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TOP TEN ANNOYANCES IN LINUX
(misunderstandings to be cleared up at the outset)
Linux is NOT Windows! However, developers have made the
transition easier over the last few years. I get the feeling
that many who try Linux give up and give Linux a bad name because
they did not understand a few concepts basic to Linux. Among
them:
DOUBLE-CLICKING is foreign to traditional Linux. Single-clicks will do just fine, thank you. Like Windows, you can change this setting. Several distros* now come with double-clicking as the default setting.
DRIVE NAMES are not like Windows. Windows uses C, D, E, etc. Linux uses "hda" for the first physical hard drive (HD for short). "hdb" means there is a second physical hard drive. "hda1" refers to the first partition on the first HD, "hda2" refers to the second partition on the first HD, "hdb1" refers to the first partition on the second HD, etc. If you are lost at this point, don't worry about it because you probably will save everything in either the "documents" folder or the "home" folder. However, finding floppy drives and jump drives can be a real pain! "sda1" refers to a jump drive and "fdO" refers to a floppy. By the way, the location of the drives is usually in /mnt or /media: in your file manager, keep going up to the highest level, then look for mnt or media, click on one, and look for your drive; if nothing happens under /mnt, try /media. You'll have no problem in Mepis 3.4.3 and newer, for any CD or jump drive you insert will quickly be shown on the screen and you don't even have to mount it! To remove either, right-click on the icon and click "eject" (for a CD) or "safely remove" (for a jump drive. In Puppy Linux,
ROOT folder: this is kind of like "My Computer" in Windows, as well as kind of like the "C" drive. This is the highest level, the root folder. Your documents folder is located at /home/user/documents in the Live CD. A jump drive will be in /media/sda1 or maybe in /mnt/sda1; a floppy will be in /media/fd0 or /mnt/fd0, etc. (same idea with CDs). (When you install, your chosen name will replace "user" in the pathname.)
"MOUNTING" drives: Traditionally the user must right-click on a drive, click on "mount," and then open it. Before removing a floppy, CD, etc., the drive must similarly be "unmounted." This is a security precaution. Whoa to the person who changes floppies without unmounting the first floppy, then re-mounting a second floppy -- for the computer thinks the first floppy is still in the drive! So - be sure to right-click and "unmount," "eject," or "safely remove" any CD, USB drive, floppy, etc, before removing it! This will save you a headache...
PERIPHERALS do not always work in Linux. Sigh.... the reason for this is that not all manufacturers pay attention to the Linux world and don't design drivers for their products to work in Linux. Sooo...Linux enthusiasts are constantly reverse-engineering peripherals in order to come up with drivers that will work them in Linux. (Bless you geeks!) Particularly troublesome are modems. I think it's getting better, but I needed to get an external modem for Linux when I first started. Lexmark printers used to be a bear as well. HP nicely accommodates Linux lovers. Most (but not all) jump drives work just fine with Linux. Keyboards, mice, and displays typically are problem-free for Linux, but there are some exceptions. One distro may work fine an every computer but yours, and maybe all kinds of Linux distros work on your computer--except the one you really wanted to try...life's like that sometimes.... (CDs and floppies never are problematic.)
"WHY CAN'T I ADD DESKTOP ICONS?!?!?! " Well--you CAN, usually, but not in all Linux distributions. Remember there are always trade-offs. The ability to "drag-and-drop" icons onto a desktop slows down a computer somewhat, so many Linux distros tuned for speed (e.g., Puppy) don't have that feature; you have add icons in a certain way. Some Linux users/distros use NO desktop icons, preferring to use the menu and keyboard shortcuts exclusively. If you can't find an answer on one of the Linux forums or by "googling," drop me an e-mail.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY DESKTOP?!?!?!!" (meaning that you lost all your windows/graphics -- or never got them -- and all you see is "#" and maybe some text) You are now at the "command-line" level, similar to MS-DOS or the Windows command-line. To get your back your windows (or "GUI," meaning graphical user interface), look for instructions right on your screen. If there are none, try typing "xwin" or "startx" (without the quotation marks, of course) or simply restart. If it's a demo CD or a new installation asking for your username, try "root" and for the password, try root or the name of the distro. This may not work, in which case you'll have to do an internet search for the correct username and password. try the distro's home page.
"IT DOESN"T LOOK/ACT LIKE WINDOWS!!!" GOOD!!!! Neither does a MacIntosh computer...but try to get Mac users to switch to Windows--"NO thanks," they will say. Learning can be frustrating, but learning new things opens up whole new dimensions and yields many rewards--so experiment! Right-click everywhere and see what happens. Put in a "live" CD of Linux and know that whatever you mess up blissfully returns to normal on reboot. If you are afraid to install Linux, find a spare computer, find a Linux friend to help, or e-mail me!
-- I know, I know...sorry, I couldn't think up
ten!
*distro is short for "distribution,"
i.e., a particular version of Linux (for example, Mepis, Puppy,
Ubuntu, ZenWalk, Mandrake, SuSE, and many, many others). Each
distro is based on the Linux operating system and shares much in
common with other distros, but each has it's own look and feel, and
favors certain programs over others. If
you want to compare these, check out
http://distrowatch.com/ (always
up-to-date) or look at the comparison chart found here
("maybe" up-to-date).