Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Tips to learn and using Linux

Some people having the difficulties to learn and using Linux, especially for native user that has been familiar with other popular OS (like Windows). Actually, Linux is not too hard to learn. It is as easy as the other one. As long as you already knew how to do some the basic operations on computing daily usage, then you'll be alright to use Linux.

Some people having problem on choosing the distros (yup, there are many Linux distributions), setting up the partition and doing the instalation task (while data lost is the most reported case), and finding the replacement applications to do some daily tasks.

These are some tips to learn Linux easily and safely:
Tip 1 : Choose the popular distro
Find out which distro is being popular in your neighbourhood. If you have some friends using Ubuntu, just follow them, why not? More popular the distro you choose, more easier for you to get the problem solving.
Tip 2 : Use Live CD
By using Linux live CD's, you can test and taste the Linux environment. It is save! You only need to boot the CD's and abracadabra... it's run! Once you get used to it, then try to install the 'real' one on your disk.
Tip 3 : Read and read more!
When you having a trouble and none seems to help, why don't you learn more. There're free howto's and tutorials on the net. Google search will giving you the answer anyways.
Buying a book is considerable!
Tip 4 : Backup, backup, and backup!
Backup all your precious data and documents before installing the Linux on your disk. There were too many data lost cases has been reported. Just put your data on CD's or other disk. Things to be easy if you installing Linux on a new harddisk, but backing up the data is the best thing to do while there're no other disk.
Tip 5 : Save your time
Some people think that self installing is cause a fuse, taking care of technical tasks such choosing the distro, doing partition, installing, backing up the data, and troublesome. In this case, why don't you let the experienced one to do that dirty job. You can do the same thing with your previous OS.
Tip 6 : Many roads to Rome
Stop worrying your old data and documents. You still can use, edit and share them. There're many programs replacement. There will be some programs for some data types. In fact, you could find the same terms such window, menu, icons, and other terms. Copy, paste, close, open are the universal words to your computing task.
Get ready!