{"id":129,"date":"2006-04-04T16:38:28","date_gmt":"2006-04-04T16:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/?p=129"},"modified":"2013-08-26T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T23:09:16","slug":"10-easy-steps-to-make-your-linux-useable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/10-easy-steps-to-make-your-linux-useable\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Easy Steps to Make Your Linux Useable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linux is an OS for nerds and it only runs on geek machines. No way my suave (circle one: XPS | G5 | Alienware) is gonna run Linux!<\/em><\/p>\n

Sound familiar? Don’t believe a word they say, the days of CLI-only workstations and green-and-black screens are long over. Now anyone can download and install most distros via easy to use setup screens… But when it comes to actually using Linux is where most people freak out, for no real reason at all. Read our article on how easy Linux is to use<\/a> then you’ll see what we mean.<\/p>\n

We’re not here to cover the details all geeks should know such as disabling services and installing games or setting up web-servers, Google exists for one reason, use it. This list\/mini-guide covers simple and extremely effective ways to make your Linux a more enjoyable OS from top to bottom, and take the geek-factor out. Don’t worry, it has enough secrets to keep you intrigued, but it’s nowhere near as hard to use as it’s made out to be.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s all about the looks, isn’t it?<\/strong>
Well, not really.. But much of it is. Linux is blessed with GPL, and cursed with it at the same time. Most distros don’t ship with the software you need to make Linux look tolerable. This software is free, but not GPL’d and as such you have to install it on your own.<\/p>\n

1) Get the graphics drivers.<\/strong>
ATi or nVidia, SUSE or RHEL, you need the drivers, and you need them bad. It is absolutely amazing how much of a difference they will make. Your system will be faster (especially if you have any eye-candy running at all), you’ll discover that the OpenGL screensavers aren’t slideshows of abstract art, but actual moving animations and displays of light and color.<\/p>\n

2) Get the fonts.<\/strong>
This one had us perplexed forever: with all the work people do for Linux, how come no one can make decent looking Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospace fonts that can be used as the defaults for their type, and fill your menus, apps, consoles, and web browsers with pretty and readable letters. <\/p>\n

Until someone writes such a thing, here are the Microsoft TrueType fonts for Linux. Chances are if you are reading this on a *nix distro, it doesn’t look good. Install this RPM<\/a> (courtesy of mjmwired<\/a>) or compile from source<\/a> and install, bookmark this page, and restart Firefox.. As you will immediately notice, the difference is huge.<\/p>\n

3) Themes.<\/strong>
This one goes without saying, but if you are an unlucky user of anything except RHEL, Slax, FC5, or SUSE, and especially if you use Ubuntu, you should know by now that distros ship with themes that don’t do the OS justice. If you use Gnome, check out this site<\/a> for an amazing number of really cool themes; and should you use KDE, then here is<\/a> its sister site.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What about the functionality?<\/strong>
Quiet often people drop Linux because it is a tad harder to get going.. but with a good guide and strength of heart and an iron-will (kidding!) you can get it working.<\/p>\n

4) Get the Players and the Codecs.<\/strong>
Without a doubt the best way to get that movie or song playing ASAP is to drop whatever program you are using and switch to mplayer<\/a>. It may not look like much and it’s not as powerful as Xine (Totem), but it’s the most straight-forward player out there. And no player on Linux, Mac, or Windows is complete without a decent set of codecs, so check these<\/a> out.<\/p>\n

5) NTFS.<\/strong>
This is where most people lose heart. Don’t switch to FAT32.. Please! When it comes to NTFS, forget all the different packages and patches out there, forget recompiling the kernel and everything else they taught you, you only have two options. The first (what I use) is Captive-NTFS, the first and original NTFS read-write program out there. <\/p>\n

It’s not as efficient as we would like (erm… not efficient at all) but the latest version is very straight-forward: run the RPM or build the source, run captive-install-acquire and mount the drive; unfortunately Captive-NTFS is no longer being developed (if you want to adopt it, its available!) Another (better) option if you are willing to fork over the dough is Paragon NTFS Linux<\/a>, which is a (much) more efficient and still actively developed software that does the same thing. If you *only* want to read from an NTFS, Linux-NTFS<\/a> is the way to go.<\/p>\n

6) Wine.<\/strong>
No guide about functionality on Linux is complete without a reference to Wine<\/a>, the free framework that makes Windows programs run on Linux In our opinion only recently has Wine become a viable alternative, an actual reliable framework that can be used to run the apps you need. It is nowhere near complete, but it supports a wide variety of programs and installers at the moment. <\/p>\n

It isn’t pretty (think Windows 3.1 GUI) but it gets the job done. Cedega is a better (commercial) framework, built on Wine, but expanded and more compatible.. But it’s not free. And it defeats the purpose of open-source: it takes and never gives back to the community.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And the ease-of-use?<\/strong>
We have an entire list<\/a> of our favorite things that Linux makes easier to do than Windows or Macintosh, we’ll go into detail about the most important ones here, and the best way to get them done\/up and running on almost any distro. Once you see these tips, you’ll never again call Linux hard to use, we promise!<\/p>\n

7) Get a GUI for your install manager.<\/strong>
Depending on what distro you grabbed, you most likely have either a Debian<\/em> or RHEL<\/em> (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) based distro. These are the two monsters that set the backbone for almost all the different “editions” out there today. If you have a debain-based system, you most likely have a program called ‘apt-get’ pre-installed on your distro; and if you have a RHEL-based then you have ‘yum’ instead.<\/p>\n

Both of these are excellent programs that will make installing and updating almost every single program<\/em> on your computer much easier.. But there is a catch: they are all command-line programs. But in the world of Linux, that is never a good enough reason… The Linux community has made Synaptic and Yumex: easy to use GUIs for apt-get and yumex respectively.<\/p>\n

To install them, simply open a terminal or console and as root (su) type “apt-get install synaptic” or “yum install yumex” depending on your system, and your done! You now have a very simple and powerful package manager that lets you install anything you want all at the click of a finger.<\/p>\n

8) Pick the right program.<\/strong>
This would normally go without saying, but from what we see it is the biggest source of trouble. Some programs are easier to use than the competition, others are more powerful, and many more are just rips off the rest, or notable first-attempts at something different. For example, BitTorrent ships with all distros, but its not as good nor as easy to use as Azureus<\/a>, which isn’t as light or fast as rTorrent<\/a>. There are too many categories and even more programs to list here; but should you ever have a question, our forums<\/a> are always available.<\/p>\n

9) Pick the right distro.<\/strong>
Believe it or not, its not just a matter of preference, but also a question of convenience. It won’t do you any good to install asterisk if your a gamer, nor SUSE if all you want is a webserver. Distros are entire packages with customized kernels and pre-installed programs, and picking the right (or wrong) one can make all the difference. <\/p>\n

That said, there are many out there, and depending on whom you ask you’ll get a million or more different answers. Look them through, try out the Live CDs, post here or at your favorite support forum, call a friend, but don’t jump to conclusions. This may be the hardest step of all, but it is very well worth the initial trouble to discover you don’t have to install anything else later.<\/p>\n

10) Never give up, help is always near.<\/strong>
The solution is almost always right under your nose (or thumb in this case), and no matter what happens, don’t give up!<\/em> The Linux community is large and friendly, no matter whether you use IRC, blogs, forums, chatrooms, mailing lists, or email, to get your help, its never too far away. Don’t give up, and don’t lose heart; you’ll be proud of yourself soon enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

—————————–<\/p>\n

When all is said and done, Linux is not for everyone, but in all likelihood you can make it work for you. If you have any questions, feel free to use the forums<\/a> or post a comment below, NeoSmart staff or others on the blogosphere will be sure to help! <\/p>\n

[digg<\/a>] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linux is an OS for nerds and it only runs on geek machines. No way my suave (circle one: XPS | G5 | Alienware) is gonna run Linux! Sound familiar? Don’t believe a word they say, the days of CLI-only … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xDa-25","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}