Don't Fear the Penguin: A Newbie's Guide to Linux
Getting started with Linux can be an intimidating task, particularly for people who have never tried any operating system besides Windows. In truth, however, very little about Linux is actually difficult to use. It's simply a different OS, with its own approach to doing things. Once you learn your way around a Linux desktop, you're likely to find that it's no more challenging to work with than Windows or Mac OS.
In this guide I'll focus on Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution today. But Ubuntu is just one of many different flavors of Linux. Literally hundreds of distributions are out there, appealing to a broad range of users--from teachers and programmers to musicians and hackers. Ubuntu is the most popular distribution because it's easier to install and configure than most others; it even comes in a few different versions, including Edubuntu and Kubuntu. If you happen to be running a different distribution, such as Fedora or OpenSUSE, you'll likely find that much of this guide still pertains to you.
Welcome to Ubuntu
It's little wonder why Ubuntu is one of the leading Linux distributions for desktop PCs; it makes installing Linux simple. ("Ubuntu Linux: The Easy Installation Guide" will walk you through it, step by step.) But once you have Ubuntu installed on your PC, what next?
The short answer is: Whatever you like. Ubuntu may be free, but it's hardly a toy OS. If you can do something with Windows or Mac OS X, you can do the same thing with Ubuntu.
Figuring out how to do what you want isn't always obvious, however, and Ubuntu has its own concepts and quirks that set it apart from other OSs. Experience is usually the best teacher, but if you need a gentle push in the right direction, this guide offers a novice's tour of the Linux desktop--so fire up your Ubuntu system and follow along!
Exploring the Interface
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pretty good. Next time try
pretty good. Next time try to go into a little detail about which brands of printers work well with Linux, and those that generally don't. For example HP printers work great with Linux, but Lexmark printers generally don't.Ubuntu Guide and Kubuntu Guide
Installation is only the beginning of the adventure...After that, see
Ubuntu Guide at ubuntuguide.org
or
Kubuntu Guide at kubuntuguide.org
great guide
Great job on a really basic guide for newbies, you guys need to do an entire series if you have a serious commitment to the community (and it seems as though 3 pages at a time wouldn't require a lot of work)- I would definitely recommend something specific to SOHO (*buntu may not be universally the best choice, but for sure easy for the home user to check out, and that's where a lot of SOHO and student users will start) as that's a great opportunity for the OS to truly add value (or at least limit costs). I have found some serious stumbling blocks this third time round w/ Pengy (since 2000), but there are things I can do with Linux and FOSS I can't even begin to afford were I limited to proprietary and I took religious vows to not steal, cheat, or gamble (that does beg the question as to why I am in business, but that's another blog...) so I don't see how I'm going to upgrade past XP (HW and SW I get essentially for free from people trashing their systems), nor why I would bother as there is no hardware newer than 10 years that I actually require to do what I do in my business or my engineering work.