GNU/Linux

My trip into Unix land

My first experience with Unix type systems was when I was 16 years old and anxious to begin my longtime dream of programming computers. I had programmed for years as a child on the various Vic20, C64, Apple II, etc computers at the elementary school and beyond, but never had any formal training. I was brought on as a (free) intern at a company that was writing a Unix like operating system (not Linux). This was a short lived project, but during that time I was introduced to Unix systems, dumb terminals, and the vi editor. This was an interesting and valuable introduction to the rest of my experience!

Shortly after that I went to the local University and asked {begged} for an account on their computer science Unix systems. I was granted access (and given a tour of the labs) and joyfully logged in from home on my 2400 bps modem (hey, it was a speed demon compared to my original 300 bps modem!)

It wasn’t until I started the University that I really had real exposure to Unix like systems. At the University I did all of my coursework using their HP-UX systems, SunOS systems, SGI, etc. By then, I was hooked! I already disliked Windows, and after that, more than ever!

Around the University I started to hear buzz about this new Unix like operating system that I could install on my own PC, called Linux (see, I finally got to the point!) At the University somebody had set up a system where you could bring in your hard drive and they’d put Linux on it for you. I never got around to that, but I did see an ad for a boxed set of Slackware Linux and a getting started book. I ordered that set (Slackware version NNNN) and installed it on my blazing fast 386-25! Wow! I had a real Unix like system w/ X and twm (anybody remember twm?) running at home, just like at the University!! I was hooked!

In my last few years at the University I worked at the Unix help desk, assisting other students with their various Unix problems, and acting as a gatekeeper to the real sys-admins. One of my main tasks was filtering the minor problems for them, such as lost passwords, file permissions, SLIP/PPP problems, etc. That was a great experience, because I worked so closely with the guys who really knew how things worked! I learned a lot working with them.

Using Linux in a primarily Windows environment

The following paragraph is about a previous workplace.

My workplace is a primarily Windows environment. We’ve talked about porting our applications to Linux, as well as doing some distributed work with Linux doing the grunt work in the backend, but almost everything is done in Windows. Being as there is still SOME place for Linux there I occasionally get to use it. Being a Windows workplace means that most documents are passed around in MS Word (though, I’ve succeeded in convincing people there that it would benefit us to convert most of the internal documentation to OpenOffice.org), files are stored in Visual Source Safe, etc, etc. How do I manage? For documentation work I run Visual Source Safe & Microsoft Word/Excel under Wine. This works great, and really helps Linux fit in amongst the Windows computers. Wine is a lifesaver there, as much as the samba project! <more details to come!>

Links

Surviving on Windows

Sometimes, when all else fails, I find myself forced to use Windows (like at work, our product runs on Windows). How do I make it more bearable? By using many of the same tools that I use in Linux! Those would be:

Mozilla Firefox (web browser)

Opera (web browser)

Mozilla Thunderbird (e-mail)

OpenOffice.org (Office Suite, word processor, spreadsheet, etc)

• I first started using OpenOffice before Sun bought the product, as Star Office version 4.0

Gaim (Multi Protocol Instant Messaging)

VirtuaWin (Virtual Desktop manager)

Gimp (Image manipulation, somewhat like Photoshop)

Cygwin (Unix environment and utilities on Windows)

• I primarily use Cygwin to get an SSH server and mutt for my e-mail (not to mention fetchmail, procmail, and exim). Here’s a little hint for those who use mutt on Windows:[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command] c:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\run xterm -e mutt "%0"
  This is the registry key that is used to identify how mailto: links are handled throughout the OS. When you click on such a link in any program mutt will be opened in an xterm (change that as you wish, including passing options such as colors & geometry). It seems to work quite well, though doesn’t handle multi-line bodies being specified by the URL (though those are rare).

GnuWin32 (ported Unix commandline utilities)

Vim text editor.

Linux Distributions:

• Debian Linux
• Kubuntu
• Knoppix Linux
• Linspire OS
• Mandriva Linux
• Fedora Core

General Links:

• Debian Linux, useful stuff, has NVidia display drivers, Java JRE/SDK installation, Upgrading to unstable
• Lexmark’s Linux Development Kit
• Actual drivers using the above SDK! These work with my Lexmark Z715.

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