Trying to change my OS from Windows to Linux/Mac

Ruby
1

Hello, Ruby people!

This is not about Ruby itself but about OS.
The reason that I ask this question in this group is that I’ve been
motivated to use other OS’s than Windows by this group while I learned
Ruby.
Thus the people in this group can answer my question very well.
Also, I feel very comfortable with people in this group, even if I
don’t know them personally.
(I feel like they are my friends.)
This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

  2. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

  3. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

Thanks.

Sam

2

Sam K. wrote:

  1. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

The Mac mouse is a plain USB mouse, you can just plug in your windows
mouse and away you go. Same for the scroll wheel.

3

Just a note, Macs (with OS X) do support a two-button mouse + scroll
wheel.
I have a Mighty Mouse, and it’s two-button with a scroll ball and
everything. Though I’d recommend just getting a normal mouse, the MM
isn’t
that great.

4

On Tuesday 22 November 2005 02:12 am, Sam K. wrote:

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

Linux is Linux, they are basically all the same, the only real
difference is
usually the package manager and a few different configuration files
which
differ from Redhat-based to Debian-based. Its very easy to use one or
the
other, I just jump on a box and start adjusting settings I need. Linux
is
just a kernel, distro differences are very small, at least to me.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

Full install of KDE of course, and drop down to openbox when I’m not
doing 60
million tasks at once.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

You must research what the laptop specifications are before trying Linux
on a
laptop. I use Toshiba based laptops with linux on them all the time.
Fully
supported. Toshiba has a synaptic touchpad problem, but is easily fixed.
The
kernel in ubuntu breezy has patches already.

I only used NVIDIA based laptops so I may use twinview. GeforceFX 5200
Go
64MB, this card works very well. Even the softmodem works on this
laptop.

M35-S456 (re-certified, not refurb, was best deal at time, 1.7 GHz
loaded -
except the DVD-RAM drive… worthless)

19"(1600x1200) + 15.4"(1280x800)

I’ve come to the conclusion buying a desktop is worthless unless you’re
a
gamer, since the computer will be outdated in 6 months… :slight_smile:

“Just buy a new laptop every 6 months :)”

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

Ruby is best used on a system which is LSB based, mainly because the
1.8.2 and
older versions don’t have good support with mkmf.rb. I seen there are
improvement in new versions with the find lib/and includes with the new
version, but it is irritating when you have libraries in a odd
directory.

I haven’t installed Winows on any of my home/work computers in 5 years.
I’ve
been a *nix guy. I’ve been using ubuntu/with KDE mainly because its the
most
friendly and has the best package support. Even Java, mp3, etc packages
are
on a remote repository which is not affiliated with Ubuntu, but is nice
to
know someone has unofficial packages :slight_smile: I’d say something about FreeBSD
or
NetBSD, but most people aren’t competent enough to sit there and use a
unix
based system. The OSes will definitely teach you how to use a *nix based
system and even as problems arise will teach you more about problems of
compilers and linkers.

Best of luck with your adventure to find a new distro.

// Tsume

5

Sam K. wrote:

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

Both. Depending on the CPU of the machine, I tend to use a
lighter-weight X Windows shell (Window Maker or Sawfish, say, rather
than than full-blown KDE or Gnome) while calling apps mainly from the
commandline. It makes it easier to have multiple stuff running, use
gvim, run Firefox, and so on, while preserving CPU cycle for databases
and Web servers.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

I’ve managed to get Fedora core 3 (0r 4? I forget) on a somewhat older
Toshiba Portege, and the trick for me was to read up on what was
supported. So I had to use an older and slower linksys wifi card, but
other than that Fedora (and I’m sure others) tend to be pretty good at
getting installed correctly for the hardware. (Though generally I do
not care if sound works; I have my preferred sound tools on Windows.)

James

–

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http://www.30secondrule.com - Building Better Tools

6

At 2:12 AM +0900 11/22/05, Sam K. wrote:

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux,
    do you use text-mode or graphic-mode?

I assume that you’re talking about command-line mode vs. GUI mode.
I use Mac OS X, but the principle should be pretty much the same.
The command line (and associated tools) are complementary to the
GUI and its tools. I tend to keep a few Terminal windows around at
all times, but they may be hidden, depending on the task at hand.

  1. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

The one-button mouse is very restrictive. I use a Kensington
Optical Elite mouse, which has four buttons and a clickable scroll
wheel. The driver supports chording, application-specific settings,
etc. I love it and have bought enough for all the local machines.

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

The last M$ OS I spent any time with was MS-DOS 3.2, which I used
by means of the Mortice Kern tool kit. I consider this to be a
success story (:-).

-r

7

On Di, 2005-11-22 at 02:12 +0900, Sam K. wrote:

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.

Hi,

i use Ubuntu on my Mac Mini and it works really nice.

However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

I use the standard GNOME desktop, that comes with Ubuntu and it is fast
enough (1,23 GHz, 1 GByte RAM).

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

The problem with laptops are often, that they use highly integrated chip
sets, where the manufactor don’t release the specs. With laptops the
best way is to look what hardware ist supported (and what you really
need from the laptops hardware) und then buy the laptop.

  1. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

I use a logitec mouse on my mini, cause i see only one button as an
unneded limitation.

Cheers
detlef

8

Sam K. wrote:

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

I use X Windows on Linux. But I’m old-school; I just open a bunch of
xterms and work in the shell. I’ve done some UI development in Ruby
using Glade, but I use text tools for coding.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

I have Gentoo Linux working perfectly on a Dell Latitude D400: graphics,
wireless, USB, everything. It required a good bit of work to get
everything set up. This machine has Windows XP installed on it, but I
have a complete Gentoo environment on half of a 40 GB notebook hard
drive in an external USB 2.0 enclosure [1]. Plug it in, boot it up, and
I’m good to go.

[1] http://www.vantecusa.com/moreimage/images/popout3_moreimage_01.jpg

Steve

9

On 11/21/05, Sam K. [email protected] wrote:

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

I usually use rxvt terminals in a lightweight window manager (Ion). I
could probably abandon my window manager for emacs in “text-mode,” but
I’m too lazy.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

Many people keep journals of what they had to do to get Linux running
on a particular laptop. I suggest you look into this for your laptop.
If you’re planning on purchasing a laptop for linux use, make sure
you do the research first.

You can google for the laptop model and linux, or start off at one of
these sites:

http://www.tuxmobil.org/

With most laptops, you can at least get the vesa driver working, so
unless you need hardware acceleration, you should be fine on that
front.

I have had good success with Ubuntu on all hardware - it’s
autodetection works quite well. However, reading on this thread,
people have had problems with the Ruby 1.8.3 packages, so you might
end up building your own ruby from source (I still use the old 1.8.2
packages, which work great). The default gnome setup (although I
don’t use it) is also quite slick.

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

My Windows desktop stopped working, so I stopped using it, in favor of
my Linux desktop. Is that success?

10

Rob R. wrote:

On 11/21/05, Sam K. [email protected] wrote:
…

Many people keep journals of what they had to do to get Linux running
on a particular laptop. I suggest you look into this for your laptop.
If you’re planning on purchasing a laptop for linux use, make sure
you do the research first.

Is it feasible (e.g., no jail time) to go to CompUSA or Fry’s with a
Knoppix disk and just try out some machines?

You can google for the laptop model and linux, or start off at one of
these sites:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
http://www.tuxmobil.org/

You might also consider using VMWare on a Windows box. Less than
optimim, but handy.

James

11

Sam K. wrote:

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?
    Most developers I gues uses some sort of GUI (GNOME/KDE/WINDOW
    MAKER/…). When we discuss about Ruby developing some people feel
    better using text tools like Emacs/Vi some are using kind of IDE: KDE
    Developer/Arachno/Eclipse RDT etc.
    I prefer KDE with EMACS/Eclipse but it is just me:)

  2. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.
    Well comming from Windows it is not as simple as many Linux fans would
    like it to be. Sometimes, I guess, they forgot about problems thay have
    had. Some are smart enough to underestimate problems normal people will
    fight against. Linux is not Windows at all. Installing linux is not as
    simple as windows becouse of those little tricks that everybody “should
    know”.
    Let me consider situation, installing video driver on Fedora:

  1. Should I use NVidia script or Livna packages or standard ones? 3h of
    reading
  2. When I install new kernel linux stops - why ? becouse boot was in
    grap. mode and old drivers is not working anymore. 3h of reading how to
    install new driver, how to even switch from grap. boot to standard. etc.
  3. Driver is not working properly - After 1h of reading google I have
    found that this version of NVidia driver is well… a crap
  4. and so on and so on. This same with music drivers, mounting drives,
    using smb, installing printer, etc.
    Hej people this is not the start point of discussion. What I am trying
    to say is: Linux is great but it hard (a little) to begin with.
  1. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

Well. This is whole new world waiting for you. Depends on what person
you are.
If you are develeper I assume you should be curious about linux. It so
much better platform for writing code. I can not imagine working without
linux bash or Emacs:)

Thanks.

Sam

Cheers, Jacek

12

On 11/21/05, James B. [email protected] wrote:

Rob R. wrote:

Many people keep journals of what they had to do to get Linux running
on a particular laptop. I suggest you look into this for your laptop.
If you’re planning on purchasing a laptop for linux use, make sure
you do the research first.

Is it feasible (e.g., no jail time) to go to CompUSA or Fry’s with a
Knoppix disk and just try out some machines?

Generally this is frowned upon, but I don’t see a situation where you
would get jail time from it. It never hurts to ask, but you might get
away with more if you try it first and play dumb if you get caught :slight_smile:

Checking out these linux laptop compatibility pages are still a good
first step. There are a lot of people who are less conservitave with
their capital than I, and buy laptops before they’re sure Linux will
run on them. You’ll at least know what to expect.

And, heck, if the fix to your laptop’s problem is simple enough, you
could bring a USB key with necessary files along with your Live CD to
the store.

13

Most *nix users do make heavy use of the command line, but usually via
some window manager. The one I’ve come to enjoy is XFCE4, but there
are a ton of different ones out there. So when you say text mode, I’m
not sure if you mean heavy reliance on command line apps or no WM at
all. In the case of no WM at all, I don’t imagine you’ll have
trouble getting any distro to this level.

I have a WM in textmode.

From the manual page: “Screen is a full-screen window manager that
multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes (typically
interactive shells).”

But even under X + IceWM, I’m using lots and lots of xterms.

14

“Sam K.” [email protected] wrote in comp.lang.ruby

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

I have no idea about this because i am also a newbie in Ruby. I am
working on windows at this moment.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

I installed the linux in my laptop. I use KDE, everything works very
well, wireless or ethernet, usb, even battery management. I think you
may
try mandriva first because it is very easy to install and use,
especially
in GUI applications. After you get used to linux, you can try your
favorite distribution.

15

On 11/21/05, Sam K. [email protected] wrote:

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

I’ve had flawless and simple laptop installs with Ubuntu. It’s a good
idea to try the live cd first to make sure the system works.

I’ve been able to get some not very Linux friendly laptops working
with Gentoo, but this is some degree more work.

Most *nix users do make heavy use of the command line, but usually via
some window manager. The one I’ve come to enjoy is XFCE4, but there
are a ton of different ones out there. So when you say text mode, I’m
not sure if you mean heavy reliance on command line apps or no WM at
all. In the case of no WM at all, I don’t imagine you’ll have
trouble getting any distro to this level.

Even still, most distros have improved greatly as far as laptop support
goes.
I’ve got ubuntu working on my Mac via the live CD and installed it on
a few Dell and Gateway laptops. So… that I know works… others
probably will, too :slight_smile:

16

Selon Sam K. :

This question is not meant to bring flame wars!

So far it has been quite a civilised discussion :slight_smile: .

I use Windows at my work and home.
Of course, I tried several linux OS’s (RedHat, SUSE, Debian, Gentoo,
Ubuntu) and this year I even purchased Mini Mac.
However, I haven’t succeeded to make myself used to these OS’s.

Force of habit is difficult to beat. I know the problem. After using an
Amiga 1200 for years I’ve never been able to acclimate to the Windows
desktop :wink: .

I have some questions to linux users and Mac users.

  1. When you use Ruby on Linux or just in general on Linux, do you use
    text-mode or graphic-mode?

I personally have a Debian desktop with GNOME (graphic mode thus), but
I’m thinking of trying something more lightweight. I’m lazy though and
the performance I get is enough for my use. I use quite a few x-terms
but they hardly ever stay up when I don’t use them. I have no problem
with the command line (my first computer had a BASIC prompt). I just use
what I feel most comfortable with for the task at hand.

  1. I’ve never succeeded to make my laptops work perfectly on Linux.
    Sometimes, network card is not working, other times, USB is not
    recognized, or Sound card is not working. I’ve tried on 5 different
    laptops with different Linux but none was perfect. How do you overcome
    this problem? Well… if you use just a text-mode, this might not be a
    problem.

I don’t have a laptop, but I can just repeat everyone’s advice. You
should check if a laptop is compatible with Linux before buying it.
Unlike with Windows, hardware vendors still don’t usually make drivers
for Linux, and with laptops keep their specifications often secret. The
only possibility is then for developers to reverse-engineer and build
their own drivers. Of course, this way is difficult and error-prone.
Given the uphill battle, the fact that you can get Linux to work on
some laptops is already quite a feat :slight_smile: . The sites you’ve been pointed
out to are great, and you can find plenty more by googling “linux
compatibility” :wink: .

  1. For Mac users, do you feel OK with the simple mouse? Probably I’m
    too accustomed to Windows mouse. Whenever I use Mac, I miss the
    right-button and scroll-wheel.

I don’t have a Mac, but I’ll talk about this here as it fits the
subject. I ditched my mouse quite a while ago and took a trackball
instead, and so far I’m thrilled. I only move my thumb and two fingers,
so the rest of my arm can rest comfortably and I don’t ever get RSI
symptoms (I used to have some with my mouse). I also think with a laptop
a trackball could be a good acolyte, as you don’t need a big surface
next to your laptop to move the mouse anymore. No forced to use the
impractical tactile screen anymore when you are on the train :wink: .

If anybody has experience of moving from Windows to Linux or Mac,
please share the success story.

I’ve switched last August (although I’ve wanted to do it for years, just
too lazy to actually do it :wink: ) so my success story is still fresh :slight_smile: .
I’ve installed Debian GNU/Linux in dual-boot with the original Windows
ME of this computer. Installing was a bit of a problem, but only because
I’ve had issues with the Nero burning my CDs wrong, and with the fact
that the ADSL network in the Netherlands uses PPTP, a rarely used
protocol, and I have an old ADSL modem which isn’t a router, so I don’t
have DHCP (I’m moving to cable next week so that problem will be solved
:wink: ), thus I couldn’t use the netinstall.

But I eventually got the two install CDs to work, and it was a breeze.
All the hardware of my Dell Dimension 4300 was recognised on the spot, I
immediately got a graphical login manager (GDM), and logged into the
GNOME desktop. There I added the finishing touches, like installing the
pptp client I had downloaded earlier from Windows and configurating it
(took a bit of googling to find the right way, because once again the
Dutch ADSL network is anything but standard, but I eventually got it
running).

Once Internet was on, I surprisingly never came back to Windows anymore.
I still have to log on the Windows partition when something goes wrong,
but for actual work and pleasure I exclusively use Debian. The change
was overnight and I was myself astonished by it. Everything just makes
so much sense to me! I’ve had since a few problems, but they are all to
blame on myself tinkering things when I don’t know enough about what I’m
doing :wink: . However, I’ve always been able to repair my mistakes without
a reinstall (and I have a Knoppix liveCD handy for if I ever break my
GRUB conf file again :wink: ).

I’ve since done quite a few things, like compiling the NVIDIA support (a
surprisingly painless experience on Debian, once you have installed
module-assistant from Synaptic), adding the repositories to get mplayer
and great multimedia support (better than what I had on Windows, and I
fought for four years there to never get good support), switched to Xorg
and installed a bunch of applications from Synaptic. I also update my
Unstable box nearly every day, without a problem. I just pay attention
to what I’m doing, but that’s hardly more than 5 minutes a day.

So all in all I’m more than satisfied with the result. I get a more
responsive box, great software, and can use a distribution whose ethics
fit mine best. What more could I want? :wink:

Christophe G…

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.

17

I highly recommend Ubuntu for a laptop - almost all the time Stuff
Just Works. Wifi, audio, you name it. It’s running great on my
thinkpad, and it has a good Ruby environment to boot (if you remember
to install an updated Ruby from a .deb or from source, the packaged
one it broken).

Right now, I use Enlightenment 17 (from cvs), which both looks cool
and it quite resource-friendly. I lay out my environemt with 4 virtual
desktops, one for play, one for administiation (where I put all those
SSH sessions), one for development, and one extra (“just in case”).
Each has an Eterm running screen, which often amounts to more than 12
bash processes running total. and I usually have two firefox window
up, each with between 10 and 20 tabs.

I like to use a graphical environment becase I need to see the web
graphically (e.g. for web design, elinks just won’t cut it :wink: and I
get pretty screen antialiasing and fonts. I really like seeing
multiple window at a time, and screen by itself (in text-mode) can’t
provide that. That said, I very much prefer using text-based programs
for pretty much anything besides the web:

  • irssi for IRC is awesome. All GUI clients give me bad-design hives.
    It can be hacked to do various IM services as well… but who uses IM
    anymore?! :slight_smile:
  • Mutt. “All mail clients suck, this one just sucks less.” –
    Somebody(sorry, forgot the name). I tend to think I sucks quite a
    bit     less :wink: Everything’s customizable, you can use external programs
    for various tasks (Vim, GPG, etc.) It’s hooks feature simply provides
    unparalleled flexibility.
  • Vim. I’ve been using it for a while, and I really like it. Once you
    get the basics, it’s pretty easy. Fast, efficient, and powerful. I
    haven’t seriously learned Emacs, but if I get the time I’d really like
    to, if only for comparison. I happen to prefer Vim’s modes over Emacs’
    arcane key sequences, though my mind is open to the Emacs way of
    life…
  • Eterm. I’ve been using it only just recently. The jury’s still out
    on this one, it has issues with ncurses and mutt, but I think it’s
    actually a font/encoding issue. Also, there are some pretty themes
    available for it. Anyway, mrxvt is another terminal to check out, it’s
    very lightweight but has tabs too! (but with screen, that doesn’t
    matter as much to me) Konsole, as bloated as it is, I have to say does
    an awesome job (I don’t use KDE, alas). SHIFT- to switch
    between terminals is just so useful. I need to see if screen can do
    that…

Well. Hope you gleaned some useful information from that.

Using Linux, and text-mode interfaces, and all the other things that
come with *nix is intimidating. But it’s worth it. Really!

Jacob

18

On 11/21/05, Kero [email protected] wrote:

I have a WM in textmode.

From the manual page: “Screen is a full-screen window manager that
multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes (typically
interactive shells).”

Actually, i use that too :slight_smile:

But even under X + IceWM, I’m using lots and lots of xterms.

I count about 12 open presently, and that’s a light load for me :slight_smile:

19

Forgot to add:
If you want *nix tools on a Windows box, cygwin is quite good. I used
it in my “transitioning” phase, so I could learn *nix while still
retaining the familiar yet ugly Windows desktop :slight_smile:

20

On 11/21/05, Jacob Quinn S. [email protected] wrote:

Forgot to add:
If you want *nix tools on a Windows box, cygwin is quite good. I used
it in my “transitioning” phase, so I could learn *nix while still
retaining the familiar yet ugly Windows desktop :slight_smile:

Before this thread alerts Austin, I should mention that not everyone
really believes in cygwin as being a good transitional phase system,
as it has a lot of problems with it.

I myself install MSys and MinGW on windows boxes just to get me *nix
style commands, but if you are seriously planning on transitioning to
Linux and want to play around with it first, try one of the live
distros such as Knoppix or the Ubuntu live CD, or use a shell account.

You won’t get the ‘real’ feel for things unless you do this.