Re: Xy4 - OS options

[Raphael rtennenbaum@xxxxxxxx]

Hi Patricia:

Short question -- long answer:

I know there are some basic guides out there but I hesitate to recommend
them -- something like this for example --


http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Ubuntu-Linux-Emilio-Raggi/dp/1430230398/ref=dp_ob_title_bk



takes advantage of the fact Ubuntu out-of-the-box has essentially
achieved its objective of making Linux usable for non-techies. But I
have a feeling it won't really tell a computer-savvy person anything
s/he wouldn't have figured out in the first hour of running Ubuntu with
Gnome or KDE out of the box.


I managed to get going based using only online resources, plus "Using
Linux," an old-fashioned, legendary bible. But in the end "Using Linux"
is a bit of overkill. I might recommend going to a bookstore and
finding a book aimed at an intelligent Windows user, which covers the
two trickiest bits: 1) how partitions are designated and filesystems
mounted, and 2) file permissions. These are things you'll need to
understand to get under the hood enough to get XyWrite running to your
satisfaction.


Online resources are exhaustive. The Ubuntu fora are excellent. For
(y)our purposes, also see


http://www.dosemu.org/docs/HOWTO/

which is a great overall guide. Even better is the estimable Mr.
Mendelson's guide to running WordPerfect under dosemu, which I wish had
been up when I started making my first attempts


http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/linux.html#wpdoslinux

It turns out to be a pretty good primer in configuring most ANYTHING in
Linux.  As they say, everything in Unix is a file -- to change
anything, you basically reword something.


Some random observations: I will speak of Ubuntu since that's the
distro I have the most experience with -- Paul is using Linux Mint,
which is also Debian-based, and has a great deal to recommend it as well
-- but Ubuntu probably has the broadest user base these days, and, I
think Paul would agree, probably the easiest to find support for online.


1) Consider using an old machine you don't use much anymore, or getting
a little netbook, and installing Linux onto that. (Apparently Asus is
about to start selling netbooks with Ubuntu pre-installed.) After you
play around with it for a few months, you'll have an idea how to
optimally get it running on your main machine.  It's pretty exciting to
be able to download an ISO image in an hour or so, burn it to a DVD, and
start using it.


2) Linux distros' installation routines are pretty sophisticated now, --
they are cagey and in my experience if you just click on "Proceed"
things will work -- but if you're installing over Windows, you certainly
should first back everything up, and then research how things will
work. Ubuntu's partition manager will offer a suggestion, which in most
cases is sound, but these are the very circumstances that demand you
know how Linux is seeing the partitions on your disk.


3) If you're going dual-boot Windows and share a partition, there are
considerations. Study up on these, online. It is possible to configure
a partition for Windows-based Xywrite and Linux-based XyWrite to share,
however it's my opinion that if most of your usage ends up to be Linux,
you'd probably end up wanting to keep those files separate, just because
the permissions issues on both OSes can get complicated.


4) Don't forget to find keystop.sys and download it and install it into
your config.sys -- this will prevent ctrl-c from shutting down your DOS
session.


-Rafe



On 06/07/2011 04:02 PM, Patricia M Godfrey wrote:
> Rafe,
>
> Can you recommend a book that explains how Linux works, how you set it
> up, etc?
> Patricia
>
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