[CLUE-Tech] Linux Newbie Help search

[David Anselmi]

John Rosing wrote:
> I am a seasoned user of ms computer products for the past 30 years 
> starting with Radio Shack TRS80. I have currently installed a downloaded 
> linux (9.0) from Red Hat on a partition with my Windows ME on an AMD 1.5 
> gig processor and connected with a broad band server with Sprint wireless.

I'd suggest you get a book on Linux.  There are enough differences that 
a book might make the transition less painful.

I'd also suggest that you be more specific in your questions.  It will 
help you get better answers.  Some things that are missing:

How do I get my bookmarks into Linux?  What browser are you using?  (And 
not necessarily pertinent, are 400+ bookmarks useful?)

How do I get a "black screen"?  (We call that a shell.)  What command 
did you type?  Did you try any other commands?  Did any work?

How do I archive the bookmark directory?  Seems like a repeat of your 
first question.  BTW, in IE it looks like File -> Import and Export... 
gets you an html file that Mozilla or Netscape should handle.

How do I communicate with an ME machine?  What do you mean by 
communicate?  Are you trying to transfer files, share printers, remote 
login, connect to a database, view web pages, do voice over IP?

Here's a link I found very useful when I started reading mailing lists:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

And here's a list of books.  No order, read about them on Amazon and 
pick what fits you best:

"Linux for Dummies" - good intro by a good writer; I can't compare with 
"Red Hat for Dummies" but I tend to favor general knowledge over specific.

"Linux for Windows Administrators" - I really liked the Samba book by 
the same publisher, this one explains how to do Linux things using 
Windows terminology.

"Essential System Administration" - this is not a great sysadmin book, 
but for someone who wants more than "for Dummies" it should be ok.  I 
hope they've fixed the null modem pinouts since the first edition.

"The Unix Programming Environment" - a book on shell programming.  This 
one was written by programmers, so maybe it's too concise.  But shell 
programming encapsulates the Unix Way quite well.  Since this is an old 
book there may be others better for beginners but this was the first 
Unix book I read.

"Think Unix" - about Unix philosophy and not so technical.

Of course you can find quite a bit to read on the web with some creative 
Google searches.  And www.tldp.org is where the HOWTOs are that make 
hard things easy.  There's even one for people like you:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DOS-Win-to-Linux-HOWTO.html

Finally, if you can't make it to the Linux FUNdamentals meetings watch 
for an installfest announcement.  There will be people there who are 
happy to answer questions for you.

HTH and welcome to the list!

Dave