Welcome to the group! Sounds like you have it figured out pretty well, but if you have any questions, there is a group here dedicated to helping.
Happy Trails,
Paul
How did you discover Linux?
- Thread starter atanere
- Start date
Happy Trails,
Paul
arochester
Well-Known Member
A virtual machine is where you run one OS, say Windows, and on that OS you have a software virtual machine, so you can run a different OS inside, say Linux.
It is a way of containing one OS inside another OS.
The other way around you can run one OS, say Linux, and have a software virtual machine that OS you can have a software virtual machine, so you can run a different OS inside, say Windows.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine
It is a way of containing one OS inside another OS.
The other way around you can run one OS, say Linux, and have a software virtual machine that OS you can have a software virtual machine, so you can run a different OS inside, say Windows.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine
Thanks.
Welcome to the group, mate!
You may wish to introduce yourself to the group in the "introductions" thread.Happy Trails
Paul
I was a long time Windows user. I started with DOS in the early 70's on an IBM machine. I learned the system and began making menus. Found Basica and learned to write programs in basic. sort of like programming today but much simpler, no contest to todays languages, but it was a learning skill.
I went through windows from the first DOS version all the way up to XP. It rubbed me the wrong way that MS would change the systems, and delete programs that we liked and the remaining win programs would be altered, for the better MS says, but they were different, had more menus and needed more keystrokes to use, and they didn't operate the same. My programs were being trashed because they would not run in the new Win Upgrades. I was irritated.
- I had tried a ubuntu distro, I fumbled through getting the ISO and creating a live disk. But I had problems with the program itself. It wasn't as friendly as the distros are today. I went back to my windows XP.
- I really liked XP and I was one of the users that wouldn't let go. I used XP and was very happy. MS announced that XP would be discontinued but I had no reason to upgrade. My system was running fine. Meanwhile, MS along with computer techs were telling us that we HAD TO ABANDON our operating system, XP because bad things would happen. Bad things never did happen.
- After Win 7 was released I tried Linux Mint Cinnimon. I was surprised that it was much like Windows, but it didn't run everything out of the box. I had to tweek it. I had major problems with the video. I finally did get the video running but still odd from where I came from.
- Started trying other distros and landed on VOYAGER Linux. Voyager ran out of the box, everything ran well including music and videos. I ran VOYAGER as dual boot with my XP.
- My Voyager Linux became a central part to my music and video editing and archiving, and I began using it for the internet. I had too many bad experiences with explorer.
- I decided to dual boot XP, 7 and 8.1 with my Voyager distro. All the older windows op sys's ran programs that the newer ones had abandoned, including my drafting program, so I had use for them all. Dual booting became the best thing in computing at the time.
- I recently was on a search for a distro to put on my netBook. The netBook came with Windows XP. Finding a distro for It became problematic because most of the distros recommended, wouldn't run on the netBook.
- For the desk tops, I found an alternate distro that is lighter than Voyager, lxle. I like it a lot but Voyager is easier to set the settings and use the software selector, the lxle seems more involved and I need to research it more.
- Where the netBook was concerned, I found a distro called antiX. It ran perfectly. I did have to download a different filemenu and music player as the one that came with it was dead. But the netBook accepted it. I also tried xubuntu, a lighter version that the netBook could run. I made a system USB using xubuntu and found it much like the VOYAGER distro on my desktops. I can go between either distro if I need to.
- Voyager came out with a newer version that I tried but did not like a few of the features so I stepped back to the current gaming version just recently, that runs very much to my liking.
- ONE OF THE BEST FEATURES OF LINUX is that you can change the distro so easily, your not stuck with one bad system.
200305 2239
I went through windows from the first DOS version all the way up to XP. It rubbed me the wrong way that MS would change the systems, and delete programs that we liked and the remaining win programs would be altered, for the better MS says, but they were different, had more menus and needed more keystrokes to use, and they didn't operate the same. My programs were being trashed because they would not run in the new Win Upgrades. I was irritated.
- I had tried a ubuntu distro, I fumbled through getting the ISO and creating a live disk. But I had problems with the program itself. It wasn't as friendly as the distros are today. I went back to my windows XP.
- I really liked XP and I was one of the users that wouldn't let go. I used XP and was very happy. MS announced that XP would be discontinued but I had no reason to upgrade. My system was running fine. Meanwhile, MS along with computer techs were telling us that we HAD TO ABANDON our operating system, XP because bad things would happen. Bad things never did happen.
- After Win 7 was released I tried Linux Mint Cinnimon. I was surprised that it was much like Windows, but it didn't run everything out of the box. I had to tweek it. I had major problems with the video. I finally did get the video running but still odd from where I came from.
- Started trying other distros and landed on VOYAGER Linux. Voyager ran out of the box, everything ran well including music and videos. I ran VOYAGER as dual boot with my XP.
- My Voyager Linux became a central part to my music and video editing and archiving, and I began using it for the internet. I had too many bad experiences with explorer.
- I decided to dual boot XP, 7 and 8.1 with my Voyager distro. All the older windows op sys's ran programs that the newer ones had abandoned, including my drafting program, so I had use for them all. Dual booting became the best thing in computing at the time.
- I recently was on a search for a distro to put on my netBook. The netBook came with Windows XP. Finding a distro for It became problematic because most of the distros recommended, wouldn't run on the netBook.
- For the desk tops, I found an alternate distro that is lighter than Voyager, lxle. I like it a lot but Voyager is easier to set the settings and use the software selector, the lxle seems more involved and I need to research it more.
- Where the netBook was concerned, I found a distro called antiX. It ran perfectly. I did have to download a different filemenu and music player as the one that came with it was dead. But the netBook accepted it. I also tried xubuntu, a lighter version that the netBook could run. I made a system USB using xubuntu and found it much like the VOYAGER distro on my desktops. I can go between either distro if I need to.
- Voyager came out with a newer version that I tried but did not like a few of the features so I stepped back to the current gaming version just recently, that runs very much to my liking.
- ONE OF THE BEST FEATURES OF LINUX is that you can change the distro so easily, your not stuck with one bad system.
200305 2239
Last edited:
smooth_buddha
Active Member
about 5-6 years ago my father (who is pretty skilled with computing and electronics) put linux ubuntu on a laptop for me,told me it was better than windows! but i had no idea really what i was using. it just seemed a real smooth alternative to windows, it never seemed to crash and always did what i needed. My father tried explaining the terminal to me, but it simply went over my head at the time, all i needed was browser for youtube, google, facebook and maybe occcasionally download torrents- that was it just standard use. then after a cuple of years i got given a decent used laptop from a friend of the family which had windows so i just used that again.for 5 years or so.
fast forward to 2020. beginning of this year i bought a used 2009 apple macbook with siera10 and i decided to learn some programming (Python3) and bought Zed.A Shaw's "Learn python3 the hard way" . for those not farmiliar with "the learn the hard way series" it teaches you by 52 well crafted exercises, you drill them and drill them until it sinks in , boring but highly effective as it gets you doing work and grinding and you understand the concepts. The opening first chapter, actually chapter 0.... told me to use this thing on my mac called a bash terminal and drilled me in various commands, pwd, cd , ls, mkdir, rmdir, pushd, popd, date,cal. then from every chapter onwardsin the book you run your .py python code from the terminal by having to enter the command "python3 file_name.py"! I heard Zed A Shaw say in a podcast that the reason he began his book with terminal commands is because he actually wanted to teach people how to "control" their computer instead of sending them to a coding site with an online text editor, he throws you into the fire but you emerge more enlightened and wiser for it!
When Zed said he wanted to "tech people how to actually control their computer" this really made an impression on me. "The penny dropped" as they say! i had a light bulb moment where i realised every hacking scene from any movie- what they were doin was typing commands into a commandline...and all those years growing up i would see my father in his computer room tapping in endless commands into a black box with a flashing prompt, meticulously controlling his computer, getting the info he needed, scheduling the tasks he wanted done.....it all made sense to me!!!!! I realsied the commandline wasnt about showing off how nerdy one is on a computer, its actually a highly efficient way of managing and controlling your system.
I then just began trying to use my terminal for as much as i could, shutting down, starting up programs ect. Then i did some reading and found my mac was unix based and some of my commmands would work in linux. Next thing i did was download a virtual box and start playing with linux distros. after distro hopping around in virtual box i just bit the bullet and decided to install a dual boot on my mac laptop. I began running linux mint....and i absolutely love linux. I had unconsciously in to contact with linux a few times over the years but never really "got it" or understood why poeple used this system. The commandline gave me the gateway to that understanding of why people used this system.
I have been loving it that much I am practicing commands most days trying to increase my knowledge and im currently working through Paul Cobaut's awesome free book series called 'Master linux'. His books are similar to that of Zed A shaw's "Learn python3 the hard way" it is full of pratical exercises (this method seems to work well for me) that you follow along with your commandline linux system and do the work! his 6 books consist of fundamentals, system administration ,servers, networking, storage and security. I found out about these books on a reddit forum and somebody said if you study these books for a year or so and work your way through them you will know more about linux than you ever dreamed!!! And as somebody who spent many hours watching linux related youtube vids and reading linux related articles, these free books are by far the best learning resource ive stumbled upon and theyre all absolutely free thanks to the awesome work of paul cobauts.
Here's link to the free books in case any ones interested in that resource:
I havnt even used my mac operating system for a cuple of months, i just use linux (mint at the present) everyday now and cant see me going back! its just too fun and there will always be something to learn. The community that supports linux seems great everybody seems to want to help each other which seems really inline with the whole idea of free and open source software.
I feel im definately on the correct path as i begun wanting to learn some python and simple programming for fun, now im running one of the best operating systems in the world and hopefully in the future have opportunity to potentially contribute to software developement and free open source software. I feel linux has breathed some fresh life into me , im really enjoying studying and learning more about this phenomemon "Linux" which goes far beyond just "free" software but represents "freedom" in a much deeper sense.
fast forward to 2020. beginning of this year i bought a used 2009 apple macbook with siera10 and i decided to learn some programming (Python3) and bought Zed.A Shaw's "Learn python3 the hard way" . for those not farmiliar with "the learn the hard way series" it teaches you by 52 well crafted exercises, you drill them and drill them until it sinks in , boring but highly effective as it gets you doing work and grinding and you understand the concepts. The opening first chapter, actually chapter 0.... told me to use this thing on my mac called a bash terminal and drilled me in various commands, pwd, cd , ls, mkdir, rmdir, pushd, popd, date,cal. then from every chapter onwardsin the book you run your .py python code from the terminal by having to enter the command "python3 file_name.py"! I heard Zed A Shaw say in a podcast that the reason he began his book with terminal commands is because he actually wanted to teach people how to "control" their computer instead of sending them to a coding site with an online text editor, he throws you into the fire but you emerge more enlightened and wiser for it!
When Zed said he wanted to "tech people how to actually control their computer" this really made an impression on me. "The penny dropped" as they say! i had a light bulb moment where i realised every hacking scene from any movie- what they were doin was typing commands into a commandline...and all those years growing up i would see my father in his computer room tapping in endless commands into a black box with a flashing prompt, meticulously controlling his computer, getting the info he needed, scheduling the tasks he wanted done.....it all made sense to me!!!!! I realsied the commandline wasnt about showing off how nerdy one is on a computer, its actually a highly efficient way of managing and controlling your system.
I then just began trying to use my terminal for as much as i could, shutting down, starting up programs ect. Then i did some reading and found my mac was unix based and some of my commmands would work in linux. Next thing i did was download a virtual box and start playing with linux distros. after distro hopping around in virtual box i just bit the bullet and decided to install a dual boot on my mac laptop. I began running linux mint....and i absolutely love linux. I had unconsciously in to contact with linux a few times over the years but never really "got it" or understood why poeple used this system. The commandline gave me the gateway to that understanding of why people used this system.
I have been loving it that much I am practicing commands most days trying to increase my knowledge and im currently working through Paul Cobaut's awesome free book series called 'Master linux'. His books are similar to that of Zed A shaw's "Learn python3 the hard way" it is full of pratical exercises (this method seems to work well for me) that you follow along with your commandline linux system and do the work! his 6 books consist of fundamentals, system administration ,servers, networking, storage and security. I found out about these books on a reddit forum and somebody said if you study these books for a year or so and work your way through them you will know more about linux than you ever dreamed!!! And as somebody who spent many hours watching linux related youtube vids and reading linux related articles, these free books are by far the best learning resource ive stumbled upon and theyre all absolutely free thanks to the awesome work of paul cobauts.
Here's link to the free books in case any ones interested in that resource:
I havnt even used my mac operating system for a cuple of months, i just use linux (mint at the present) everyday now and cant see me going back! its just too fun and there will always be something to learn. The community that supports linux seems great everybody seems to want to help each other which seems really inline with the whole idea of free and open source software.
I feel im definately on the correct path as i begun wanting to learn some python and simple programming for fun, now im running one of the best operating systems in the world and hopefully in the future have opportunity to potentially contribute to software developement and free open source software. I feel linux has breathed some fresh life into me , im really enjoying studying and learning more about this phenomemon "Linux" which goes far beyond just "free" software but represents "freedom" in a much deeper sense.
