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    very newb questions...

    i've never worked with Linux before and a friend of mine told me i should try Kubuntu.
    just to clarify, i'm not a die-hard power user, a programmer or a network hoster.
    i am sick of windows and it's garbage that i constantly have put up with for many years.  the only reason i was using windows at all is to play games, but that has slowly dwindled down to almost nothing.  my primary use of a computer lately has been to surf the net, make mp3s out of my cds that i have had sitting around for a long time and generally just enjoy having it.

    i turned to the thought of linux because of the open-source system, it's cost of nothing and the fact that my friend hyped it's stability for days on end.  he grated on me that i should stop wasting my time with XP and turn to something that would save my sanity later on down the road.  so here i am, stepping up to the plate.  i would ask these questions of my friend but he is now in iraq for a while.

    my questions are this:
    1. i know there are ways to update the different packages but what is the difficulty of this for a new user?

    2. i have heard that there is a way to emulate Windows based progs in Linux.  I use Acid Pro 4, Fruity Loops and a small few that i don't think have a linux distro.  will i be able to continue to run these programs in linux?

    3. if i make a new partition using partition magic while in windows for 21gb, will the setup of Kubuntu pick up this partition and use it to make the three partions required?

    4. i want to use 21gb for my Kubuntu setup. i know 1gb should go towards the swap for the user info and that like, but what is does someone recommend for the other two?

    5. how difficult is it to find similar programs to the ones i use on windows?  ie. BitComet (torrent program), spybot search & destroy (if it's even needed in linux), photoshop cs2 and a few others.

    6. i have most of my music stored on a second drive with a single partition in NTFS.  will Kubuntu be able to read and write to this drive because most of my mp3s and other files are stored there?

    7. i use a cable broadband connection through a router. when i set up the internet connection during setup, what will i need to connect through my router? also, if i need more than the router IP, what do i look for or a way to find the info i need so that i don't have to go back and edit the setup info later?

    i hope i'm not being too annoying to any of you but i can't seem to find the answers i was looking for and hoped that i could get them from those that have been using linux for a while.



    Niveck

    #2
    Re: very newb questions...

    First off, don't worry about being annoying.  I'd guess most people here are newbs...including me.
    I've been using Kubuntu for about a week.  I have learned a lot more than I thought I would.

    1. Updating packages is easy through Adept.  (To get to it click on the K Menu-->System-->Adept)

    2. It's called wine, but I have never used it.

    3. Yes, if you make a free space partition then Kubuntu will recognize it and create the necessary Linux partitions.

    4. I'd let Kubuntu choose the sizes for your swaps...it will automatically use the rest for the main partition (ext3 file system).

    5. There are loads of BitTorrent progs for Linux.  Azureus is a Java-based client that will run on any OS.  I'm pretty sure you won't need Ad-Aware or Spybot S&D in Linux.  There are photo editing progs for Linux, but I don't know what they are called.

    6. There is a way to access NTFS files through Linux. http://www.linux-ntfs.org/  But you'll have to do the reading.

    7. All you need is to have your PC connected to the router and you're set.  As long as you have it set up to DHCP then Kubuntu will auto-config everything for you.  Make sure it's connected during the install process.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: very newb questions...

      Hello Niveck

      Welcome to Kubuntu Forums.

      I've started, but I may not be able to answer all of your questions myself.

      a) If you want to "try"Kubuntu it will be best to use the Desktop CD. It is a LiveCD. This means it can boot entirely from your CD-Rom and not affect your Hard Drive at all. This way you will know if it suits your system or finds any problems. It can be installed later.

      b) You don't necessarilly have to give up Microsoft Windows altogether. You can use Windows and Linux together and have a "dual boot". I have resized the partitions on one Hard Drive before but went for a simpler solution of using another Hard Drive. I have 120Gb Windows on hda and 120 Gb Linux on hdb. Much simpler.

      c) One of the first things to do is to install Automatix or Easyubuntu. These are scripts which automatically download and install a lot of important stuff.

      d) Updating packages is a couple af clicks. I think that Synaptic is the best Package Manager and it will tell you when there are packages to update.

      e) Some Windows programs will run on Wine. Mostly games. WineHQ has a database of what will run. There are commercial programs eg Cedega and CrossoverOffice and they will run more, but again cost.

      f) Its easy to find out about similar programs. Try Googling "Windows Linux Equivalent". Most useful programs are already available for download and installation through Package Managers. There are Torrent programs and thing like Gimp for graphics manipulation. A standalone user probably doesn't a virus checker or spyware stopper etc.

      g) Generally Linux will read NTFS but will not write to it, so it should read your MP3s OK. (There are risky ways to write to NTFS but they risk major corruption.) Again there are commercial products for NTFS but they cost.

      h) If it's a wired router there should be little trouble. People seem to have some problems with some Wireless Routers or USB Routers. My service is "always on" so it works with Windows, Linux or anything else.

      i) There is a lot of documentation and support available via the web. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu are all related. You can install one and then download the components of another. Most often information will be interchangable.

      j) Please feel free to ask any more questions that's what forums for...
      "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." --Charles F. Kettering
      "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."--Dr. Seuss

      Comment


        #4
        Re: very newb questions...

        Hey, and welcome to the forums.

        Here's a great list of linux alternatives to a lot of programs: http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
        Also Kubuntu will come with a bunch of usefull programs by defualt like KTorrent and OpenOffice.
        As for running windows programs, Wine works quite well depending on the program, Photoshop might be usable from what i get. FL Studio doesn't work unfortunately and it's the one program keeping me in Windows.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: very newb questions...

          thanks for all the info. i appreciate it. i had concidered buying a Linux book at Border's yesterday to help transition myself. but, i stopped myself from doing it since there is so many resorces online to find the same info any book can tell you.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: very newb questions...

            Just my try at answering your questions.

            1. Just like what Rob said, updating installed packages is very easy. In fact, in the current release of Kubuntu, it has been made easier. You are now automatically notified if there are updates available to be downloaded, somewhat similar to the Windows Update notifier

            2. You can use Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) which lets you run some Windows programs on Linux, without having to run the whole Windows XP baggage. However, take note that not every Windows app can be run through Wine. There are other ways to solve this:
            - you can install the whole Windows XP system through emulators/virtualization stuff like Qemu and VMWare, but you need the RAM to pull this off efficiently
            - look for an equivalent program in Linux, from the list that OuchOfDeath linked to. There are some programs in Linux that do better than Windows-based apps.
            - like arochester said, you can dual boot Windows and Linux. What this basically means is that you can have both OS on the same computer, and during boot up/starting the computer, you can choose which OS to run

            3. Definitely yes

            4. The recommended partitions:
            - / (root) partition, usually 10GB will be more than enough
            - swap partition, 1GB is a safe bet if you can spare it. 500MB would be ok if you have 512MB RAM or more
            - /home partition, this is basically where your user's data and configurations are stored. It's not necessary to put it in a separate partition but highly recommended. By putting it in a separate partition, you can safely install/reinstall without touching your data.

            5. There are so many equivalent programs to choose from. For bittorrent clients, I highly recommend KTorrent (the 1.2+ versions). If you don't mind sacrificing a few RAM resources, you could also go with Azureus (it needs Java). No need to worry about spyware/adware and viruses, but if you still want/need security programs, there are anti-virus and firewall softwares available. As for a Photoshop equivalent, the GIMP and KDE's own Krita comes close, but it needs a bit of getting used to.

            6. You can read from NTFS, but AFAIK it's not really recommend to write to it. The recommended way to share data between XP and Linux is to have a separate partition in FAT32. That way, you're absolutely sure that nothing you do on that partition will affect either XP or Linux.

            7. Depends on how you connect to the internet. If your ISP uses DHCP, then it's quite easy, since the installer will autodetect it. If not, you have to run a command line program called pppoeconf to set it up.

            Hope that helps a bit.

            Welcome to the world of Linux!
            Jucato's Data Core

            Comment


              #7
              Re: very newb questions...

              Here's a guide to gain read-only access to NTFS partitions: http://jatshergill.com/blog/2006/05/...under-kubuntu/

              Comment


                #8
                Re: very newb questions...

                well, i'm going to have a dual boot on my drive so that i can switch back and forth if i need to.
                the full name for WINE immediately reminded me of LAME. Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder. i'll have to see look up what progs WINE will run. as far as stuff to run right now, it seems the gaming community i am apart of wants to run Unreal Tournament and i did happen to see that it easily runs under Linux.
                as far as setting up the partition, i'll give Linux probably 30gb of a 120gb hd and let it do it's own setup. i have 1gb of ram so whatever the setup recommends, i'll use it that way.
                i'll just be setting up a firewall for safety's sake. my friend sent me an email telling me that a virus on linux is like world peace. it just isn't gonna happen any time soon.
                as far as the second hard drive i have is concerned, i suppose i'll have to partition that also and shift my files over to a FAT32 partition. then remove the ntfs partition and let the FAT32 partition use the rest of the drive. i have a love/hate relationship with FAT32 (it's slow). but, if it means being able to read and write on a drive without problems, i'll do it.
                my cable modem is simple with XP. just plug it in and XP detects everything on it's own. same with my router. i didn't have to alter any firmware settings and it worked perfectly. i know it has DHCP on it so i'm crossing my fingers during setup.

                the only reason i haven't done all this already is because i'm in alaska right now. i'll be home on friday gearing up to do all this. i'm just trying to get all the info i need now in advance.

                thanks Jucato, Rob and OuchofDeath. you've been really helpful which is more than i can say for the osx86project forums when i thought about setting up OS X on my system.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: very newb questions...

                  Well, sounds like you've got it all figured out!  Glad you found the help you needed here.  I'm also a lifeling Windows/DOS kinda guy.  This is the first time I've used Linux.  I've been using it for just over a week now.  I've got some step-by-step guides on my blog if you ever run into trouble.

                  That 30GB of free space for Kubuntu sounds perfect.  You shouldn't have any space issues.  I also have 1GB RAM on a different PC and I'm pretty sure Kubuntu chose to create a 500MB swap.

                  If XP has no trouble getting an IP from your DHCP-enabled router, then Kubuntu should have no trouble either.  My router is DHCP and neither of my Kubuntu PCs had trouble getting an IP address (when connected via CAT5).

                  Alaska?  You lucky guy.  I hope to visit there one day.  My best buddy went out there last year and he absolutely loved it.

                  OS X runs on x86 systems?  Hmmmm, maybe I will give it a try.

                  Comment

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