said it was "easy" (name where I did), i.e., that you would pick up and be using it the next day without problem. It's just not as impossible as you'd make it out to be. Heck, I did it, and to hear you talk, I'm not exceptionally bright. So, there's no doubt that the average user could learn if they would put their mind to it. Now, if they were a user like you, who lapses into Barney Fife hysterics at the mere mention of the words "command line", that might be a problem. But all users are not like you (thank heavens!).
"And why should you, since that radical leftist Stallman owns most of the copyrights to GNU/Linux software anyway. So you saved $100, but sold out capitalism in the process. It's too bad that guy is so much smarter than all of his obvious pawns."
First off, I saved way more than $100, because I have Linux running on three computers at home (soon to be four) and five computers at work. You do the math.
You clearly have no idea what capitalism is, moron. If I can pay less (or even nothing) for a product that I prefer, that's capitalism. If I must buy what you say I should buy, even though it's not what I want, that's not capitalism. Freerepublic recognizes this...why do you think they use Linux?
Besides, none of the money spent on my software ended up in the pockets of the Chicoms or the Democrats, like yours did.
P.S. - To all - Wouldn't it be fun if we had a betting pool to see who could get closest to the time that Turkey here utters his next "radical leftist Stallman" on the next thread?
See post 77, going out and finding poorly written hand installs when binary packages are out there is a really sad way to try and salvage the joke you have made of youself on this thread..
Dont forget, Knight, that most Linux UI's (KDE, Gnome, XFCE, ...) Will even let you click on that file to run it..
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