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I am a middle-aged nerd

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Jun 2, 2003
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At my time of life, I'm having to learn Linux in depth as the companies I work for transition off of legacy OS systems like Windows, Netware and flavors of Unix. The thing is, that using Linux a lot, I'm enjoying it more and more and Windows less and less. I even have two Linux systems at home (and I'm using one at the moment).

Is there a support group for middle-aged nerds like me?
 
I too am a middle-aged nerd, and don't know of one.

Google doesn't show any...
 
I'm thinking of switching to Linux.

Is it an easy switch? I've been cleaning up and backing up files because I'm about ready to wipe my hard-drive clean. So it might be a good time to set it up.
 
It's not an easy switch. Recommend dual-boot because there's no guarantee your random hardware will work with Linux, or that all the things you're used to using will. Not that there are not Linux versions of most software for Windows. Just that it'll be different.
 
Linux is great. What are U using. Or should I say what flavor. Linux a few years ago was a problem when loading on home builts. Had to know all aspects of hardware to load.

You can still use a 486 and run a great Linux box.

As to user groups...just run a google search and play with each one you find. You'll find it.

I remember a guy a work that couldn't believe an old guy like me could understand Linux. I had to type in my commands and not use a mouse. I then asked him what a Harris or Vax was. Or Cobal or Fortran or Pascal and he gazed at me as if I was an alien.

The more things change..........the more they don't,
 
Mandrake 10...

Everything works, more or less. Other things just became problematic for me, especially with some development software I need to use that only works under windows, and is despicably slow under VMWare.

This makes dual-booting necessary for me.

An example of something that doesn't work right is the SMP mode that is required to run my P4 as two processors doesn't shut the machine off when it finishes shutting down. Not a huge big deal. The audio driver's flaky, too.

My monitor's native 1920x1200 mode is not supported by default. To make it work, I have to edit the XF86Config file and put the mode in for myself, and it was no trivial amount of research to determine the magic values to add for my specific monitor.

These little 'problems' are the reason I'm hesitant to give Linux a shining endorsement, and instead give a cautious endorsement.

If you haven't extensively used it yet, then don't format over and abandon your windows partition until you're really certain it's the way to go.
 
thatguywhojuggles said:
I'm thinking of switching to Linux.

Is it an easy switch? I've been cleaning up and backing up files because I'm about ready to wipe my hard-drive clean. So it might be a good time to set it up.
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The best ones for newbies are (in order of nerdiness): Linspire, Mandrake, Ubuntu, SuSE, Red Hat, Debian, Slackware.

I use SuSE Professional 9.1 (which you can get from the front of magazines at the moment), It's stable, reliable and easy to install. It doesn't have wireless support out of the box but its easy enough to get going. (the 9.2 version does have the wireless support - but you pay $50 for the CDs).

I think Mandrake is a good distro for most starters who are familiar with Windows. I would recommend a dual boot system if you still have applications (or GAMES!) that you still want to run.
 
From recent reviews that I've read, for a fairly non-technical Windows switcher I would recommend Ubuntu, Linspire or Xandros with Ubuntu being the most free and Xandros probably being the easiest switch for Windows users, but costing money for the fully featured version.
 
I'd also recomend dual boot, but I'd go one step further.

Go and buy an extra hard drive, 10GB is huge for linux, put it in, and install your prefered flavor of linux on your new drive. I'd reccomend redhat as they seem to have a nice install and you can get the ISO's for free, if you have a broadband and don't mind downloading 3cd's of data. (you would do this in windows of course).

Also, for the noobie, I would make a boot disk and skip using lino or grub to alter your master boot record (MBR).

That way when you want to play with linux, all you have to do is pop in your boot disk and restart your machine. Your linux stuff is on the 2nd disk you bought so you don't have to re-sector your windows junk, and when the disk is out your family dosn't get confused when they want to use AIM. (hehe).

It's like having 2 seperate computers that way. One for windows, one for linux.

You can always use grub to change the MBR so you can make a choice at boot time later if you want.

O.
 
I just migrated my laptop from Mandrake 10 to Fedora Core 3 and I'm very happy. Mandrake is good (I still run it on my server/desktop) but I thought I'd take a look a Fedora, having never rated Red Hat for home use.

I did have a few minor issues, but I'm very happy with it. I especially like the free updates (with Mandrake you have to pay and I always felt it was a bit much when I was already a member of MandrakeClub) and yum is a nice tool.
 
A good review of Xandros here.

I've been running the recently released Deluxe Edition of Xandros Desktop OS for the past week. Xandros 3 has proven to be all that I hoped for, and more. This release should prove a good fit for many, combining the ease of use and elegant good looks that Xandros brings to the table with the underlying power and stability of Debian.

The one word that pops up in my mind most often when I think of my experience with Xandros 3.0 Deluxe is elegance. Power and polish in harmony. It won't be the "just right" distro for some, but for a whole lot of others it just might be the one that leads them from the Land of Oppressive Proprietary Software to the Land of Linux and Freedom.

The installation is the best I've seen. Xandros Desktop OS 3 gets high marks from me for correctly configuring the built-in wireless card and the display, both without any assistance whatsoever from me. Even the installation screens look as polished as any I've ever seen.
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