On Help and Linux Help
Via Andrew Cooper:
I just discovered your youtube page a few days ago. Since then I watched 99% of your videos, and I have to say it is a great thing you are doing. It got me excited that people like you are out there helping people across the world, with just the use of the internet. I was a big fan of yours when you were on Tech Tv, and I am glad to see the “call for help” intent is still out there!
Some people don’t see me as giving back to and trying to support the community, but that’s not my problem. I’m very happy to know you were able to discover what we’ve been up to as of late. And speaking of late, as I’m composing this at 2:40am, there are people in the chat room trying to help someone fix a crazy CD problem. A few hours ago, “fatboy” hopped in and claimed: “Oh by the way chris thanks to your vid about the computer restarting and freezing on its own and all, i moved my computer to a cooler room and now it doesnt make this weird sound like its being overworked and also it doesnt freeze and it runs smoothly.”
Anyways, I was wondering if I could get an invite for LockerGnome? I am not so sure what it takes to get an invite, so I decided to just ask out right. Also, I have a quick question. I am just starting to get into Linux. Well, a few months ago. At the end of my college degree courses I had a linux class (which was made because of me, haha) and we used Suse linux. I am about to turn an old pc into a linux box.. and I am wondering what you recommend what version of linux I use to teach myself the basics? There are so many out there, it’s tough to decide. Thanks for your input, and keep up the good work. I’ll be stopping in the chat more often!
I’ll yield all Linux questions to Matt Hartley (or any one of my Linux followers, for that matter). As far as invitations to blog on Lockergnome - ask me again in a few weeks. We are still hoping to announce something new at Gnomedex, and would certainly welcome you, so long as you meet the general criteria. We’re in the process of migrating from WordPress MU to Drupal (for a few reasons), and the important pieces and people are finally starting to come together.
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5 Comments
The Chris Pirillo Show
November 30th, 1999
at 12:00am
[IMG] Chris Pirillo On Help and Linux Help Windows Vista Sound Problems Is Outsourcing My Pownce Identity Smart? Where Blogging is Feared Your Audience Doesn?t Know About You Subscriptions are Equal to Social Pressure Big Media and the Blogosphere
Ernest N. Wilcox Jr.
August 1st, 2007
at 12:23pm
Chris,
I am a long time Mandriva Linux user (so I think it is the best, but I am biased). My best recommendation to any one who wants to give Linux a test drive is to install a virtual machine program, and install the Linux distribution of your choice in the vm (VMware is an outstanding commercial solution but Virtual Box is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux host operating systems and it is free for personal use (I am a Virtual Box user, but I am not affiliated with Virtual Box in any other way).
Note: From this point forward vm will reference Virtual Box.
Note2: Most Linux distributions have a Live CD image available for download as an iso file. You can boot your computer (or vm) with a Live CD and run the Linux distribution from the CD with no installation th hard drive required.
After you get a Linux distribution installed (Open Suse is one of the better choices for users new to Linux), download Live CD images for any distribution that interests you. You will not need to burn them to disk because Virtual Box can use a CD image as if it were a disk in a CD ROM drive. It’s as easy as pointing the virtual CD/DVD at the image, starting the vm (it boots from the Live CD image).
I included Open Suse above because the writer asking about which distribution is best took a class in which Suse was used (so it will be familiar).
There are many Linux distributions suitable for users new to Linux. I started with Mandriva Linux when it was still Linux-Mandrake about 1998 because it just worked on the computer I had at the time. It has continued to be the best choice for me and still is, but it may not be the best for all users. Other distributions with a good reputation for users new to Linux are Simply Mepis, PCLinux OS, Ubuntu (and friends Xubuntu and Kubuntu), Puppy linux (especially good for vintage computers too), and there are many others. One good resource for finding Linux distributions is http://distrowatch.com (DistroWatch).
The advantages of starting with a vm are as follows:
Removing the Linux OS (if you decide that Linux is not for you) is as easy as deleting the vm file to which it was installed.
You can boot from CD image files. You never have to burn the image to disk. You save time and money (not to mention what it does for the environment).
You do not mess with your hard drives MBR or repartition until you decide Linux is for you and you want to at least dual-boot (or replace Windows all together).
You do not have to reboot your computer to use Linux when you are using Windows already.
There may be more, but these are the biggest ones that come to mind. I have Windows in a vm here running under Linux because I do some computer support locally and I use it to try to reproduce customer issues when the solution eludes me.
This solution will work best if you have at least 1GB RAM, at least 10GB free hard disk space, and a good video card. Remember when you run a vm, you are pretending that your computer is really two computes, the host machine (the real computer), and the vm.
I have a Debian installation in my test vm that fits in about 7GB hard disk space and runs on 256 MB RAM (my system has 512 MB RAM). It runs OK, but it is a bit slow (enough so that I notice). I use an old nVidia (TNT2) video card with 16 MB video RAM on it which may have some bearing. Based on my own real world use, the specifications I provided above should return a satisfactory experience IGB system RAM, 10GB hd space per vm, and a video card with 32 to 64 MB video RAM. If your system exceeds these specifications, all the better.
HTH,
Ernie
Phillip
August 2nd, 2007
at 2:47am
hey chris i agree you do a great job and i hope you’ll keep it up for more years to come. I will always enjoy your youtube vids and live streams and always get something out of it!
simplykyle
December 23rd, 2007
at 2:46am
If having over 800 videos (yes,not all focused on tech), 24/7 live webcam/chat, and users being able to communicate the top 5 lists doesn’t qualify you as “support to the community”, then I will pay for a ticket to Seattle so you can slap me silly…the nerve of some people…
Trejox
December 24th, 2007
at 1:54am
Who said that you weren’t supporting the community? I’ll make a piano fall on him at tell him he is not supporting… nevermind. You get it. Come on man, you know you are. Making videos, talking on IRC, hosting the forums, that’s lots and lots of help. Giving away things for free?? How much more help you want? Dude, do apreciate what you are doing. And i do want it to stay here… and just let us be part of a community. Thanks for all that. Be good.
_Trejox
PS. To the dude up there who was asking about Linux distributions, I started learning Linux with fedora. It never had a problem I couldn’t solve without a little googling and asking here and there… I love Fedora. :)