2.2. After Installation.
In this section we will see extra things, you could do
so that you feel more comfortable when you are using Linux,
in a way you could say my Linux could do that for me,
how to train your Linux so that it read your mind and it just do it
with no effort from you! How to make you desktop more or less loaded!
Where you could join the community telling people the success you made,
what features you miss, then discover where they were hiding!
where to get more FREE applications and where you could get
a Linux training.
Section quote:
- "Seeing is deceiving."
-- Unknown.
- "Hope this helps some, sorry for not being able to do a brain dump."
-- Mike Stump helping a clueless user on the gcc mailing list
Section contents:
2.2.1. A word.
Give Linux a chance to prove itself, before you judge,
use Linux for a while even if you don't like it first, if you face
a problem do not hesitate to ask the large Linux community for help,
search forums or 'google', even if you are a Windows expert,
things do not work the Windows way, Linux is NOT a free version
if Windows. Linux can't read your mind, you have to learn hard for
weeks then Linux DO read you mind. Fotrune-mod says "Some people claim
that the UNIX learning curve is steep, but at least you only have to climb it once.",
you could erase the entire disk, forget to install the graphical interface
then you reinstall Linux while you can just upgrade it, you could download
a program source form the Internet and you dig in forums to know how to make it
run, then you just know it already shipped with your distribution.
A Linux system needs a mart administrator,DO NOT leave it because
your father or big brother is not a Linux expert, it could be you.
You can change any thing in Linux, if don't like something use another.
2.2.2. What can you do after installation.
Before you download any new package search your distribtion CDs,
then search your distribution package repositories see links on
next subsections, at last if you can't find it you may get it from
the original program site as source. If you have a nVidia chipset video
card get it's super fast hardware accelerated
driver from 'www.nvidia.com'
(some commercial Linux distributions contain some closed source packages
like nVidia driver and Macromedia Flash plugin/player),
you could install your local language fonts and MS fonts (they are available
for free on the web but you are not allow to distribute them to other people),
install your local language specific programs if you need some,
you could make using removable disks more easy with 'autofs'
(or 'supermount' but not both, 'supermount' is pre-configred for you in Mandrake),
install packages like mplayer,anjuta(for development), glchess and blender,
and if yo are using RedHat Linux get 'ntfs-support', 'xmms-mp3', 'xmms-smpeg',
'xine' and 'mplayer' from Internet RPM repositories like 'freshrpms.net',
support for those things are removed because it's an American distribution
and RedHat lowers believe that US patent lows forbid those packages,
if you are in US check first before you download them.
2.2.3. Booting speed.
You may have noticed that Mandrake Linux 9.0 or Debian booting
is slow because it start many services while booting,
other distribution like Slackware or Gento boots on the fly,
remove as much services as you can, this not only make your system
boots faster but makes it more secure and saves memory,
use you distribution service manager for example
'Mandrake Contrl Center -> System -> Services'
in other distributions it could be
'Main Menu -> Settings -> System Services'
as in RedHat it will run 'redhat-config-services',
click on 'info' button (if any) or see description box to decide
if you want ths service or not, for example you could
disable schedule tasking daemons like atd (not really used at homes),
firewall service if you have no network, and many other netwrok related
like Apple Talk network daemon!! but you should keep other services like
kloged, syslogd, gpm and your font server which is not network related.
If you have a network it's faster to have a static fixed IP address
than get one using Dynamic IP address 'DHCP/BOOTP',
if your network has no DHCP server you compter will waste much time
searching for it.
2.2.4. Know your distribution first.
Each distribution comes with many specific tools, it will save many
commands, they could be in 'Main menu -> Settings',
those tools could be a package manager,hardware detection tools,disk tools
and many more, for example in RedHat Linux 8.0 and above we have
'redhat-config-*' tools set like 'redhat-config-services',
Mandrake Linux has Drake tools set like 'rpmdrake', you could find
documents and more help, see
'Distribution specific tools.' appendix.
2.2.5. Desktop eye candy.
You can change the background to be a color, a wallpaper picture
with any format, color gradient, or blending this with that(KDE only),
right click your desktop and select 'desktop settings'.
If you are using GNOME, change it's theme from it's GNOME control center,
(themes that come with your distribution are ugly compared with themes on the web),
those themes are as small as 100KB, visit 'http://art.gnome.org'.
Those are my favorite thems:
GTK+ themes select at GNOME control center will not apply by default when GNOME is not running,
for example when you are using IceWM, copy GTK 1.0 'gtkrc' file from the theme
folder (for example '/usr/share/themes/Aquativo/gtk/gtkrc' or in your home)
to the file '/etc/gtk/gtkrc for GTK 1.x and copy GTK 2.x
'gtkrc' (eg. /usr/share/themes/Aquativo/gtk-2.0/gtkrc')
to the file '/etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc'.
KDE themes are also beautiful, to change it goto
'KDE Control Center -> look & Feel -> styles'
or windows border, you could download every KDE related eye candies from
'www.KDE-look.org'
for example : (notice that GNOME themes are smaller)
'Acqua' style
'icons' themes.
You may change X mouse cursors
decomress it to '~/.icons'. This is a big subject you may create
your own themes using Linux applications, see 'www.LinuxArtist.org'
and 'www.LinuxGraphic.org',
see '2.4. Design software.' section.
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My favorite screen savers are Xmatrix and Xflame, the first is like the movei FX
and the other is a a picture burned in fire
(I think the default one is Slackware manager, you could replace it with
any XBM black and white picture), another one is 'teevee' that makes
your deskktop look as a bad TV, there are some opengl secreen savers like
'glmatrix' and 'molecule', those are X screen saver (that works on GNOME),
but I did not try any KDE screen saver.
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You could add hide button to any panel, you could change hot keys,
move the mouse using keyboard, and in KDE you could make menus
transparent (if you don't use textures).
A GNOME program called 'gdesklets' could make you desktop
very nice, applets (display files) are running directly on your desktop
as part of your desktop wallpaper, for example you may add a calendar
or system load. Similar KDE program called 'karamba' and 'superkaramba'.
Open the applet file with any of those programs then place it.
2.2.6. Try everything.
Put a plan to try interfaces other than KDE and GNOME,
for example WindowMaker, IceWM and Enlightment after a month or so,
those are so far from being Windows-like, they look like some commercial Unix
environments, so you will be an expert Unix user. Give a chance to
all programs, new users love KDE, experts like GNOME,
try things you don't like (eg. games) so that you could help other people
so that you don't give bad impression on Linux that it don't has specific feature.
Linux is so robus that you may install packages and uninstall them
frequently, even you could (at least in Debian) upgrade packages
or the whole system while it's running!! and what ever you change
you don't need to reboot, Linux could up and running as long as you like.
2.2.7. Support your local favorite program.
There are programs that are specific to your local language,
those could be found on your local Linux User Group (LUG),
see a list of them on 'www.Linux.org',
there are also non-profitable projects that produce Linux programs for your specific
needs, for example www.Arabeyes.org
developes programs for Arabic speaking people.
You need not be a hacker to take part to make them better,
although they need code writers, but you could translate programs
to your mother language, design graphics, test them, make compiled packages
or you could ask for more features and tell them your dreams to make it true!
Tell your distribution what you like and what you don't .
If you face a problem with a free open source program, you have to
check if it's a problem with your distribution (because of patch or compile time options)
or the program itself, and tell them about it.
2.2.8. More applications.
In next section we will discuss more basic program that is shipped
with most distributions or those are so small that you can get easily.
If you want any thing try 'www.google.com', if you want to know
Linux replacements of some Windows related programs visit
'http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en',
also there are many classified (games,educational,...etc) lists of Linux programs
that could be found at
'http://icm.linux.tucows.com'
'www.linuxapps.com'
'www.icewalkers.com'
'www.linuxsoftware.org'
and first of all 'www.linux.org'
also it offer good list of books,programs,distribution for a specific need
and online documentations, for sound related applications (sound recoding, voice recognition,...etc)
a list could be found on 'linux-sound.org æ http://sound.condorow.net',
for scientific (not educational) applications listed at
'http://sal.kachinatech.com',
Linux games listed at
Do NOT download them from their , just know it's name and download it from
your distribution package repositories, for example :
- RedHat Linux (www.redhat.com) & Fedora Core (http://fedora.redhat.com)
- MandrakeLinux (www.MandrakeLinux.com)
- Debian can be configure to automaticaly search and download
packages from specific mirrors with 'apt-get' or graphically with 'synaptic',
you can search them by hand from
'www.debian.org/distrib/packages'.
- gentoo
- Slackware
package sites makes two types of packages, official signed packages and
contributed packages by fans, the first usually the same as your CDs
but the last is what other people like.
If you are using an RPM based distribution like RedHat Linux, Fedora, Mandrake
and SuSE, you may search for RPM files in sites like
'http://rpm.pbone.net'
and 'http://rpmfind.net',
it will give you an RPM file link and information like
what distribution it work with, you could search for package name or
a packege that contain a file.
2.2.9. Linux community.
The best Linux feature is it's community support,
there are many active forums,LUGs,news groups, and many expert volunteers
ready to help you.
Latest news and many Linux related articles found on 'www.linux.com',
latest kernel,list of distributions, LUGs, books, ...,
articles and interviews with famous Linux people found on
'www.linux.org',
we have more and more see
'www.linuxtoday.com',
'www.slashdot.org',
'www.linuxheadquarters.com'
and Linux-Focus a multi-lingual free (as in freedom) monthly magazine
that can be found on 'www.linuxfocus.org'
or 'www.tldp.org/linuxfocus'
expect articles for end users about subjects like graphics with GIMP and Blender,
Linux programing lessons,latest news, and hardware configuration.
other magazines like
'www.linuxjournal.com',
'www.linuxgazette.com' and
'www.linux-mag.com',
all types of documentations, from running games to CPU design,
could be found on The Linux Doc Project 'www.tldp.org'.
You could use news groups like 'linux.help', if you are not
familiar with USENET news readers (knode,pan or evolution) , you use web site
'www.deja.com'.
2.2.10. How to be an effective member ?
If you like to be an acttive member in the community,
you want to create a new free open source programs,
there are many sites that could support you and offer hosting,
for example 'www.sourceforge.net'
it is one of the largest open (and even close) communities,
it offer 11 servers, mirrors all over the world, and no advertising, they ask
you to thank them the way you like in a place people could see, this is freedom,
imagine most distributions (some are 13 CDs) with all versions,
plus all open source applications for what ever platform (need not be Linux),
imagine it's capacity!! there are more than 500 thousand visitor daily to this site,
first sign in for a user account, then you could take part on current project,
or you may ask for your own project, you specify what your project is, what is the license,..etc,
usually any GNU GPL,LGPL, and FDL that is not personal will be accepted,
for example an FDL document of your CV will be rejected,
you will be given a site in the form http://your-project.sf.net',
requests are reviewed by humans and decision is taken after two working days maximum,
if you like, Sourceforge could rais donations for you (it will take small share),
there are many other sites like 'http://freshmeat.net'
2.2.11. Be a certified expert.
You could search for a promotion or a better job,
Certified Linux experts have a better chance than other certified experts
(maybe outside 3rd world), most famous is RedHat Certifications
('www.redhat.com/training')
like RHCE,RHCA, there are other companies and organaizations like
Sair Linux and GNU Certification ('www.linuxcertification.org'),
Prometric(www.prometric.com)
and VUE (www.vue.com),
and non-profitable organaizations like,
Linux Professional Institute (www.lpi.org) and
Linux+ ('www.comptia.org/certification/linuxplus'),
those are not courses for end users, they are not how play solitaire
with Linux, they are how administrate mission critical jobs on sensitive servers.
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