Making the move to Linux

index page

By Floor Anthoni (July 2007)
www.seafriends.org.nz/linux/index.htm

Changing from Windows to Linux is a decision that many people are now making. But what is involved? What can I expect? Why move from Microsoft to Linux? What are the differences between WindowsXP and Linux? What are the advantages and disadvantages and what kind of difficulties can I expect? Is it possible to have both Windows and Linux? And how do I communicate between the two? Can I migrate gradually? In this chapter I will talk about my personal experiences as a computer user with a strong computer background. I will call a spade a spade and be honest about my experiences converting from WindowsXP to Xandros. I hope that this chapter will help you to cross over to Linux with few difficulties.

introduction: an overview of what these Linux pages are about (on this page)
what's wrong with Windows? There is a lot wrong with Microsoft and Windows even though the PC has made a profound change to society.
why choose Xandros? An introduction to Linux and its various flavours, which ultimately leads to Xandros as an excellent OS for professionals, businesses and enterprises.
dual-booting Windows and Xandros: installing Xandros as the second operating system and which Windows utilities you must have. Making system backups to DVD. Partition management.
mapping logical drives: Xandros & Linux do not map logical and primary drives like Windows does. How do we fix this?
viewing encrypted movies: how to view and back up encrypted movies on DVD in Xandros. How to make your DVD drive function properly.
reinstalling Xandros system packages: when a system package becomes unstable, one does not need to go for a complete re-installation, but how?
simple menus: how to make simple menus with the BASH shell.
pen tablet: how to make your pen tablet work.
CrossOver Office: tips and tricks to tune CrossOver office. How does it perform? How does one introduce new untested applications?
Corel Draw and PhotoPaint: making Corel work in CrossOver. Yes Corel11 is beginning to work!
useful Linux links: a number of most useful links. (on this page)

what's new?

For corrections and suggestions, e-mail the author.
-- Rev:070710,

Introduction

While gradually moving from WindowsXP to Xandros, I had to overcome several difficulties that may tomorrow be considered just teething problems. There is always the Web Linux community that can help me out, and through the almost perfect indexing capabilities of the major search engines, a solution to my problems can always be found, conveniently and quickly. How wrong I was.

So I decided to document the problems and how I overcame them, so that those following in my footsteps can get results more quickly. For this reason I have also restricted myself to document only the Xandros distro, as this is also the one of choice for me.

From the index above you can see that a little bit of basic knowledge helps to understand that Linux is an entirely different beast, and that part of the migration to Linux is conceptual rather than just practical (like knowing where to click). You'll notice that I specifically talk about the move from WinXP to Xandros, but it won't be difficult to translate this to a different situation.

I am addressing myself particularly to those who consider their computer a serious work tool, and this includes home computer users, small and large businesses and professionals. I just have no time for gamers. I have no patience for those who think that Linux is about free software ('as in beer'). It is only fair to pay in return for what you get, and if this helps your business, then you should also have the decency to donate to those whom you are morally indebted to - professionals know there's no free lunch. I think it's your responsibility towards yourself, your business and the people who depend on you, to secure your computer from malice, to secure your data from loss, to secure your data for the future, to minimise down-time and to have the sharpest tools and utilities that money can buy.

From the first chapter you will see that I call a spade a spade, and this I will continue to do in all chapters. A computer operating system has no place for forced beliefs, spying, government intervention, propaganda or information filtering. If we don't fight for it, we'll lose all privacy and freedom. So, ironically, the move to Linux is also about your rights, privacy and freedom. If you don't treasure these, you deserve none.

I know that these pages are of use only to a small corner of the Linux world, but I hope that what my readers find, will help them along and save them time.

For suggestions and comments, please e-mail me, Floor Anthoni

Useful Linux links

The Linux world is very large indeed and growing rapidly. As a result, there are many more interesting pages than the list below, and no doubt you will find these, according to your personal interest. For this reason I have been very selective, so that the ones shown here are indeed of practical use.

(under construction)
linux links sites
http://www.linuxlinks.com/ important starting point to many subjects
http://www.tldp.org/ the linux documentation project
http://www.kde.org/ graphical Kommon Desktop Environment
http://www.linuxplanet.com/ aimed at people new to Linux
http://www.learninglinux.com/ learn about the Linux operating system

the great repositories
http://sourceforge.net/ open source software development project
http://www.debian.org/ the Debian repository and much more
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/tools.htm extensive list of free Linux packages
http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ multi-media applications
http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/ awesome French site with all RPMs linked for dependencies
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php search for RPM modules

Crossover Office and wine for windows interoperability
http://www.codeweavers.com/   Windows crossover software
http://www.codeweavers.com/site/compatibility/browse Software compatibility list
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/ software compatibility
http://winehq.org/ the Windows environment program
http://frankscorner.org/ Windows compatibility with Wine, a short list
http://www.cbel.com/linux_hardware_support/   hardware compatible + all linux software
http://appdb.winehq.org/   search and browse which Windows applications are now running in wine

Xandros
http://www.xandros.com/ Xandros version news and updates support@xandros.com
http://forums.xandros.com/ Xandros user and bug forums.

Graphics
http://www.sane-project.org/ Scanner Access Now Easy: the universal scanner but also look at VueScan
http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html the home of Vuescan, serious scanner software, also for negatives/slides.
http://www.gimp.org/ Gnu Image Manipulation Program, an imgae editor like PhotoShop but quite different

Office software, wordprocessing, spreadsheets, etc.
http://www.openoffice.org/ free open office software: wordprocessing, spreadsheet, etc.

Sound, audio, other hardware
http://linux-sound.org/one-page.html one page of links to Linux sound applications
http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi printer compatibility & drivers

What's new?

yyyymmdd
20070707 - Started to place the first chapters on the net.