Hi :)
The best way to learn GnuLinux is to jump into a test-drive with a LiveCd and
explore it for yourself.
You seem to have completed the first step of becoming familiar with how to get
help, ie using forums and mailing lists. Also i guess you are already familiar
with OpenSource programs such as FireFox/Chrome/Opera instead of IE and
LibreOffice/OpenOffice instead of MS Office.
2nd step is to try a few LiveCd sessions to test-drive them on your machine
without installing anything. You could do this in a Virtual Machine to avoid
needing to burn a Cd/Dvd to boot-up from. Oddly we often say LiveCd even
when
using Usb-sticks, Memory-cards, Dvds. The important point is that you set you
bios's boot-order to look for the appropriate device before looking at the
hard-drive. When you boot-up a LiveCd the system that is installed on your
hard-drive does not get affected. You can try to save things onto your
hard-drive but it's not easy to do so. So, when you reboot back into the
system
that is on your hard-drive there is no trace of the LiveCd session (well, it
doesn't bypass whatever tracking your isp does). So a few LiveCd sessions are
good for taking GnuLinux for a test-drive. Notice that although Cd/dvd-drives
are about 100 times slower than a hard-drive GnuLinux will still probably be
faster than the Windows on the hard-drive. This is partly due to the way it
uses Ram more efficiently.
3rd step is probably to try installing a distro on an old machine, if you have
one lurking around in a cupboard, or in an attic or can rescue one from some
offices or from a skip or something. You probably don't need to do this step
but it's a good way of getting used to installing an OS if you haven't tried
doing that before. Also it gives you a chance to test a lot of different ways
of installing. Dual-boot is the best one to try first imo. Another advantage
of trying on an old machine is to show how much faster GnuLinux tends to be
and
how well it can run even on an old machine. You don't need to keep upgrading
your machine so much and it allows you to access data that you might have
thought was not worth spending the time to copy off an old machine.
4th is probably to install as a dual-boot on your main machine. Again this
leaves the Windows side almost untouched. Each time you boot-up you will get a
choice of whether to use GnuLinux or Windows for that session. I have a
multi-boot with 3 versions of GnuLinux all able to share the same data quite
easily. To start with it's worth setting Windows as the default to boot into
so
that you only boot into GnuLinux when you choose to. Later on you could
switch
back to having the GnuLinux as the default choice.
Now when i want to install GnuLinux on a machine i do step 2 to check hardware
compatibility. On older machines and oddly enough on ultra-new machines too i
sometimes have to try 2 or 3 different distros from different families to
find
one that behaves nicely. Then when i find one i like on that machine i install
as a dual-boot.
The LiveCd session usually allows you to install while you are still trying out
the LiveCd so it's easy to play games or surf the internet at the same time as
installing the OS to the hard-drive.
Step 2 and 4 can take as little as a couple of hours even on an old machine.
Unlike Windows the install usually includes a bunch of useful programs with
reasonable defaults. Typically you can expect to find stuff to; surf the
internet, make use of social networking, torrenting thing, multi-media
players,
dvd/cd burner, office suite, games such as space invaders, chess, 'mahjong',
suduko.
Also, crucially, a Package Manager that has a search tool so that you can
search for other programs or codecs, drivers, libraries, add-ons and things.
The package manager handles downloading, installing and updating for you.
Usually you wont need to reboot and once you have chosen a program it tends to
give you the most up-to-date version so you wont need to update or apply
patches
or anything. When you first install the OS you will probably want to update
but
this update runs through a package manager and updates all programs and
everything all in one go.
With GnuLinux you don't need to hunt around various different websites for
things to install; worrying about whether they have been compromised or
anything. You can if you want but it is better to let the Package Manager
handle all of that.
The best way to learn GnuLinux is to jump into a test-drive with a LiveCd and
explore it for yourself.
Regards from
Tom :)
From: Adam Tauno Williams awill...@whitemice.org
To: evolution-list@gnome.org
Sent: Sat, 20 August, 2011 18:17:21
Subject: Re: [Evolution] Evolution for Windows
Aleks Wolff al...@dimexinc.com wrote:
Is there version of Evolution that can be used in Windows? I have Win 7
x64.
I don't believe
