1. Is trisquel an adequate OS for fist time users with no previous experience
on linux? I have been reading a both but the book is based on fedora.
2. If trisquel is not an appropriate OS for first time users can I get some
recommendations?
3. Are there books or resources besides this website that could help me?
Hi there! :-)
Being a gnu/linux newbie myself, I hope I can offer some help.
Trisquel's been pretty much my first non-windows OS, been using it for about
6 months now, and I would never go back. I've tried many other distros while
using it, and I got to say, you came to the right place, for it doesn't
really get much easier than Trisquel (with the exception of Ubuntu and Mint,
perhaps, but Trisquel is Ubuntu-based, so there's hardly any significant
difference).
Some tips for having an easier transition:
1) Windows forces you to downloads apps from sites and install them (exe
files). You won't be typically doing it in Trisquel. You will be using either
Add/Remove Applications (you'll find it in the main menu if you haven't
already) at first, and will sooner or later move to Synaptic (at least I did
:)) which feels a bit more complex at first but is a fantastic tool.
2) Console can be scary at first if you don't have any knowledge of CLI
(Command-Line Interface) tools but it is a fun, powerful, and sort of "I feel
more in charge of my own OS" tool. Thing that you may be doing from time to
time (although you can use Software Updater in System Settings instead):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
The first one checks for updates in repositories (that's where the software
sits, you just download it and save plenty of time in comparison to Windows).
The second one actually checks for updates of the already installed packages
on your Trisquel. If you accept the upgrade, it will do everything for you.
Finally, two commands you will find useful that Software Updater won't do for
you (afaik):
sudo apt-get autoremove
This will check if there are any dependencies (packages) on your Trisquel
that are no longer needed and remove them.
sudo apt-get -f install
This you will be using less often (I hope :)) but it simply fixes the problem
of broken dependencies for you. You'll often be asked to do it by the console
anyway.
apt-get is a package installer for Ubuntu/Ubuntu-based systems.
sudo executes the command on root level (full permissions).
I remember I found those things confusing at first, so I hope they will be of
some help to you.
3) You will find more in Synaptic than in Add/Remove Applications. And (worth
remembering :)), remember, if you seek a piece of software, it is very, very
likely that it's already in Trisquel repository and you can just fetch it
with the aforementioned tools.
4) There's also one more way of installing software, and it's with apt-get:
sudo apt-get install
e.g.: sudo apt-get install inkscape
That's all I have to offer from the basics that I had to learnt. :-)
Remember, whatever you are seeking, it's pretty much Ubuntu you are using, so
you will be able to find answers to most of your questions already on the web
(Ubuntu's site features some pretty decent help that I've been using a lot).
Best of luck!!
