blog post: Tips for Windows users making the switch to Linux
- From: chess nut <s@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:18:09 -0500
worth sharing?
http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=251
TEN TIPS FOR WINDOWS USERS MAKING THE SWITCH TO LINUX
(1) KEEP YOUR OLD WINDOWS MACHINE/PARTITION INTACT
You may want some training wheels at first. Get a Gmail account and
upload essential and necessary files, links, and data to it to share
between systems, and leave the USB stick at home. If you really,
really like how Windows or Mac looks, there are themes and distros
that cater to that taste. Finally, until you get all your data
converted, you may need something.
(2) EXPECT A LEARNING CURVE AT FIRST
If I can make the switch, anyone can! Immersion is your best friend.
It took me two months to wean myself off my Windows machine for good.
It may take you a year, or a weekend. Eventually, you won't even be
turning on that Windows machine. There are lots of sites and pages
available to help (see links at bottom of post).
(3) DON'T EXPECT LINUX TO BE JUST LIKE WINDOWS
It's much, much better. You'll soon see why (software quality;
updates/installation; security; speed; hardware support; vibrant
community, among others). Two of the biggest misperceptions about
Linux are software quality and hardware compatibility. In many cases,
the software is equivalent (see #7 below) or it's better, and it has
more drivers for more hardware than any other platform. You might have
to wait 2-3 months on some proprietary drivers, but that's becoming
more rare by the month.
(4) WHETHER YOU USE UBUNTU OR NOT, PERUSE THEIR FORUMS TO
GAIN KNOWLEDGE
Some Ubuntu forum members have written great tutorials on the
intricacies of fstab, grub, virtualization, customization, etc. Also,
keep a simple text file of notes and links that will help you in the
future. For example, I document my mistakes so that I can remember
where I went wrong, and what worked.
(5) DON'T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT
Install a new videocard (check for drivers first!). Play multi-player
games or online chess. Partition your drive and try a wide variety of
distros and BSD flavors (DistroWatch.com). You've always got access to
your LiveCD if you do find a way to trash your system. (It's harder
than you think to take down a Linux machine.)
(6) HELP IS AS NEAR AS YOUR KEYBOARD
There are forums. There are Usenet groups. There's Google, of course.
Better is Google/Linux. Like anywhere else, keep searching, be
patient, and thank those who help you. And when you can, help others.
In the end, it's a community relationship, not a customer
relationship.
(7) TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CROSS-PLATFORM SOFTWARE
You may already be using Firefox/Opera/Chrome or OpenOffice or
7-Zip/RAR or GIMP or MySQL or Beyond Compare or XnView/Picasa or
Kompozer or FileZilla... I could do this all day.
(8) TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CLOUD
Don't laugh. Linux is built for cloud computing, mobile computing,
thick computing, and even phones! The cloud consists of applications
online, such as Zoho Office, Google Docs, Aviary, Adobe Photoshop
Express and Acrobat, and to a large extent, Amazon, Google Sky, among
many others.
(9) LET OTHERS KNOW YOU'VE SWITCHED TO LINUX, BUT DON'T BE
A JERK ABOUT IT
Don't be "that guy." Mac users have been this way and the whole
routine gets old by the second sentence. Enjoy Linux for what it is --
great code, stable OS, fast platform -- not for what it's not
(Windows). What should you care what Bill Gates and his minions think
of your OS! I tell people that the money I save on licensing costs
allows me to spend more on newer, faster hardware.
(10) THE COMMAND LINE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND
A little command line knowledge goes a long way, but you will likely
use it far less than you expect to. Its power is irresistible because
it's so efficient. A lot of distros are setup so that you don't have
to go near the command line if you only want to do the basics --
office computing, playing music and most videos, and accessing
information and data through your browser. Over time, however, you
will become more comfortable with it, and you'll see it's nothing to
freak out over.
__________________________________
SITES TO YOU GET YOU STARTED
http://www.getgnulinux.org/
http://makethemove.net/
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/Switching_to_Linux
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-roadmap.html
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