Re: 20 basic Linux newbie commands to identify the system

From: mike (spamme0_at_juno.com)
Date: 04/02/04 

Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 19:47:31 -0800

Ellen Spelling wrote:
> What are the 20 basic newbie Redhat Linux commands I should send to my
> users so they can identify the key particulars about any Redhat system?

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 10. What else can & should a new Linux user run to determine key information?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, but why would a newbie want to know any of this?
As a newbie, I want to know stuff like:
What's the command I need to make my soundcard work on this system?
What's the command I need to make my network work on this system?
What's the command I need to make my usb work on this system?
What's the command I need to make my pcmcia work on this system?
What's the command I need to make my virtual desktop work on this system?
What's the command I need to find and install sw packages on this system?

I could go on until my internet connection drops dead, but you get the
point. I submit that a newbie don't care too much about how many
processors or how much ram...he/she can't do anything much to change it.

What I want to know is how to get the darn thing out of 640x480 display
mode so I can fit the whole display configuration window and see
the buttons that I need to click to configure the display.
I wanna know how I find out the name of the configuration file I have to
edit on this machine. How do I find out that I have to add a line
"virtual 800 600" to that file?
I wanna know how to configure the sound card so I can play an mp3.
I wanna know which of the windows-compatible networking paradigms are
implemented, how I find them, and how I make 'em work.
How do I read the DOS floppy that I made from the stuff I downloaded on
my windows machine so I could (try to) get the linux machine to access
the internet? And don't get me started on phone dialers.....

You wanna do something great for newbies? Use the windows control panel
as a model and implement a front end that maps into the configuration
files on a particular distribution.

mike
Just noticed this thing is CROSS posted....oh well.... 

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