Having a spare desktop in the house, I have decided to take the plunge into an attempt to learn Linux, or at least be able to get by in the use of it. Recently I have gone through installs of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Fedora Core 6 Zod. I really didn't know too much about the various distributions and had a significant amount of free time, so I decided to try them all out. In the end I have settled on Fedora and have managed to get everything up and running. The machine now functions well with email, instant messaging, web browsing and all the basic necessities.Lessons learned so far:
(1) If you only have one computer and you're a complete newbie to linux as I was you're gonna be in for some headaches. Having an internet connection to look up documentation is extremely helpful.
(2) Things go well until there's a problem. I have no idea how to use a Linux terminal. Troubleshooting goes not so well.
(3) Don't bother with x64 installations if you have an AMD processor if you want to be able to use Flash and various plug-ins easily. This is better left to those who know what they're doing. I had lots of problems and headaches trying to get Flash 9 to run until I installed the 386 versions. They run perfectly well on 64 bit processor machines, now I know.
(4) You are going to have to weed through a lot of pages and forums to find out how to do things.
(5) Gnome vs KDE, both are pretty similar look at screenshots and play around to see which you like better. I've gone with Gnome just cause its Fedora's default.
(6) Media is a bitch. If you think getting codecs to work in Windows is difficult wait until you try to play all the various formats on Linux. Much poking, research and prodding is required. (I may also just be an idiot)
(7) IC Plus IP1000 ethernet card on my Abit motherboard just refuses to work with Fedora 6. I ended up throwing in another 10/100 ethernet card just so I didn't have to deal with drivers and my lack of knowing how to make it work. In that regard windows is more friendly. Idiots like me like having things just work.
(8) Fedora has an automated installer called YUM. It's really quite cool and very handy although it means I have little luck in installing anything that's not yumable. It automatically updates when new releases or versions are available and Fedora even has the equivalent of an automatic update much like Windows XP and Vista.
(9) Freeness! For a cheapskate like me, paying around 300 plus dollars for Vista vs. downloading Fedora or Ubuntu for free, I am beginning to see how monetary motivation is a significant factor. With add ons like Beryl, who cares about the Windows Aero experience when Beryl is comparable or better.
(10) Stability. Crashes are always a result of me not knowing what the hell I'm doing and me randomly editing stuff in ways that you're not supposed to. I like knowing that if I leave this machine on for a week straight it won't be so slow that I can't do anything.
All in all it has been a fun albeit sometimes frustrating experience, but I am glad to see that the installers are now much improved and windows and mac users alike will have a far easier time getting the hang of free Linux distros but its still hardly a cakewalk. For the slightly technically inclined and those with patience I say give it a try on a spare machine. Linux for the mainstream is still more difficult to deal with but all in all the installation has come a long way from when I tried Linux a few years ago and gave up before I could even get my internet to work.
More updates to come.
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