Windows to Ubuntu Transition Guide

From http://www.pcmech.com/show/os/917/

Preface

Alright, so you have successfully installed Ubuntu Linux, but now what do you do with it? You are in the right place. I am going to get you started with a guide on how to use your new Ubuntu system. This transition guide is targeted at existing Windows users and will show you how to do program installations, a little system configuration, but primarily highlight some Windows "replacement" programs for common applications you can't live without. This guide's intent is to introduce you to equivalent programs to what you are accustomed to and, hopefully, to cover a good amount of what you might want in a new install. I am basing the content on what I have personally experienced, email feedback from my installation article, questions from the PC Mech Forums, and common topics from the Ubuntu Forums. Hopefully this will answer a lot of questions you may have before you ever have them.

There is no prior Linux experience needed to follow anything I will go over, however I am going to make the assumption you have at least played around in Ubuntu for a bit. I am not going to be covering the basics on how to use the interface, as it is quite similar to Windows. Here is a quick breakdown of the topics I will be covering:

• Configuring and using Synaptic Package Manager to install applications
• Installing common packages with Automatix
• Essential desktop, office, and Internet applications
• Playing movies and music
• Games
• Digital cameras, printing, and burning
• Installing a PHP and MySQL enabled Apache web server
• Development tools
• Installing and configuring a firewall
• Setting up remote desktop connection
• Setting up a streaming music server

Since this article's intent is to be a beginner's guide to Ubuntu Linux, I am going to be using the graphical interface for pretty much everything. As experienced Linux users may know, and you will soon find out, everything we are going to be doing can be done much quicker through the command line. Of course, this is not very user friendly, and a very un-Windows way to do things, so again, we will be sticking to the Ubuntu GUI (Graphical User Interface).

As you are reading, please bear in mind that Linux is not Windows. At a high level they appear to operate basically the same, but they are fundamentally different. Just keep an open mind and I promise learning Ubuntu Linux will be well worth your time.

Windows and Ubuntu on One PC-By setting up your PC to dual-boot, you can easily take Linux for a test-drive.

"Linux rocks!" "No, it's lame--stick with Windows!" Visit any Web site or online forum where impassioned computer users debate the relative merits of operating systems, and you'll find endless disagreement. The only way to determine which operating system fits your needs is to run both on the same PC, configured for dual-booting. You also need to be able to access your data files from either OS, which is the trickiest part of the process.

Creating a dual-boot setup on a Windows machine is as easy as selecting that option when you install Ubuntu. As you switch between the two operating systems in your day-to-day work, you'll be able to assess for yourself the killer features, incompatibilities, and showstopping flaws that make one a better choice than the other.

On a dual-boot system, Linux and Windows reside on separate disk partitions, each of which is formatted differently. Even though the file systems are incompatible, most recent versions of Linux can at least read files on Windows XP's NTFS partitions, though this may not be enabled by default. Few Linux distributions can write files to an NTFS partition right out of the box, and the reliability of this function hasn't yet been proven, so trust it at your data's peril. In addition, the software required to write files from Linux to NTFS drives is difficult to download and install.

Windows, conversely, lacks the native ability to read and write files on any of the several Linux file systems. The nifty and free Ext2 Installable File System for Windows permits Windows XP to read and write in the Ext2 and Ext3 file systems many Linux distributions use (it doesn't work with the ReiserFS file system, however). While this is handy, especially if you spend most of your time using Linux and you keep your files there, I recommend another option: creating a separate partition for your data that uses the older FAT32 file system, which both Linux and Windows XP can read from and write to. In fact, FAT32 has been included with every version of Windows since 95's Service Release 2.

FAT32 lacks the user-access security features of Linux's Ext2/3 and Windows' NTFS, but creating a separate FAT32 partition for your data allows you to install or upgrade your operating systems without having to back up or restore your data files. It also lets you read and write that data with minimal add-on downloading and configuration. If you need some assistance in resizing your existing partitions to create a new FAT32 partition, look no further than the free Partition Logic utility.

30+ Basic Linux Commands

Here are some basic Linux commands. Some are well known and some aren't. I am not a Linux
Wizard...far from it...but I am learning some basic linux commands and thought I would
share some with other newbies so they to can get more familiar with the terminal command
line. These work on my Mandrake 8.1 system.

xkill Kills a running program
exit Exits the terminal
reboot Reboots the system
halt Shutsdown the computer
startx Starts xwindows from terminal
man man(command)shows help files
info info(command) shows help files
--help (command)--help shows help files
su Allow you to login as Super User

ls "Lists" the contents of the directory
pwd Displays "present working directory"
cd cd (name) change directory TO:(name)
mkdir mkdir (name) Makes new directory
rmdir rmdir (name) Removes directory
clear Clears the terminal window

date Displays current date and time
cal Displays a calander
uptime Displays time since last reboot
df Displays the disk usage on partitions
du Displays disk usage of directory

id Displays your identification to system
groups Displays groups of current user
ulimit -a Displays users limits
uname Displays name of machine logged into
who Displays "who" is logged on the system
w Similar to "who"

wall Sends message to all logged in users
top Displays cpu processes memory etc
ps Displays current running processes