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PC Q&A
by Jim Sanders, jSanders@ligasmicro.com - February 18, 2002 at 19:29:51:
The topic for this months meeting was Linux. As promised, I went through a complete install from scratch. The one "cheat" that I indulged in was installing a PCI video card that I knew the Caldera Linux V2.3 knew about. I will also grant that I knew this because the trial installation of this Linux that I did in my class at Santa Ana College. The install there went fine on the same computer, except for the Number 9 TNT2 video card, which it did not know about.This package comes with three CD-ROMs. The install CD, the commercial packages CD, the source code CD, a boot diskette, and a decent printed manual. The manual suggests three different ways to install the Linux Operating System (OS). The three are, to install with windows, to install by booting from CD-ROM, and to install by booting from the diskette. Because a lot of people are familiar with installing M$ Windows by booting from a diskette, I choose to do the same with Linux. I started of with a blank13Gbyte hard disk. That is, I had used Fdisk to remove all partition information from the drive. The hoped for result of this demo was to show that it can be just about as easy to install Linux as it is to install several versions of Win9x.
The installation booted from the diskette, found the CD-ROM drive, and started installing the OS. It found the hard disk and informed me that the disk needed to be prepared to install Linux and asked if I wanted to do that. I said yes. Several other screens were displayed that required some form of input response, including a Root password and a user name and password. Just like Win9x, it searched for and found the hardware resources of the computer and displayed what it found on the screen. One notable difference between this installation and the typical Win9x installation, the machine did not do a single reboot. A second interesting difference, unlike Win9x, instead of multiple screens of hype and advertising during the installation, when the installation reached about the mid point, the Linux OS offered to let you play a game of Tetrus while it continued to finish the installation.
The basic installation finished in about the same time that is takes to install Win98 on this machine. I chose the Windows style of Graphical User Interface (GUI). When the install finished, the equivalent of the M$ "Start" button brought up a menu of the installed modules and software. Roughly the same mix of software types, though more individual programs and, of course, Netscape instead of IE. This release of Caldera Linux includes Corel's Wordperfect 8, and Sun's Staroffice 5.1 and three other nice apps. Between these two packages, you have all the different types of applications that are in MS Office Suite and you don't have to pay $500 for it.
To sum up, for the price of a second hard disk plus the software, you can learn about an alternative to M$ Windows. Better yet, dust off that old 486 setting in the closet and use it to try the installation. Linux does not turn it's nose up at some of the older hardware. The similarity of the GUI and the way it is used should help most people that are used to Win9x navigate and operate the OS. There are a lot of things that will have to be learned to go much beyond this point. The terminology in Linux is often very different than what you have grown use to. On the other hand, you probably won't miss all of those "blue screens of death" that Win9x give you so often. Unlike Win9x, if there is a problem, and you are so inclined, you can do something about it. YOU have the source code. YOU could find the error in the code that caused your problem. Realistically, most people are not that eager to become system programmers, but there are thousands of people who are and are thrilled to find a well defined problem and give an answer.
One think I will be doing in March is talking about the first computer that I have ever bought because it was cute. The Shuttle SV24 is a cute package, but inside that cute package is a lot of computer.
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