Hi! My Forum Newbie Post

[Scribe1]

Hi, folks! I'm a user/shade-tree computer mechanic in Northeast Texas. I also write novels (hence the "Scribe" name) and I'm a preacher in a small church. I retired from a technical management job with the U.S. Navy in 2013. When I fell out of love with Microsoft about 10 years ago, I followed my son's guidance and tried Linux, and I fell in love with Linux right away. I now have several laptops running Mint, and one running OpenSuse 32-bit. I'm taking the Intro to Linux course, after years of guessing my way through things, and I plan to install OpenSuse on a dedicated machine to use on the course. BUT that brings up an important bit of praise for all the genius developers: every distribution I've used has been intuitive enough that an idiot like me can figure out how to use it. And I've almost never crashed - no "Blue Screen of Death" as people in the Windows world experience. Thank you for the forums and thank you for letting me in!

 

[KGIII]

Welcome aboard.

I will mention that religious discussion is strictly forbidden, along with things like politics and sexual content.

 

[Scribe1]

Welcome aboard.

I will mention that religious discussion is strictly forbidden, along with things like politics and sexual content.

Thanks, I read that. And I'm smart enough to keep those out of technical discussions. I appreciate your advice!

 

[Smilax]

Hi, folks! I'm a user/shade-tree computer mechanic in Northeast Texas. I also write novels (hence the "Scribe" name) and I'm a preacher in a small church. I retired from a technical management job with the U.S. Navy in 2013. When I fell out of love with Microsoft about 10 years ago, I followed my son's guidance and tried Linux, and I fell in love with Linux right away. I now have several laptops running Mint, and one running OpenSuse 32-bit. I'm taking the Intro to Linux course, after years of guessing my way through things, and I plan to install OpenSuse on a dedicated machine to use on the course. BUT that brings up an important bit of praise for all the genius developers: every distribution I've used has been intuitive enough that an idiot like me can figure out how to use it. And I've almost never crashed - no "Blue Screen of Death" as people in the Windows world experience. Thank you for the forums and thank you for letting me in!

Howdy, glad you made it. My first Linux was SuSE 9.1 but that was a lifetime ago, maybe I should try it again. Not a loaded question--what about it appeals to you?

 

[Scribe1]

Howdy, glad you made it. My first Linux was SuSE 9.1 but that was a lifetime ago, maybe I should try it again. Not a loaded question--what about it appeals to you?

I don't recall the release number of my first OpenSuse installation...it was perhaps in the fall of 2016 - 17. I was really upset about leaving the Windows community because I didn't know any better - I remembered the trauma of trying to get my Timex/Sinclair ZX81 to plot a few pixels on a B&W TV. I had learned that a terminal was not the right interface for me, without a lot of tutoring... and it was a huge relief to find a good GUI in OpenSuse. And I was able to figure it out and navigate it without a lot of help! It was great! It was my first Linux experience, and I was coming to Linux from Windows 7. I was amazed at how much faster Suse ran. As a newbie with no coach that I knew of, I found that it had its frustrations, but they were few (so few that I remember none of them).

And I loved not having to pay for anti-virus software, office software, etc., etc. I finally had a suite of software that didn't require me to reach for my wallet every time I needed to do something.

I'm an author. I've written 10 novels so far and am working on two more. LibreOffice Writer beats the pants off MS Word. Clean, efficient, stable, forgiving...I need to be able to forget the tool's quirks while writing deep stuff, and LibreOffice - and the Linux/GNU environment, allow me to do that.

When I subsequently discovered Mint, I was very excited. Beautiful GUI, everything intuitive, etc. All the greatness of OpenSuse, but prettier, I guess, and with added features.

The main thing is that everything just WORKS, and everything works well.

Moving to Mint, I didn't look back until I had an old 32-Bit Acer Aspire 1 that needed to be saved, and of the distributions I've tried on it, OpenSuse is working the best. Also, now that I'm taking the Linux Foundations LFS 101 course, I plan to put OpenSuse on a dedicated machine to support taking the course. After that, who knows? The many distributions and desktops make it easy and fun to choose what I'm in the mood for.

Thank you for asking, @Smilax!

 

[bob466]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

[Scribe1]

Welcome to the Forum. View attachment 28252

Thank you!

 

[bwingbob]

Hi, folks! I'm a user/shade-tree computer mechanic in Northeast Texas. I also write novels (hence the "Scribe" name) and I'm a preacher in a small church. I retired from a technical management job with the U.S. Navy in 2013. When I fell out of love with Microsoft about 10 years ago, I followed my son's guidance and tried Linux, and I fell in love with Linux right away. I now have several laptops running Mint, and one running OpenSuse 32-bit. I'm taking the Intro to Linux course, after years of guessing my way through things, and I plan to install OpenSuse on a dedicated machine to use on the course. BUT that brings up an important bit of praise for all the genius developers: every distribution I've used has been intuitive enough that an idiot like me can figure out how to use it. And I've almost never crashed - no "Blue Screen of Death" as people in the Windows world experience. Thank you for the forums and thank you for letting me in!

Welcome from the Piney Woods.

Bob

 

[Scribe1]

Welcome from the Piney Woods.

Bob

Thank you!

 

[Scribe1]

OPEN QUESTION: Perhaps because my searching and reading skills aren't the best, I can't find the meaning of a blue sash across my avatar which reads, "OP." Also, have I said something wrong in one of my posts? Is that why one needs moderator review before it's posted?

 

[bwingbob]

Thank you!

Good luck with your OpenSuse install. I am more an apt guy and usually stick to Debian derivatives, it's what I am comfortable with, but OpenSuse has a large user base and plenty of online resources.

Are you taking your course with a specific goal or just general knowledge?

Bob

 

[bwingbob]

OPEN QUESTION: Perhaps because my searching and reading skills aren't the best, I can't find the meaning of a blue sash across my avatar which reads, "OP." Also, have I said something wrong in one of my posts? Is that why one needs moderator review before it's posted?

You opened the topic. Nothing nefarious, you are the original poster.

 

[Scribe1]

Good luck with your OpenSuse install. I am more an apt guy and usually stick to Debian derivatives, it's what I am comfortable with, but OpenSuse has a large user base and plenty of online resources.

Are you taking your course with a specific goal or just general knowledge?

Bob

I expect the OpenSuse install will go very well, thanks. The installers work great these days!

I love Mint! And I appreciate Ubuntu. But also have a history with OpenSuse.

I'm taking the course primarily to (a) affirm what I've guessed, (b) teach me some of the basics I wasn't aware of, (c) help me get over my fear of the command line interface, and (d) teach me a few commands I can resort to when I need to.

 

[Scribe1]

You opened the topic. Nothing nefarious, you are the original poster.

Ah! Cool! So I'm guilty of bringing the whole thing up! :LOL:

 

[bwingbob]

You might be interested in The Linux Command Line the book is free online, but you can support the author and buy it if you like.

Bob

 

[Scribe1]

You might be interested in The Linux Command Line the book is free online, but you can support the author and buy it if you like.

Bob

Just bought it this afternoon, saw the link in the fellow's post. Thanks!

 

[Scribe1]

You might be interested in ... the book is free online, but you can support the author and buy it if you like.

Bob

I looked again (had bought another command line book this afternoon), and found it. GREAT! I plan to use it. Thank you so much, @bwingbob

 

[Scribe1]

Howdy, glad you made it. My first Linux was SuSE 9.1 but that was a lifetime ago, maybe I should try it again. Not a loaded question--what about it appeals to you?

@Smilax I wrote a reply, it's awaiting moderator approval, I'm not ignoring you.

 

[Condobloke]

G'day Scribe1, Welcome to Linux.org from all the Aussies here. There is quite tribe of us. @wizardfromoz will be along sometime shortly, without a doubt

The need for moderator approval applies to all new members. I believe it cuts out when you have posted 10(?) times.

Have a good time. All members are friendly and possess a wealth of knowledge.

The command line, aka terminal is a blessing in disguise. The best way in the world to get used to it, is to use it.

Because I make more than the occasional spelling,typing error, I make a habit of copying and pasting whatever the line of code is.

The code below....copy it and paste into the terminal....tap enter....type in your password, tap enter again.......

sudo apt update

 

[Condobloke]

Would you like to share what novels you have written ?