...the Linux saga...

[Clay Howe <clayhowe@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The NEWBIE Linux Saga...

If you don't like long stories, please leave this message, and go on to better things.  This is a continuing saga of a newbie who has been enticed to try Linux, and is trying to do it with the least pain...

I've been working with computers for many years, but really have no formal computer training. My first experience was several years ago when I built a Sinclair ZX-80 (and later a ZX-81) and taught myself the computer language - BASIC.

BASIC was a very "logical" language, and quite easy to learn... even for someone like myself who had very little education (dropped out of high school) and had never seen a computer before. The "words" meant something - IF was if, THEN was then, etc...

After a bunch of years doing BASIC on machines from the Sinclair to the CoCo, to the RS Model III - I finally graduated to the ultimate - the Tandy 1000 which worked in the MSDOS world.

Next came the more powerful machines... the SUPER Intel 286's - then 386's, and the unbelievable 486's... This was power... and we now had a super operating system - MSDOS 5.x, and the beginning of the "best of the best" - Windows 286-386... and then Windows 3.1.

I did manage to master all of these OS's - putting up with the bugs and upgrades... then I moved into the world of WINDOWS 95...  this was a very friendly place to be, and made computing very enjoyable... no more BASIC stuff, with all of it's (logical, but strange) commands...

Now it's 1998... I work almost exclusively within Win95. Then at a computer show, I pick up some literature about Linux, and talk to the guys at the booth. They perk my interest a bit when they claim that Linux is the cure to all of my Win95 problems - although I've had very few problems with Win95.

I have a couple extra machines at home that are doing nothing... one is a 486 with a couple fairly large hard drives and quite a bit of RAM, so I decide to give Linux a try.  The next step is to try to learn as much about Linux as I can, and find the best way to install it and get it running, so it will actually do somethine useful for me.

...I'm lucky to have access to several versions of Linux available to me - a friend has let me borrow the CDROMs with RedHat, Linux Pro, Slackware, and Debian versions...  By now I have checked out a bunch of the Linux sites on the WEB, and have subscribed to a couple of the Linux newsgroups... The closest Linux user group is 50 miles away, so I decide to do it by myself, with just the info from the WEB, and the CDROM that I have...

I have dedicated the 486 machine to Linux, with a 540 meg hard drive to be partitioned for only that OS... The first one I try is the Linux Pro. The installation was very easy, with no problems. LILO worked OK - and everything seemed OK, but I was having problems navigating the system (OS) and doing some of the "simple" things - like a DIR A:, or DIR D: (the cdrom) - and yes, I was using the LS command, and what I though was the proper /DEV commands... but still having problems...

I KILLED all of the hard drives and started again from scratch - this time with Red Hat 5.0... this install was a bit more friendly, and it wasn't too long 'till I had the system running with this installation... It even had an XWin thing that looked a bit like the familiar Win95...

I tried to do a DIR of my my floppy drive - A: - by using the commands shown in the books - CD /dev/fd0 - ls - etc...  didn't work!  Then tried to do it with the CDROM drive... CD /dev/cdrom... didn't work...!!  Studied the books some more, and the files (HOWTO's) that I had downloaded from the WEB, but still could not even read a directory on the floppy drive, or the CDROM drive...

Yes, it did do the MOUNT stuff, but still no DIR (or LS) of either drive...  By now, I'm beginning to realize that Linux - enen though it may do some jobs better and easier - is NOT the OS for a beginner, and will require a LOT of time learning it's command structure... Win95, and it's ease of use, it wasn't...

BTW, what is the correct pronounciation of Linux?  I went to a computer show and asked the guys at the Linux booth about "LIE-NUX" and they looked at me like I was nuts... after some study, I found that it was supposed to be "LEE-NUX" - but then that didn't seem to be right either... I know that Linux is patterned after UNIX - but is is pronounced "LUU-NIX"??

So, anyway... I still would like to get to know Linux a bit, and actually get it to do something useful for me.  I'm 50 miles from the closest user that I know of, so it isn't like poping into a local friends place to learn a few useful things.

Finally - two things that have been bothering me... First, is Linux really useful to a "home user" who only wants to do a few apps - word processing, get on the Internet, etc... and the most bothersom thing... why do Linux people on the news groups seem to find it more important to point out the minor problems that people are haveing with other OS's, than spending that same time and bandwidth supporting their favorite OS and helping others with their problems??

I'd like to hear from anyone who has used Win95, and has then used Linux, to see what their impressions were as to home use and accessing the net...  I know that there are lots of Linux users who are kind of forced to it's use by being associated with UNIX systems, and others who have never used Win95 (or 98) that really don't have a useful comparison to present...

I still have the 486 systen, and I won't give up easily to Linux's unusual requirements... I'd like to learn how to use it.  It seems like someone should write a book for Linux beginners that would say things like... "if you want to see the DIR of your CDROM, do this command..." and then state the command, rather that assume that the user already knows what the command is...


I have the Red Hat 5.1 on CDROM coming soon... I could not get it fron the local Linux user group, as they requested that I travel 50 miles, and bring my machine with me to get it installed - at the very inexpensive price of $2...  but I found that I could buy the latest version from the Linux Mall for only $1.49 (plus shipping) and it would be delivered to my door... can't beat a deal like that!

Back many years ago, I spent many late hours trying to master IF, THEN, ELSE with the Sinclair ZX-80... maybe I can even figure out the Linux command structure...

The saga continues - stay tuned for the next installment...

Bye,


Clay Howe
		clayhowe@net-link.net