Clams.....

[Doug]

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

-- 
Blessed are the peacekeepers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley