Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

First off, I was converted to Firefox (not gonna mention any names, but you know who you are ;)), then? my boss tells me to check out linux cause he wants us to be linux specialists, and now? I'm like, a Linux convert. I already LOVE it compared to windows. But it's a little more confusing, and fellow Linux geeks? I need your help! :D

Ok, the version of Linux OS I've got on is RedHat's Fedora. It's core version 3.

I created a new user, I made it's main group as root, but it still won't let me do stuff like mount my other HD partitions. When I use the terminal it says: "mount: you must be a root user" I even logged into stuff that asks for your root password for System wise administration (which I'm guessing is the root login) but I still can't mount HD partitions... :(

I'm reading a book right now called "Running Linux" by some O'Donnald or something like that... and I havn't read that far, and I was hoping you guys could help me out by making me not have to read a whole chapter before understanding how to setup a new user by the terminal (this books old... all it knows is the original redhat linux :P).

[EDIT]
Oh, and here's how my HD's are set up:

hda1 is my windows xp pro OS
hda2 is my fedora
hda3 is my linux-fileswap partition
hdb1 is where I keep all my files... format is ntfs.

and here's the command I'm using in the terminal to try and mount my main HD partition:

$mount dev/hda1 mnt/fle1

and even Firefox feels faster and cleaner than on windows... man, this conversion stuff's like, blowing my mind dude... o_O

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

i tried Linux. And i hate it!

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

never tried it.. want to though.. time is... its late...

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

ok, some apps like mount are 'root only' commands, i'm not sure if fedora comes with it, but you might wanna try running the command using 'sudo' (Super-User do), this will run whatever it is as the root user. Other than that, you could try modifying the /etc/passwd file, and change your users uid to 0 (root) so you would log in with your username, but the machine would think you are the root user.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

as a side note, dont use redshat software, bloated and waste of time, try something like slackware, gentoo or do what i did, i ended up abandoning Linux for FreeBSD, seems so much more flexible :)

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah :D
Common sense. At last :D

*whistles as he sees Whistler around the corner*

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Gentoo rox :) I rarely use windows anymore.

MarD try the command "su":
then you'll get root access and you can do whatever you want ;)

And how is *BSD for desktop/games compared to linux?

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

terrible. At least I assume it is, I never tried using a BSD for desktop applications. It should not be much worse than Linux, it can even emulate Linux binaries natively ; however this one or the other are awfully bad at running games and such. Who said UNIX was a desktop OS anyway ?

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Linux for the desktop is getting better and better IMO. The latest gnome/kde and openoffice versions prove this. And, although there are not many games, the games that are ported to linux(games made by ID(doom, quake, wolf, ET), ut series) run atleast for me as good er even better(doom3) on linux.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

well that's good to know :)
When they'll be comfortable enough for everyday use and when I'll be able to find all the apps I need and not worry about library incompatibilities or badly written hardware drivers anymore, then maybe I'll switch completely the house to BSD. I wish I would have done that for a long time, but currently it's just impossible: the microsoft hegemony is everywhere...

*edit*
oh yeah, sorry MarD we're hijacking your thread... be sure to log in as "root" like the others say ; then you'll be able to use low level system commands like "mount".

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

i believe that X is becoming very powerful, and that performance wise, it will definantly be outdoing windows soon, however.. Linux desktops are a lot like Windows was to Dos.. Windows required Dos to run.. as X requires linux. Although nowadays, windows doesnt depend on any other software, which gave it a giant performance boost, if someone can make those steps with the X desktop, they can create a completly self-sustaining desktop operating system, which WILL challenge windows! (Anyone got a few months free time? :D)
Software companies are seeing the demand for *nix based games, and they are starting to emerge, and i have seen PC World (Major UK PC Selling place) have a couple of machines with Linux + X as standard :)

FreeBSD = the best BSD distor
Gentoo = the best linux distro

kthxbye ;)

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

guys, be real. Windows will never be beaten. They are rooted into this world now. 80% of the computer users did not even hear of Linux. They dont even CARE.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

pfft.. If people see a FREE alternative (or something that costs 50p for a cd) then they will start noticing.. some people dont like change.. but tbh.. change is coming slowly (did you hear? Longhorn REQUIRES a DirectX 7 gfx card to work..) With the way windows is going, people will be looking for something differnt ;p

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

The current system specs of Longhorn are just...pathetic, you need atleast a few gigs of ram and a few ghz...
Linux is growing popularity, it was even on the news here a few weeks ago :) And as said its free while you pay for Windows XP Home atleast > 200 euro.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

look buds, do you fake to ignore the amount of cracked copies in the world ? Officially no, Windows is NOT free. But in practice... it is. And almost everywhere. Sorry lads 9_9

Microsoft knows it, and actively entertains this situation. For it is the #1 warrant of their leader position on the market.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

lol, well, i'm not gonna say how i got my copy of windows.. but it was free, and its legal :D

[EDIT] In fact, MS gave it to me! [/EDIT]

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

lol, i got my copy legal as well. As i bought this laptop, it had a MS Win XP home cd with it .... as does any other pc you buy have it. So why would some one bother removing that, installing Linux AND hoping all their goodies still work ?

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

when you buy a PC / laptop, approx £50 goes towards an OEM licence, some people dont like windows, i find it ugly, and in most ways impractical and slow. a LOT of linux apps are ported to windows BECAUSE loads of people use them.. but here is a small example of a few costly windows spefic apps, and their linux counterparts..

Windows - £50+
MS Office - £150+
MSVC.Net - £300+

Now, some KDE Alternatives..
KDE - Free
KOffice - Free
KDevelope - Free

People switch, because they would rather have a free application which does the same job as an expensive microsoft product, hell, theres even a Visual Basic alternative for Linux / X (Gambas (Gambas is AlMost BASic)), there is the issue of illegal copies of programs.. but some people feel guilty, there are also a lot of 'call home' features now being implemented into MS products.

As another note, have you READ the EULA for Windows XP? i'm not sure if MS changed it, but recently, they made a change that said they could come and repossess your PC, whenever the hell they wanted too, people who read the EULA get scared of shit like that :)

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Let me guess: U live in the UK?

Microsoft was distribuiting some free copies for illegal XP users who wanted to "get legal"... My guess is there is some sort of tracking thingie in that so they can see if you're being a good boy and not illegaly downloading M$ products... ???:(maybe...9_9:D

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

@ that Longhorn system specs thingy:

I don't think that's a disadvantage for M$... the opposite might be true! Look at the entire PC industry: What are they interested in? OSs that run on the slowest PCs so that nobody needs to upgrade? Hell, no! They need a constant development of more and more resource-hungry OSs, apps and games so that their MHz hype can continue. Why would companies like Dell be interested in selling low-cost PCs bundled with a resource-saving OS, when with Longhorn they have a good argument to pack even the most basic office PC (profile: electronic typewriter with internet access) full of components like gigs of RAM, a 3+ GHz CPU and a 128+ MB DX7+ gfx card and so on? They will be eager to use the new windows version, the more resource-hungry, the better! The additional money they get from selling higher performance PCs outweighs those few $$$ for a Longhorn installation 10 times.

And the users? Well, they don't want to think about PCs in any other way than they think about electric toasters or refridgerators... take what's in the box and be happy. And if those boxes keep getting more expensive, that's just the way things are... I mean, look at me: I'm still running Win98SE, and everything runs fine on it. I don't need no XP to run my apps and games - but the vast majority of all people think "the newer, the better", so they will upgrade to Longhorn as soon as they can...
And 80% of them won't even know they can use a different OS... it would sound to them like using some obscure Russian heating mechanism for your beatiful new American-brand toaster... no way, and if it's free and programmed by some geeks, all the more reasons to steer clear of it... why would a free OS be better than one I paid 200 bucks for? Sad, but that's the way it is IMHO.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

i could agree with you wrecks.. but i simply wont..
i think games is more majort part when people want to need to upgrade..

so if you want to blame the OS software you have to blame games aswell..

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

100% agreed with T Wrecks here!

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Of course. Games are far more resource-hungry than any application or OS. Or, if you think about 3D rendering proggies etc. let's rather say that games are less optimized and their hunger for extreme hardware is less justified.

I just wanted to point out that this scheme applies even in the office PC sector.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

Darn rights man. (Cause I love the game so much 9_9) Halo is a prime example. Game built to run onna 700MHz cpu and Geforce3 (Xbox) but runs worse than Half Life 2 on my comp! ALL developpers know now that people get better and better computers they can get lazy on the coding and get away with it... the buggers...

[EDIT]
OH! btw, me n' me boss figured out the prob, apparently Fedora doesn't come equiped with the NTFS filetype due to "legality issues"... gee... thanks for the warnin'. :P

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Nice speech Wrecks.. just a note..

Then the vast majorty of people are muppets!

Concider this,
I run HL2 on a Win2k platform. Windows 2000 doesnt look pretty, but it uses very little resource wise. I get a frame rate of about 90.

I then run it on Longhorn, which is already USING some of the 3d gfx rendering actions to draw its gui..My Framerate drops to 60.

Obviously, without the release of Longhorn, thats mearly hypothetical, however its based on information avaliable.

Newer = Better isnt always the right answer, and people who think it is.. need a good sporking :/

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

newer=better, is a princinple most humans just use. It does not even matter what fps you get ;) most people dont even know what that is! :D

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Longhorn.. its the beta you talk about.. you cant compare a unfinish produkt with one that has been on the market for a long time and been patch over and over again..

I use XP.. it works great i think.. i dont really care about the gfx.. you can still change it back to the old theme..

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

I use a Win96-style theme with XP. The default XP theme makes me naucious.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

obviously i cant, i havnt even seen the beta, my point being is that its been confirmed by microsoft that explorer WILL be using resources from 3d gfx cards and Direct3d to render it, that fact in itself shows that there WILL be a drain on any other 3d app my values were ficticious, just examples.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

If you use that windows blinds or other programs that skin windows xp, I think those use some gfx, cause I can get some nasty framerate loss...

New OS are like inbred dogs, just cause they're newer versions of previous versions don't make them better, infact, it's more likely that it'll make them even worse. :P

I have my windows xp theme to barebones classic. I turned off a lot of the graphical features to get better framerates, and make the system faster. One of the worst ones for it is fading menus, that's one of the most cpu-intensive special effects that windows uses.

X (a gui for Linux OS's) seems to look just as nice, but run much more smoothly. Now, if only I could find a linux version of HL2 without having to buy it or illegally dl it... ah, Cedega, sounds great... but costs money... argh, I'll search later for a free alternative. :P

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Wait for newer versions of Wine, they're making directX support I've heard(Cedega is basicly Wine with DirectX support).

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

WINEX is another wine with DirectX support too and it's free.. but only paying customers get support...

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

Hmm yes, I found that wine, apparently wine's free software, winex is early versions of that Cedega.. They're smart buggers for making it cost money, and advertising HL2 support.

I'll wait for wine, I tried installing wine on my fedora, but it seems to have vanished, but seems to have completed the installation... hmm, I'll have to dig around for this bugger, what folder does programs usually install into? (remember, I'mma linux n00b, and have not much idea of the basic structure of linux.. all I know is "proc" is the processor, "dev" is devices, "sys" system... and a few others... and no search function doesn't make it easy on ol' MarD here :P)

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

"find NameOfFileOrDirectory"
should do..
it'll find every hint of the word :D

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

Heh, turns out it did install, the filestructure of Linux is very interesting. I tried wine on HL, and it worked! but err... it asks for the cd key, and it doesn't listen to the keyboard at all, lucky me. 9_9

I'll try other games, n' I'll tell ya if any work.

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

i had fun playing CS with WON back in the day.. havn't tried steam with it though :p

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

You can try cvscedega, this one is free. There is a tutorial for setting it up here: http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...p?articleid=45

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

Yes I heard that Cedega was open source but I could never find it, all I could find was wine at sourceforge... ty for this Rick, I'm still new to the whole linux scene so cool sites like this are highly appreciated. :)

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Heyyo,

Hmm, it seems to be non-free software yes, but apparently their cvs is free. So if you're smart enough to know how to work them Cedega can be free software... or so it seems...

I tried that link you setup there Rick, but once it tries to log into the Cedega CVS it's password protected... guess it ain't so free now.... :(

*sighs* looks like I'll just have to wait for wine to get better....

Re: Linux Geeks Unite!
 

Just hit enter when a password is asked? I think I did that....