Topic: How to Guides: Linux Programs, Installing Linux and which distro

[sam]

You've just installed a new Linux distribution on your computer and it won't play your MP3 files? All your songs are encoded in that format and you don't know what to do? Well, don't worry. This is a common problem in Linux and it has a simple solution.
 
Most Linux distributions made the choice not to include MP3 support by default, for instance: Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora, Debian...etc.

A minority of distributions do support MP3 though, for instance: Mandriva, Mepis, PCLinuxOS...etc.

read the article to find out why and how to fix the it... LINK

[sam]

Still want to give linux a go? Fancy trying it from within Windows? Well DSL (Damn Small Linux) might have the answer. The whole point in Damn Small Linux is to get a bootable (with useful apps) version of linux as small as possilbe and infact it is damn small. For 50mb you can once again have an operating system. Another great thing is that you can boot this version of linux from within your windows installation. I wouldnt say you will get the best installation or linux experience from doing this, but it does give you a damn good start. Also for someone like me, this is great. When I use windows, linux is no more than a click on the desktop (or in my case a double click and my screen changes to my linux desktop, but thats a different story! :-) ).

Anyway more info on Damn Small Linux - http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

And this is the file you want to download: LINK

If you need help with running this just say.

[sam]

Installing Packages...

This question has come up a few times and I thought I'd setup a thread where this can be discussed so everyone can easily access it.

The first and most important thing you need to remember is it isnt like windows, it can be, but in general it is slightly more invovled. If you can get RPMs if you can't then a bit more effort is required.

Here are a few good links, for now:

http://www.linux-mag.com/2000-08/newbies_01.html

http://www.linux-mag.com/content/view/622/43/

[davy51]

for a beginner i would recomend suse10.2

it very much like windows and i can access files from my windows os

very easy to download,install programs with yast

[sam]

yep.. so many of the distributions now include easy to install programs.. progress! 

[sam]

 Have you ever wished you had another computer handy? Maybe you want to try a new operating system out. Maybe you want to test something experimental without potentially breaking your own system. Maybe you need to run some software that only runs in a different operating system

http://www.howtoforge.com/virtualization_on_mandriva_2007_spring

[sam]

The final version of Linux Mint 3.0 (codename Cassandra) burst onto the Linux scene today, based on Bianca and compatible with Ubuntu Feisty and its repositories.

Linux Mint is an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution based on the very popular Ubuntu distribution. It offers paid commercial support to companies and individuals. Free community support is also available from the forums and the IRC channel.

Read more here.

I have to say though that after looking at the distro I'm quite impressed it has that ubuntu feel but is graphically (by default) slightly nicer. It installs very easily, as it loads from a live cd (so you can always play around with os first). Its not but I still think it is probably not the best choice for a new user to linux, though it might not be far off it - as it is quite easy todo a multidue of things (but then again so is ubuntu, with a much larger community base).

[sam]

Damn Small Linux is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.

Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:

    * Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
    * Boot from a USB pen drive
    * Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
    * Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
    * Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
    * Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
    * Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
    * Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize

well worth a play with on an old system... my girlfriend actually runs this inside her windows installation - very useful for testing.

Find more at: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

[sam]

I've used this recently and I decided that it was a fairly crap, well compared to ubuntu  - but it is fairly simple to use.