Linux and Open Office

[JoeyGee]

I had posted earlier about looking for a kind soul to send me a no-longer-being-used Windows 2000 CD, but all you heartless, greedy Internet message board hounds won't share with me

...or maybe your view of being kind is by not sending me one

Anyway...I think I will try Linux and Open Office, despite my entire lack of knowledge with open source. I am looking for advice, starting with where to get them and how to install them.

I am a DOS and Windows guy, so type slow.

[darrellcraig]

I'm a Windows guy and found Ubuntu the best distribution for me (www.ubuntu.com). Installed on a high end circa 2003 laptop and everything worked fine except for Intel Pro Wireless chipset - which turns out to be a common problem and there are lots of step-by-step instructions to get it to work, with extra steps if you're doing WPA. Open Office part of the default desktop distribution, Ubuntu makes it easy to install additional apps.

[atgcpaul]

I had posted earlier about looking for a kind soul to send me a no-longer-being-used Windows 2000 CD, but all you heartless, greedy Internet message board hounds won't share with me

...or maybe your view of being kind is by not sending me one

Anyway...I think I will try Linux and Open Office, despite my entire lack of knowledge with open source. I am looking for advice, starting with where to get them and how to install them.

I am a DOS and Windows guy, so type slow.

Lot's of places to download Linux distributions. I have used and installed
RedHat, Mandrake, and most recently SuSe Linux. I have SuSe dual booting
on my HP laptop. www.opensuse.org After years of Linux use, I found SuSe
the easiest to install and configure. There is tons of info on these websites
that will walk you through the download and install process.

Open Office is here: http://www.openoffice.org/

These new Linux distros really do everything for you. Wireless network setup
is still a little difficult, but they might have made it easier by now.

One important thing to remember. Your laptop was made for Windows NT
or 2000. These new Linux builds can be big and are designed for fast
systems. You may not experience the fastest performance with the newest
Linux on a laptop for Win 2000.


Paul

[LinuxRandal]

I am going to assume it's not your only pc since your posting. At least I hope it's not your only pc, because when your starting out, it's nice to be able to check the web for problems.
Next, do you have high speed access? If no, then either someplace like cheapbytes, or a store through like distrowatch, may be reasonable. Also you can sign up for a free Ubuntu mailing.
If you have high speed, and your pc is still somewhat useable, boot it up and go to my computer, right click and bring up your device manager, and print out a copy. It's a lot nicer when you know what things are (sound, networking, etc). Then go look at someplace like distrowatch and see different versions, and look for things like how much memory they want.
I would also download some bootable cd versions, if you have enough memory to play around with them.
I haven't used Redhat in a LONG time, I used to use Mandrake (now Mandriva, so it's been a while). On my Linux box is Suse, but I have used PClinuxOS, Knoppix and a few other bootable distro's (can also be hard drive installed). Ubuntu, ****Small Linux, Peanut, Mepis, lot's of choices, and depends on what your specs are. Linux can be command line driven (since you talk dos), and O'Reilly has a good book on the commands (similar, but different, but you can alias them).

You do have lot's of choices.

[Stan]

Good place to start is with Google, look for user reviews of the various LINUX distributions -- with a comparable computer literacy level as your own.

LINUX has come a long ways in the past few years, it could be an enjoyable journey, but if you are dependent on any Microsoft products -- you may want a dual-boot system just for those products that require a MS O/S to run.

(I've been at it for a while).

[jziegler]

I can't help quite as much as some of the other guys here, I currently only use Linux as a server OS. I use Debian (stable) for that, but it's not a great choice for a desktop machine. It's one of the most stable distributions out there, but tends to be out of date, so not so great for a desktop. That being said, it's package manegement system is wonderful, so I'd prefer a distro based on that system (unbuntu, Knoppix, probably others as well).

As for OpenOffice.org, it's quite good in my oppinion. A couple years ago, I was working with my wife on our wedding invitations. She had done mail merger in MS office many times before, but never on the version we had. We couldn't get it to work right. So, we switch to OO.o and in about 10-15 minutes have it all working. It's nicer the MS office for me now because it's not so dumbed down. Less stupid "wizzards" that work if you want exactly what MS did, but are terrible if you want anything different at all. I use it on windows a lot. Works pretty well with MS files too (probably almost as well as different versions of MS products do)

Jim