Saturday 8 March 2008

There's so much to post (so this is a meta post)

Wow, I sat down to post a blog entry, but don't know where to start. There is so much I want to write up and probably not enough time to do it. When you are at the start of the learning curve its amazing how much new stuff you hit in a few evenings of playing.

My initial aim in starting this Blog was just to record my experience, but after trying to talk about Linux to my son I found that there is so much to explain. Don't get me wrong here, its not that you should be a rocket scientist to use it, its just that if you understand a little of what it is, and have a basic understanding of how it works, you'll be able to get more out of it when using it.

Also there are so many great Linux 'How to ...' resources out on the web and much of its of a high quality, that I'm unlikely to be able to add a great deal to that. There's enough information to give you information overload. Often though there is not enough of the soft explanation as to why you are doing a particular step or what it does (everyone out there seems to assume you know what you're doing).

So what I'll be doing is explaining some basics which may help, putting things in context where I can and pointing out where I've found good resources. I'll try not to assume any expertise on the reader's part where possible.

I'm now pretty sure that as far as desktop Linux for the ordinary end user goes, Ubuntu leads the way. So for the most part this blog will be covering Ubuntu.

One thing is quickly becoming apparent with the blog, is that it is not a linear. It won't be thing that can be read from start to end (although I've added a go to the start button at the bottom of the page). So I'm going to have to title entries carefully so that it can be navigated easier. Also they can be retrieved by the 'Labels', which are listed on the right panel (this is labelled as a meta-post since its a post about blog). Therefore all the topics I wanted to post in this entry will be posted separately as I get the time to write them up. Those are:
  • Setting up wireless networking (even when it doesn't work first time)
  • A simple overview of Linux architecture
  • Getting Software and packages; its really not like Windows
  • What's the command console
  • What about anti-virus?
  • Editing files
  • Using on-line resources for advice, and precautions
  • Tux Paint, the amazing children's drawing program
  • 3D desktop effects - Compiz-fusion (Beryl)
  • MSN Addicts are supported (another win)!
  • Playing DVDs on Ubuntu
  • Why have we got Linux (and for free too)?

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