# I just installed Linux **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 1, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765 "2002-12-01T12:17:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/1 "2002-12-01T12:17:51Z")
…and I’m using Netscape in the Gnome environment to post this. It took me a while to get the geForce 4 drivers running, but hopefully it’ll be worth it. Now I’m gonna try to figure out how to install one of those free Office clones. Staroffice, was it? Bill Gates, I’m almost free of your tyranny!! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/2 "2002-12-01T14:03:45Z")
The free version is now OpenOffice at [http://www.openoffice.org/](http://www.openoffice.org/) I think StarOffice is now a commercial version of OpenOffice, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/3 "2002-12-01T15:22:57Z")
Thanks, Revtim. I just installed it, but it isn’t “seamlessly integrated into gnome” like the instructions said it would be. I can run it from the command line, but there isn’t anything in the menu for it. I think I need to go buy a book. I’m treading in the “knows just enough to be dangerous” category here. The last time I used Unix was in '93 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Global\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Global\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Global_Citizen)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/4 "2002-12-01T15:23:12Z")
Good luck, Lazlo. What version of Linux are you running? I have Mandrake 9.0 installed on my other hard drive but I don’t use it that often. However, I commend your efforts to rid yourself of Microsoft tyranny. Keep us updating! Global Citizen ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/5 "2002-12-01T15:27:35Z")
My version’s redhat 7.1. I have swappable hard drives, so all I have to do is power down and change trays. Unfortunately, I’m back on XP right now because I had some other things to do. sigh… I hope I have more time to play with Linux later. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/6 "2002-12-01T16:08:21Z")
With Redhat 8.0, OpenOffice installed with the OS for me. It may be dependant of the installation options, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/7 "2002-12-01T16:13:27Z")
…and was integrated into the environment, which was my main point that I forgot to mention. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/8 "2002-12-01T16:16:43Z")
I also recall that I installed it on Red Hat 7.3, and it made menu items automatically. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/9 "2002-12-01T18:51:49Z")
So, congrats Lazlo, on Linux! (Lazlo on Linux, Lazlo on Linux…has a ring to it…) Have fun! I am somewhat fascinated with Linux, but all I’ve done so far is make sounds about installing it. I have a two huge, partitioned hard drives on my G4 PowerMac, so I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t install just fine on one of the partitions. It is nice to be Microsoft-free, isn’t it? Oh wait…I’m using Internet Explorer to post this. Oh wait…I have Office for OS X… (Which is a good app, so far, anyway…) Well, I’m getting _close_ to being Microsoft-free! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/10 "2002-12-01T23:03:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yosemitebabe \* > \*\* > It is nice to be Microsoft-free, isn’t it? Oh wait…I’m using Internet Explorer to post this. Oh wait…I have Office for OS X… (Which is a good app, so far, anyway…) > > Well, I’m getting _close_ to being Microsoft-free! 😉 \*\* Yosemitebabe…you’re running OS X, right? For God’s sake woman…ditch that IE. My I introduce you to the loveliness that is [Chimera](http://www.mozilla.org/projects/chimera/)! The browser is at version 0.6, so it’s not feature complete yet (for example…no Autofill)…but it is the zippiest browser you will encounter. I use it for 90% of my online web chores…only using IE for a few sites. You will thank me. Sending me a subscription to a beer-of-the-month club will be sufficient thanks. dave ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/11 "2002-12-02T05:24:21Z")
beagledave: Got it. Actually, I downloaded it a while ago, but didn’t use it much because it didn’t have my bookmarks. Well, thanks to you, I have bestirred myself enough to import the IE bookmarks. Now I am surfin’ with Chimera. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/12 "2002-12-02T15:24:48Z")
You can also run the full-featured Mozilla on OS X, as well. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/13 "2002-12-02T17:45:26Z")
Mozilla is a great browser - I use it in both Linux (Debian) and Win98. I have Open office, but I haven’t had the time to learn it enough yet to actually use it much - usually school assignments are just too urgent to spend time figuring out where all the features are. I hope to be able to essentially eliminate my usage of Windows, although the catch now if ChemDraw. Unless I find a decent alternate in Linux (which is doubtful) I’ll still be using windows for that. ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/14 "2002-12-02T18:33:16Z")
I installed Redhat 8.0 recently. Well, I say I installed it. What I really mean is a friend installed it while I watched. 🙂 I’m currently dual booting between it and XP - I like Linux better, but XP has some programs that I can’t get the linux equivalents to work properly. When I’ve got those working I’ll be windows free… sortof. I’ll always keep XP on ‘just in case’ (or, more likely, ditch XP and reinstall 2K. I Don’t like XP at all). ---
**Author:** ![Global\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Global\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Global_Citizen)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/15 "2002-12-02T22:01:16Z")
**kitarak** , I know exactly what you mean. That’s what I do with my Mandrake Linux 9.0! 🙂 Good luck! **mnemosyne** , I sometimes do the same with my XP drive. Do you go to Mac? I live in Burlington, and long ago I graduated from U of T. Global Citizen ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/16 "2002-12-05T06:58:17Z")
I just figured out how to mount my mp3 hard drive. I was using /dev/hdb instead of /dev/hdb1. That took me entirely too long to figure out. I thought I was going to have to install a separate mp3 player, but thankfully, Gnome has one already. So right now, I’m sitting here writing this reply with _Life’s Been Good_ by Joe Walsh playing in the background. Aaaaahhh… most appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/17 "2002-12-05T08:12:11Z")
Re: the browser discussion - I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to use anything other than Opera 😉 [sub]ok, it has a few bugs but the pros FAR outweigh the cons[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/18 "2002-12-05T14:55:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lazlo \* > **…and I’m using Netscape in the Gnome environment to post this. It took me a while to get the geForce 4 drivers running, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.** I was playing around with Linux recently as well. Redhat 8 loaded a generic driver for my GF4 so, I got the updated rpms from Nvdia, followed all the steps to install them to the letter, but Xwindows kept crashing. I also had trouble getting my ethernet card working, so finally out of frustration I used a USB port to hook up my cable modem. Oddly that seemed to work without a hitch. While I think pretty much everything Linux stands for (free, open source, alternative to MS) is great, I don’t think I’m ready to give up XP for it just yet, but it’s something I’ll keep an eye on. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/19 "2002-12-05T17:13:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Global Citizen \* > \*\ ***kitarak** , > I know exactly what you mean. That’s what I do with my Mandrake Linux 9.0! 🙂 Good luck! > > **mnemosyne** , I sometimes do the same with my XP drive. Do you go to Mac? I live in Burlington, and long ago I graduated from U of T. > > Global Citizen \*\* Nah, I go to Moo-U! (Guelph, of course!) Much better school. My SO is in Software at Mac, though, and for some reason, he seems to like it there 😛 I commute to Guelph, which kinda sucks, but I get to live in an apartment that I love with him and my cat, so its all good:) ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765/20 "2002-12-09T20:24:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*Re: the browser discussion - I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to use anything other than Opera 😉 > > [sub]ok, it has a few bugs but the pros FAR outweigh the cons[/sub] \*\* I tried Opera, but every res I ran it in the fonts were horribly aliased. Konqueor had smooth fonts, but they’re too tiny for my near-sighted eyes. Of course I can enlarge them, but that screws up the page formatting, so it’s Mozilla for me. This thread renewed my interest in Linux. I’ve gotten the hang of rebuilding, so my GF4 drivers are up and running as well as the latest version of Xine with the Gnome front end. (Kept installing libpng for the default front end, changed the path in various configs, yet still couldn’t get ./configure to recognize it.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-installed-linux/139765.md?page=2)