[Scottish] Hopeless newbie part 2

[Sandy Dunlop]

Hi Alistair, I met you when I was living in Edinburgh and I went to EdLUG. I
moved to Glasgow a while ago too :-)

sandy

On 9/20/05, Alistair Ross <ajross at xbolt.net> wrote:
>
> Hey all.
>
> First post on the list, I'm an EdLUG convert as I'm now living in
> Glasgow, but have met many of you before, so Hi!
>
> Going back to the topic - I have authored (and am currently updating) a
> website I made for newbies.
>
> Have a look, it even won awards when I first made it, way back in 2001.
> Some of the content is a wee bit old, but all the major stuff is all
> there.
>
> The URL: http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org
>
> Regards,
>
> Alistair Ross
>
> Russell Cassidy wrote:
> > Hiya.
> >
> > <delurk>
> >
> >> - Conceptual #1. I'm struggling to figure out where Suse/Linux puts
> >> things. On XP, on the whole, programs are installed (by default) in
> >> c:\Program Files, dlls etc in C:\Windows and subdirs, user data in
> >> C:\Documents and settings\User\ and sub dirs. Is there a direct Linux
> >> equivalent? And I'm beginning to think that Suse ain't the same as
> >> Redhat? Can you give me a HoNe Rule Of Thumb for where to find stuff?
> >
> >
> > Linux type operating systems tend to have the following layout (but
> YMMV).
> >
> > /usr - operating system and program files.
> > /etc - system and program configuration files
> > /home - personal account data (Documents and settings if you like)
> > /tmp - temporary files and data
> > /var - server data files such as mail spools and web content etc
> > /mnt - mounted file systems (such as cdroms etc)
> >
> > This isn't exhaustive and is really just a guide - don't take me for
> > gospel :)
> >
> > Suse is a different distribution to RedHat - the main differences
> > between distrubutions are really found in the style of package
> > management. RPM files are RedHats way of managing dependencies (program
> > x needies libraries z,y and foo to run). I don't use Suse so I cannot
> > say for sure what they use, but I don't think its RPM based.
> >
> >> - Conceptual #2. Being a big Firefox fan I downloaded the RPM from
> >> mozilla.org <http://mozilla.org> to my desktop (as root) and ran it. It
> seems to have
> >> installed in a directory under the desktop, which, I suspect, isn't
> >> correct. Where should I have put it so that all users can run it?
> >
> >
> > Its probably extracted the contents of the RPM instead of actually
> > installing it - you should probably install a SuSE specific package if
> > at all available. If not, try going for the regular (non rpm) installer
> > that they have available.
> >
> >> HoNe Q1: How do I uninstall apps?
> >
> >
> > You can usually do this using the package management tools provided by
> > the distribution. I'm not a Suse user so I couldn't give you anything
> > specific but I'm sure any of the Suse users on the list could point you
> > in the right direction.
> >
> >> HoNe Q2: I've got this Suse 9.3 from the Linux mag. Can I 'install'
> >> that over what I've got? Will I lose anything (eg YaST online update
> >> or similar? I'm hazy as to what I get for paying fifty quid for the
> >> boxed version of 9.1 vs the free versions)
> >
> >
> > Most distros offer an upgrade path between minor versions - upgrading
> > major versions (ie. 9.1 ->10.0 ) can cause problems but you're usually
> > ok within minor revisions. However, your milage may vary.
> >
> > Buying a boxed set of a distribution doesn't normally mean that the
> > basic software is any different (depending on the boxset, extra packages
> > may be thrown in though) - you are usually paying for either an x day
> > support contract where you can get support over the phone/by email, or
> > decent manuals describing setup procedures etc etc. Your boxset should
> > have some info about what sort of support you get and for how long, if
> any.
> >
> > Hope this has been of some help, back to lurking now.
> >
> > Cheers.
> >
> > Russell.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scottish mailing list
> > Scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk
> > http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
>
>
> --
>
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