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News › Migrated to Linux
I have been playing with Linux for about 5 years now in the hopes that one day I will be able to remove Microsoft Windows from my computer and use something that is better. My first successful install of Linux was the old and discontinued version of Red Hat and I quickly ditched it as it was just too technical. Then in 2005, I started playing with Mandrake/Mandriva, the older version 10 and its derivitative versions. I liked this as it showed promise. I was able to use the installed programs but the printer did not work and I never did try to network with windows machines. But, I did notice that Linux was improving! Even I could do some stuff on it. Over a year passed before I tried another Linux distro. This time it was the version of "Mandriva 2007". It installed easy but the printer would not recognize, so I ditched it. Linux was still not ready for a typical Windows based, no, a windows indoctrinated, computer user. However, I noticed that great strides have been made with Linux with regard to USB devices and recognition. I decided to try other distros (Linux Distributions). I tried the most popular at the time: Ubuntu, Knoppix, and a couple more. I could never get any to work on my appliance computer for one reason or another. Then I heard about a relatively new Linux distro that was growing quickly and was also designed for the new Linux user... PCLinuxOS.
Its slogan is "It just works."
And that it does. On Dec. 1, 2006, I downloaded the LiveCD of v.0.93a Big Daddy, burned the ISO to a disk, and booted up. To my absolute astonishment, everything worked including my USB card reader! I take a lot of digital pictures so this was very important. The video and sound drivers were recognized at boot and loaded fine.
Well, to be honest, my scanner did not work but I expected this. I had a Visioneer 5100 usb scanner which is not supported by its manufacturer for the Linux environment. My printer was a HP 812C and it printed fine, almost. I had to go into the PCC (PCLOS Command Center) to do a manual scan of USB peripherals as PCLOS was recognizing the printer as a different type of connection, not a usb connection. PCLOS found it on the second manual scan and it has worked fine since. In all fairness, I doubt that it would work initially in Windows either. Most printer drivers should be installed before the connection is made.
In my excitement to ditch Windows I kept the LiveCD booted for a day or two and realized that I was doing everything that I wanted my "appliance computer" to do. I was printing, listening to music, using my old M$ Office files, uploading (and altering) my digital pictures, and browsing the internet through a wired ethernet LAN in my home. The excitement was overwhelming, so I took the leap, I installed PCLinuxOS on my home computer.
When you boot PCLOS from the LiveCD, it places an "Install Now" icon on the desktop. Oh, this makes it just too easy. I stared at that icon for at least two days and took a deep breath before I clicked on it. I clicked on it and the install was on.
I had made up my mind that I was not going to save my Windows install by performing a dual-boot install, so I went ahead and reformatted the whole disk and partitioned a 20 GB "piece" (partition) of the hard disk. The install went smoother than any Linux install that I have ever done. It was also very fast! The whole procedure took at most, 20-25 minutes. Once the flawless install was complete, I had a new Linux OS on my machine to play with.
It is a lot easier to "play" with something once you get it the way that you want it, so I decided to configure my home network. It is here that I ran into the only problem that I have encountered so far: a simple home network configuration that allows for a Linux and Windows machine to share files, folders, and printers. Linux was made to be networked in many different configurations, but I wanted the absolute simplest of all networks, a home network where my linux computer could save to and access files from a Windows machine. Plus, we wanted to share a printer connected to the Linux computer.
I tried for an hour or two and got nowhere so I decided to get some help and support. How did I do this? I went to one of the many friendly Linux forum boards of course! I received the assistance of a very friendly person and over the course of a day or two, we exchanged about 10-12 messages each. The problem was diagnosed and fixed. Actually, the network was properly configured, including the printer share. Currently, Linux networking is easier to configure by manually editing a few system files and not using the GUI (Guided User Interface). My home network was working and I was a happy camper! So was Rosa, as she was anxious to use the printer.
All in all, this process of migrating from Windows to Linux was much easier than I thought it was going to be. If you have ever thought about trying Linux, using the LiveCD is definitely the way to go. It boots off of the CD-Rom into the computer memory and does not alter the current operating system at all. It is safe and easy. But I would like to give you one little piece of advice... do not try to make Linux perform like Windows, it just won't work. It is much easier in the long run to "Learn the Linux Way." Linux is a different technology from Windows and PCLinuxOS made the transition very easy because it looks like and handles similiar to "that other computer operating system", and, "It just works."
Posted by Craig on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 (02:11:57) (396 reads)
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