Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

[Guest]

Hi all

I raised a previous question about setting up my wireless connection, which in my extrordinarily limited experience of Kubuntu (about an hour so far), has not been an entirely lovely experience. That's being helpfully dealt with elsewhere, but part of the resonse was to open up a console session, and start typing in various commands.

My question is - how much of this should I expect on my Kubuntu journey? To what extent is setting up Kubuntu a GUI experience, and how much of that command-line jigger-pokery should I expect?

In my dim and distant past I did a bit of HP-UX so it's not entirely foreign, but a bit scarey for anyone who is thinking of coming across from the other side. If the answer is a lot, then maybe I need to take step back and refresh my unix knowledge and not expect it to have Windows-like intuition.

Best wishes.

[Fintan]

Re: Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

No this is not windows

Never was meant to be and never will be

Especially concerning the help you will get here

If you have a problem , the best way to go about is to:
1) give your machine specs. Video card, MB, sound card, network card(s) and be as specific as possible.

2) have a look at the search function here, the how-to sections and last but not least the ubuntu forums and google.

Yes, for some stuff you may need the cli.
Like defining your hardware, posting logs, gaining access if something really borks, etc

In most cases they are easy commands and cut / paste commands given by others here

Either way welcome to the party

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

In my dim and distant past I did a bit of HP-UX so it's not entirely foreign, but a bit scarey for anyone who is thinking of coming across from the other side. If the answer is a lot, then maybe I need to take step back and refresh my unix knowledge and not expect it to have Windows-like intuition.

That sounds a little like my own situation, a couple years back. I had, in the dim dark past, set up a couple of SCO Unix systems, so I had seen the Unix CLI and used some basic commands, but a lot of it was forgotten.

Windows has spoiled you, when it comes to installing and hardware detection and drivers installation -- no doubt about it. Linux is not there yet -- you WILL encounter tall challenges with hardware, and in a few cases, you simply can't install certain hardware because drivers don't exist. So it's not the world of Windows Plug & Play, by any means.

However, if you are willing to invest time and mental energy, it turns out that there are many ways to skin these cats, and the open source community are a wily bunch. If you have an application that simply MUST be on windows, like the interface to your cell phone or something, then there is VMware Player (free) and Virtual Box OSE (free) that can support a legal Win XP virtual machine, so you don't have to sacrifice that capability -- you just run the VM on your Linux system.

I'd say buy one good book -- my favorite is Beginning Ubuntu Linux by Keir Thomas. You'll need it a lot for the first 30 days, and then its usefulness will diminish rapidly.

Welcome, and good luck!

[Snowhog]

Re: Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

...and then its usefulness will diminish rapidly.

Au contraire, mon cher dibl! It can be used as a fly swatter, spider killer, coffee coaster, dust collector, and many more wonder things!

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

Au contraire, mon cher dibl! It can be used as a fly swatter, spider killer, coffee coaster, dust collector, and many more wonder things!

Touché, mon ami!

Yes, mine is presently doing a marvelous job as a dust collector!

[marshallbanana]

Re: Kubuntu - it's not Windows is it!

In my experience very little, at least after you have finished the initial install. Nowadays I use the command line only to tweak grub and install java after I install the OS. Outside of getting hardware to work (only an issue at install) there is no real need for it to do any tasks. Additionally much of the help given on these forums in the form of command line code can often be done via gui's, it's just much easier to ask someone to paste the results of lspci than to get them to poke around guis and find out their exact hardware and then type that up. I haven't touched the command line since I installed 8.04 back in April, it's just not necessary for most day to day tasks.