Clams.....

[Eddie G. O'Connor Jr.]

On 09/09/2012 01:07 AM, Doug wrote:
> On 09/08/2012 11:59 PM, Eddie G. O'Connor Jr. wrote:
>> On 09/08/2012 11:40 PM, Roger wrote:
>>> This demonstrates one of the problems Linux generically suffers in 
>>> the Desktop world. It demands too much knowledge of the internal 
>>> part of the operating system.
>>>
>>> Well, yes and no.
>>> Rather it demands  sufficient knowledge to work on problems as they 
>>> occur.
>>> This was discussed many years ago and I have found that the 
>>> knowledge and ability to get under the hood and fix things, by far 
>>> outweighs the learning one must do to use/control ones computer.
>>>
>>> In proprietary systems, the user, sheltered from everything, must 
>>> rely on other more knowledgeable folk to fix or create endless 
>>> varieties of apps to fix things for a fee.
>>> In the nixes much can be generally fixed from the terminal, and the 
>>> fee for this is learning and asking on list.
>>>
>>> Let me give you an example of a potential catastrophe that happened 
>>> to me on Saturday morning.
>>> In Fedora 16 I run VirtualBox, In VBox I have xp and LinuxMint, 
>>> Fedora 17 will not install for me.
>>> Anyway Linux Mint would not shut down, it locked, nothing would shut 
>>> it off, so in a terminal I did ps aux |grep VirtualBox to find the 
>>> process of VirtualBox and kill -9 processnumber to kill it. It would 
>>> not kill.
>>>
>>> I waited an hour in case the computer was processing something then 
>>> I switched off the pc, tried a restart but errors galore during 
>>> boot, faulty sectors and a whole lot of other faults.
>>> The message at the end of the list of errors said <ctrl D> to 
>>> continue or enter root password and run fsck to repair, I chose this 
>>> option, logged in as root, fsck fixed everything and Fedora came up 
>>> and operates perfectly.
>>>
>>> Had this been exclusively GUI or a Windows machine it would have, 
>>> for me, meant reformatting and reinstalling. Hours of misery, dozens 
>>> of applications to reinstall and a dozen reboots.
>>>
>>> If I could recommend anything in Linux it would be "Learn to use the 
>>> terminal and text commands" They are tools of the trade.
>>> Roger
>> Sound advice indeed....and slowly but surely I'm getting the hang of 
>> it....but like......what you just described would have been for 
>> me?.....a TOTAL re-installation of EVERYTHING!......I wonder if 
>> there's a "manual" with all the commands one might need? And then 
>> another question would be: Are the commands different dependent on 
>> the distro you use?...will the same commands work in 
>> Ubuntu.....Fedora.....Linux Mint......Mandriva etc? And I guess THIS 
>> is the reason a lot of people won't live Windows....because there's 
>> just TOO much information to absorb....at times I almost feel like 
>> crawling back into my "Regedit" / "Task Manager" hole and staying 
>> there, but after being exposed to Linux I don't think I could EVER 
>> allow myself to fall back into that ignorant......close-minded state. 
>> Soooo......If it means hours upon hours of studying Linux commands 
>> then so be it. Eventually I think I'm going to pursue a "cert" in 
>> Linux...nothing major just a general cert that can allow me to get my 
>> foot in the door,....and in doing so I'm almost 100% certain that 
>> I'll need "terminal skills' in order to pass the exams....
>>
>>
>> EGO II
> Congratualtions!  For an excellent book on Linux commands: Linux in a 
> Nutshell from O'Reilly. It was $50 when I bought it, and I use it at 
> least once a week.
> --doug
>
Excellent!......thanks! Doug!


EGO II