[wellylug] Xandros

[David Murray]

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006, Steve Macdonald wrote:

> That really is an operating system that someone as simple as me can install.

Hi, Steve.

Most distributions of Linux are becoming very easy indeed to install.


> I decided to carry on with Linux after an email from Jethro last night 
> (thanks heaps) downloaded Xandros and installed it on my laptop. Amazingly 
> everything works from the sound to the wireless connection and it all worked 
> straight off.

"As it should be"


> I am mindful that you guys like emails certain ways, unfortunatly I am just a 
> user so if I do something that does not suit people I apologise and I will do 
> my best to fit in with how you guys like things but I will imagine it will 
> take some time.

Things always seem strange and difficult at first, but with time comes 
familiarity.

You will find that as you get used to the Unix/Linux way of doing and 
organising things, you will find that it really is a very elegant and 
logical way of doing things.

Unix/Linux as operating systems have the benefit of having been used by 
businesses for over 37 years. The Unix way is well tested. :o)


> I think I have worked out sending an email in plain text instead of html even 
> thought I dont know the difference lol. Now this bottom posting thing which I 
> imagine is typing my response at the bottom of an email instead of the top? 
> Is there any type of font that should be used?

HTML is a method of embedding instructions that specify how something 
should be formatted on a page. It is used when formatting (fonts, colours, 
layout, pictures, etc) is important. In email formatting is rarely 
actually important to what the writer is trying to say. Everybody can read 
plain text emails. Not everybody can display HTML emails properly.

And besides, as has already been pointed out, HTML is a potential security 
risk.

As a general rule, given that we read from the top of the page to the 
bottom of the page, it is easier to follow the logic of a series of emails 
when responses are positioned below the text to which one is responding 
to. This is especially useful when the emails are detailed and the 
conversation is ongoing.

But if one's response is brief, and one is not expecting a reply, then 
perhaps a response at the top of the email is appropriate.

It is also good form to remove the parts of the original email that are 
not needed to make one's reply easy to understand without the original 
writer needing to separately re-read the previous email.

IOW, brevity of quoting is your friend. :o)


> I also have a couple of questions, Installing programs which I have 
> downloaded which are proper linux programs. I know with Windows I click on a 
> .exe file yet on Linux it appears to be different and I have not worked it 
> out yet.

As has already been stated, unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, 
use the packaging system that your particular distribution uses. This is 
one area in Linux where there is still a lot of exploration into what is 
the best way to keep a track of what is installed on the computer.

One of the biggest complications to this is in fact the Unix design 
philosophy of keeping things simple.

What this means is that there are lots of programmes that do what they do 
very well indeed, but they only do that one thing. Programmers then build 
new software on top of the other programmes already installed on the 
computer. Sometimes their new programmes are built on top of a programme 
that was itself an updated version of an already existing programme. That 
already installed programme is then known as a "dependancy" of the new 
programme. Generally if the new programme requires functionality in a 
dependancy that is only found in a more recent version than the one 
installed, then that program cannot be installed until the dependancy has 
been upgraded. This can be known as "dependancy hell". Windows has a sorta 
equivalent known as "dll hell".

Using packages compiled for your particular distro of Linux will generally 
result in you well avoiding Dependancy Hell.

Of course none of this matters when you're only installing stuff that 
comes with your distro of Linux. :o)


> And with Thuderbird is it possible to set a time period for when it checks 
> for new mail? I had it set to constantly check new mail when I was using 
> Outlook but cant find the option on Thunderbird.

If you are used to and like how Outlook works, you may wish to use 
Evolution as your email client. They are very similar in how things are 
set out.


Any way, congratulations on a successful install of Linux.


Regards

David Murray