Tink I am using eithernet wit external modem supplied by MSN with my dsl, make model "arescom , netdsl 800"

Does the modem support dhcp, or were you given a
static IP for the computer end?

Does SuSE recognise your network card?



Cheers,
Tink

Anything is possible, I am a newbie myself but I belive this is the principle behind all Linux distros, unless you are ROOT, you are limited. Personally I am an MCSE with 12 years in the biz. I like my Suse Linux but do find it hard to unlearn my Windows behaviors. To stay on topic, I would say it is not for everyone, but it is for anyone who wants to learn. I find that while it may not be "Plug N Play" with hardware it is much better designed to work with it. Prime example is here an now, I can read the 8 point font I am typing in from 3 feet away ... in Windows I always feel blurry, since my exposure to Linux.

I also should mention since my corporate network got hit by MS.Blaster and Sasser my confidence in the M$ products fell off a lot! That was what prompted me to try Linux. I run it at the office now also and if we get hit again, at least I know I have one system that will still work to get patches with!

Lots of learning yet to do here, but if I can run DOS 3.3 ... I know I can this, and it gets better everyday I work with it.

That's why there are lots of "white hats" out there looking at the code.

How often do I see notices that "security analysts at company X have discovered a flaw in application Y ..."? Fixes are produced within hours. I can usually download updated packages for my system within a day. With "thousands of pairs of eyes" looking at the code, I doubt any "black hats" are going to find a serious exploit that will make anybody's enterprise or home system go poof. That's the beauty of Open Source!


BTW: Have you ever heard of punctuation?

Tink
yes you have helped me, you mentions weather i had usb or eithernet, and as i thought about it for a while i thought there must be something significent about that so i changed my connection to eithernet and found my modem ,
its working now and i can get on the web but i can't get e mair or send email yet, i have to figure that out now thanks
goosehunter

Glad I nudged you in a good direction ;)

Which mail-client are you using?


Cheers,
Tink

The one hurdle I think Linux has to make before the masses will take hold of it is preinstallation on new purchased PCs. When people buy a new computer, it's pre set up, windows isn't just installed, but all the drivers are there, everything is configured at least close enough so that you can turn on the system and check your e-mail, play with some multi-media, instant gradification, this makes a big differance, people don't feel like they have to work so hard to get they're new toy to do something.

I will have to beg to differ with the line of thought that windows is easier to use than linux. I have been using windows, in some form, for about 14 or 15 years. My first Linux install was last Wednesday. And the most difficult part of the installation was figuring out to enable onboard LAN in BIOS because the person who had donated me the mainboard had disabled it when he used said board.

The best analogy I can think of for my experience with Linux (Mandrake 10.1) involves cars. I taught an ex-girlfriend how to drive stick once. It took me about a year of nagging and pushing to get her to finally commit to learning. She had driven automatics for the past 6 years and quite frankly, manuals scared her. There were new things to learn. The controls weren’t 'dumbed down' (like windows). She had to actively think about what she was doing until she finally got the hang of the clutch. However, after a few months of driving my truck all the time, a manual transmission became second nature. She could flip through the gears with ease and finally admitted that the manual transmission was no more difficult than an automatic and gave her more control over the car. The reason we (we being those of use who are new to Linux) find Linux so difficult is that it is a new environment. We are used to our OS. Daily operation of Windows does not require active cognition. (Right now) Linux does. If I want to do something on Linux, I have to think about it, not because it is any more difficult than windows but because I am not used to doing things in that manner.

What keeps me happily plugging away at figuring out my new OS is the knowledge that, one day, this too will become second nature.

^-horrible first post I am sure

Hi, and welcome to LQ,

And thanks for this excellent, insightful statement :)

I tend to compare "learning Linux" to "learning a new language".
If you don't deviate too far from the patterns common to European
languages one language is not really "more difficult" than the
other (after all, native speakers of all of them do quite well on
average), it's "just different", and there's not much point in
complaining that one language is different from the other, that's
the whole reason why we're trying to learn a new language. :}

And sticking to this example someone who wants to use Linux
without having to learn is like someone who's saying "I want
Spanish to be like English, and I want to have that now, and
free!" ;)


Cheers,
Tink

*My* favorite pet answer:

I always tell people that Linux is not for everyone. If they ask what operating system is best, I say it depends on what you do with your computer.

If all you do is play games and surf the web (in other words, if all a computer is to you is an entertainment device), then I say you might as well stick with Windows. The most games will run on it, the most multimedia aplications will run on it, and the most hardware drivers are written for it. Yes, it is a horrible system. That's life! Don't worry, cell phones have video screens, now, so they're only five-ten years from replacing Windows, anyway, and then we can be rid of it!

If you use a computer to create something artistic, you're better off with a Macintosh. Superior graphics and audio capabilities.

If you WORK on a computer (in an engineering/programming/ or other technical sense), Linux is not only the best choice...it simply makes everything else look like a child's toy!

I also advocate Linux for anybody who wants simply to learn about computers. While other operating systems smack your hands away and say "No, sit still, I'll do it FOR you!", Linux is bare naked from the kernel up. You learn more about computers just getting Linux installed than you ever would from any other platform.

Amen.

Also, checked out your blog. You should check the template design because the info pane on the left is covering part of the first 3 paragraphs. I'm using Firefox 1.0 with default font settings if that helps you figure that one out.

Linux is for anyone willing to spend a little time learning how to use it. I started using Linux in the mid 90s and at first it was intimidating and difficult. I found myself falling back on windoze often to get simple things done. Not because they were too hard in Linux, but because I just didn't know how to do them.

Over time I learned how to get things done and was using windoze less and less until I finally quit using it completely.

Someone who has never used windoze would find Linux just as natural and easy to use as they would anything else. Unless you're a totally lazy slob who doesn't want to know anything at all about the computer, how it works, and have a supreme aversion to typing a few letters on a command line, Linux is for you.

I would say that one prerequisite of using Linux is the ability to read.

Linux is for people that don't want to pay an authentification fee to Microsoft for using Microsoft Server products that authenticate users when they log on. A few months back, I called Microsoft to see about buying some server software for running an auction site for a charitable purpose. An overly zealous sales person advised me that I would have to pay $32 per user authentification and $8 per user authentification if it was for a not-for-profit.

Also, I used to belong to a user group called KEGS, a group that once sponsored non-microsoft vendors. Then one day Microsoft offered a generous amount of software to the people that were running our user group. As a result, all of the other vendors including IBM were kicked out of there and no longer are invited.

A few years ago, a number of developers developed things under the Microsoft Platform, but instead of continuing with their business, they sold out to Microsoft and then Microsoft got sued.

These are the reasons that I am learnings Linux. I am a newbie just like you. I don't know beans about Linux, but come from a dos background. I installed Debian Linux for the first time yesterday.

I run Win2k Pro Svpk IV at home and Win XP svpk II. I find Win2k remarkably reliable and very stable. As long as you know a few simple steps to fix things when things get corrupted and backup datafiles, Win2k is truly a solid operating system that is both powerfull and easy to use.
WinXP has pros and cons. Different from Win2k it does support some older 16-bit applications via an emulation. Also, it doesn't load things into registry until they are actually run. The advantage of this is that you are supposed to have a lot more capacity on your computer to run different programs. Win XP has an unnecessarily large graphical interface -- even when various features are turned off and it takes a lot of horsepower in both ram and processor speed to run the the thing with any type of reasonable speed.

In the real world, many networks throw Linux on the front end and Win2k on the backend. This seems to be a practical solution.

There are quality free online classes that you can take on Linux and at least learn the basic commands. You can take additional classes in administration at most community colleges. Northwestern University has had some very high quality classes on the Red Hat Platform in the past.

Personally I think you need to know both Linux and Windows. China, and several countries in Europe have made Linux a near defacto standard. Some university use Linux as the official operating system.

Linux is not without its problems. I have a bunch of bugs and incompatibilities with the Debbian Linux that I just installed. However, this will get better over time. Each edition of Linux appears to offer several major enhancements.

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