Ta-Daaah! My first ever post with Linux. And I posted it to the SDMB. Aren’t you honored?!
As I mentioned in a GQ thread, I’ve decided to give myself some mental exercise and give Linux a try. I’ve got plenty of Hard Disk space, so I partitioned one of my drives (using Partition Magic) with a Linux partition and installed Red Hat 7.0. It installed like a dream. It automatically recognized my ethernet card, and, since I knew my network settings, I was up and running with my cable-modem in no time.
Since then, I’ve destroyed and reinstalled the OS twice (note to self: QUIT SCREWING AROUND AS THE ROOT USER, DAMMIT! When they say that you can damage your OS, they mean it!), gotten my dos partitions recognized (I have them in read-only mode, correct?) and gotten sound working.
I’ve also installed several RPMs (including a Napster program which I can’t get to work) and Enlightenment, which does, but I’m not sure if I like it.
Some comments: There’s a couple of changes they could make that would improve it even further:
#1) BEFORE starting the install, TELL me where the install will go. I suspected it’d automatically find the Linux partition, but I’d have been far more relaxed during the install if I’d have known.
#2) LILO isn’t bad, but I’d have appreciated a) a warning that Linux was going to screw with my MBR and b) a choice of which OS was to be the default during the install.
#3) I’ve tried enough OS’s to know that it’ll take me a while to get over my irritation that some of the details are different (“Whaddya mean it’s alt-c to copy, and not ctrl-c. These Linux guys aren’t doing things the way I’m used to. What’s wrong wit’ 'em?”) but I will get over it though. (And it’s less irritating than my switch from the Amiga to a PC was)
Overall, I like what I’ve seen of Linux, but I’m glad I have the ‘safety-net’ of Dos to run back to when I get overwhelmed.
Some questions:
#1) I cannot get the wheel on my wheelmouse to work. How do I change mouse-types within GNOME? Any suggestions? This is making me nuts.
#2) Enlightenment: Yes or No? It’s nice and all, but…How 'bout Sawfish?
#3) I hate Netscape. I really, really hate Netscape. I assume that IE isn’t available for Linux. Are there any good Linux browsers that I could try as an alternative?
#4) Any must-have or just plain fun apps? Suggestions would be especially appreciated, since I’m now at the point where I’m sitting here thinking “OK, I’m in Linux…now what?”.
Fenris