Where's the Info?

[Smoke24]

Is there such thing as a website that gives simple step by step instructions for doing things in Linux or even a book I could buy that does this? I have looked at every Linux website I can find and none of them do this or even have the ability to do a search to find out how to do things. I also see that there are different versions, packages and desktops available and nowhere can I find anything that tells what the differences are for and how to use them to your advantage. I really need to know how to install and uninstall programs and how to find and install things that I get an error saying they are missing to launch a program. This is one reason for now that Linux has no chance against Windoze as it is so hard to find this kind of info. It seems that it is way too much sugar for most peoples dime.

[OOPS!]

Hi Smoke24,

Yeah it can be hard to find how-to's that don't blow you away. They sometimes assume you are a *nix guru. I've found that the best Linux info is on the web. But knowing how to ask the right question in the right way sometimes gets me. There can be way too much info to pick from too. The two sites that I use for Linux info are linuxnewbie.org, and their newbieized help files. And linuxjunior.org for their Plain English Tutorials (PETS). Both sites present them in a very "cookbook" style. Easy to understand and follow. They are written by members of the boards, so you know that somebody acutally did it that way. And posted questions on the tutorials are always welcome.

As for the differnt WindowManagers and Desktops, Linux allows everyone to "have it their way". Some are very minalmalist (ice, sawfish, Blackbox,wm). And some (Gnome, and KDE) have a ton of bells and whistles. Oh, there is a difference between WindowManagers and Desktops. A windowManager (like sawfish)runs directly over the CLI, but a Desktop (KDE) needs to run over a Windowmanager. To find out what you might like, the only way is to try them and find out.

Installing stuff can be distro specific, so let us know what distro you are using and what errors you get. Generally speaking, most errors are dependency problems. It can be a real pain sometimes to track them down. But I've noticed lately that many home sites of programs are starting to list dependencies and where to get them. A sign that Linux is starting grow up a little.

Hope this helps you a little,
OOPS!

[Smoke24]

Thanks for the reply OOPS, I have tried the newbie site and like you said, what little I can find blows me away, I need simple. My weak brain is too old and tired for all the junk they tell me. I have briefly looked at the junior site before but will check it out again as that sounds more like what I need, the cookbook thing. I can cook with the best of 'em.

[Computer Hobbyist]

I got a simple question for you. I downloaded a file to a subdirectory of my home directory called Download. I go to the subdirectory and look for the file. ls says nothing in the directory. I try to redownload the file to the directory from the web site and the web site asks if I want to download over the file in my Download directory. Obviously, I'm missing something, but the "find " command can't find the file either. What gives?

CH

[Smoke24]

I can only tell you that somewhere under another directory there is another subdirectory named downloads. Look for the home directory with your user name, for some reason there is more than one, and it should be under it somewhere. I had a similar problem and had to hunt my downloads under temp and found the temp subdirectory in at least four different places under different directories. I finally found and installed them but when I launch Corel Photo/Paint it gives me an error about not being able to load the Fonttastic font server. I have tried all means to find a fix and can't figure it out.

[Computer Hobbyist]

Smoke

You are undoubtedly right, but what is gained by such a confused directory structure. I thought Linux was a UNIX derivative and that UNIX was the favorite of the scientific and engineering crowd. All of the engineers and most of the scientists I've known have very straight forward minds. They wouldn't put up with spaghetti code for a minute. Obviously, I'm missing something fundamental.

CH

[Statica]

You possibly are missing something fundamental.
For one Netscape behaves a bit differently when you try to double click a new directory to store files in, if you notice the name of the file itself changes, try to navigate to the directory you intend to store it in,then press cancel. Click on the link a second time around and this time Netscape will prompt to save it in the correct location with the filename as was assigned on the website. Just a bit of a quirk. The file itself isnt lost, but the name is altered.

[Computer Hobbyist]

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out this evening, but I suspect you are directly on target. The alternatives just don't seem reasonable.

CH

[Computer Hobbyist]

Statica

You were right, it was the Netscape problem. Odd that quirk.

CH