o.O Likey Linux Convertee Needs Guidance O.o

[rosco6912]

Well I'm seriously considering moving from XP to Mandrake 9.0... I've tried it out several times (off and on from Mandrake 6-8.2) but the latest offense against the average consumer with WMP9 has lit my "fekk'm" switch. So here I am, beckoning the Linux Savy for a bit of guidance.
I'm curious as towards what kind of webdevelopment software Linux can offer me, are Macromedia programs compatible? Adobe? If not what are counterparts? How do the Linux-using-web-developers go about their construction? As I understand, Linux is very programmer savvy, I just didn't know about web-design. Also, I know there is the Gimp, but what about graphic creation, editing, manipulation, etc?

Next up, Is there a port for the popular windows Direct Connect program? (I will still need to use this after crossing over). Similarly, what games today are linux-supported__NOT__emulator supported. I'm too novice to get an emulator to work -.- I suppose I'll have to keep a partition installed with XP for my online gaming needs (DAOC, CnC Generals, Red Alert2, several others...)

How good is the compatibility of the StarOffice suite with MS Office XP ? I'm in a computer business fundamentals class here at the university, and we're learning (YAY!!! ) Office XP, resulting in many PPT presentations, and quite a large nuber of Excel spreadsheets, I also think we'll be doing Access databases later on in the semester...


Anyways, I guess the fruit my problem is, whenever I come over to linux I just go back to doze, because my games/apps are there... A common problem w/ linux's small following alltogether. (small vs M$, don't flame me, banana hungry monkeys are always looking to flame the newb *nix hater.)

Thanks.

EDIT: Also - I have software for turning DVDs into
SVCDs on doze, would need conversion programs for linux as well if I convert.

Edit #2 Also curious about how the file system structure of Linux works. Whenever I used it before, I was very confused... seems like it makes a few different "drives" - there's no common program files directory... so when installing programs/games/etc, where should I direct their files to go? Could someone give me a greater-than-brief explanation of the file-system/struction of linux? I would very much appreciate it. Thanks again.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I'm curious as towards what kind of webdevelopment software Linux can offer me, are Macromedia programs compatible?

Nope. Perhaps under wine, but you'll have to research that a bit, and even if they do work it's kind of a PITA getting them to work.

Adobe?

I don't think any Adobe programs work under wine.

If not what are counterparts?

The GIMP for images, and there are various html/php/etc gui editors such as bluefish, and whatever that KDE one is, it's supposedly very nice.

How do the Linux-using-web-developers go about their construction?

I just use vim for editing html/php/etc, and I don't really do any image stuff.

Next up, Is there a port for the popular windows Direct Connect program?

No, but there is dc_gui, which is pretty nice.

Similarly, what games today are linux-supported__NOT__emulator supported. I'm too novice to get an emulator to work -.- I suppose I'll have to keep a partition installed with XP for my online gaming needs (DAOC, CnC Generals, Red Alert2, several others...)

Start googling for each game, google for "daoc linux", "red alert 2 linux", etc. I know a guy who is a big DAOC guy, and he is also a linux guy, I'm *pretty sure* DAOC runs in linux natively.

How good is the compatibility of the StarOffice suite with MS Office XP ?

Check out OpenOffice instead. It's not 100% compatible but all of the common stuff is compatible.

I'm in a computer business fundamentals class here at the university, and we're learning (YAY!!! ) Office XP, resulting in many PPT presentations, and quite a large nuber of Excel spreadsheets, I also think we'll be doing Access databases later on in the semester...

The excel stuff would likely work, PP I don't think has an OpenOffice equivelant, and Access, you can probably forget about that..

Anyways, I guess the fruit my problem is, whenever I come over to linux I just go back to doze, because my games/apps are there...

Keep 2 machines around, one with windows and your essential windows apps, and boot it up when you need it. Do everything else on the linux machine. It's better than nothing.

A common problem w/ linux's small following alltogether. (small vs M$, don't flame me, banana hungry monkeys are always looking to flame the newb *nix hater.)

Linux's userbase is HUGE, although small in comparison to MS.

EDIT: Also - I have software for turning DVDs into
SVCDs on doze, would need conversion programs for linux as well if I convert.

There's probably programs to do it, search freshmeat.net.

Edit #2 Also curious about how the file system structure of Linux works. Whenever I used it before, I was very confused... seems like it makes a few different "drives" - there's no common program files directory... so when installing programs/games/etc, where should I direct their files to go? Could someone give me a greater-than-brief explanation of the file-system/struction of linux? I would very much appreciate it. Thanks again.

http://www.freeos.com/articles/3102/

The root of paths is not a device. The whole filesystem is underneath / (the root of the fs). You mount filesystems (partitions) underneath this. For example in windows where you would have C: for windows, D: for apps and E: for data, in linux (and unix in general), you would have /, /usr, and /home for those same respective tasks (rough equivelants anyways).

 

[rosco6912]

thanks for the info - any others?

 

[Spyro]

Unless you have hours of free time I wouldn't even bother with wine. I keep a copy of windows nt on my system so that I don't have to abandon my games, visual basic, etc. It's a lot easier to switch between the two of them than to deal with wine. But if you don't want to have windows on your box at all you could try amaya, SCREEM, quanta, or mozilla's composer. If you want the RPMs for these and most of the other linux programs all you have to do is search for them at rpmfind.net. There is a ton of mandrake-compatible software available there, and downloading and installing them from there is a lot easier than compiling them yourself (just make sure that the version of the package is the one for your distro). I've been using mandrake daily for about a year and I've found it to be the absolute best linux ditro for those new to the OS (and those who like things done smoothly but don't like being pampered). And if you need any help setting up your system I would try just linux and LinuxDocs.org. And if you want to try out some good linux games I recommend checking out the linux game tome. Some of the Linux games that I play are vegastrike (think Wing Commander), freeciv (civilization), and adom (great gameplay, no graphics). Good Luck!!!

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

but the latest offense against the average consumer with WMP9 has lit my "fekk'm" switch.

Not that I'm a real big fan of Windows Media player(I prefer Quicktime and Winamp), but what is the beef with WMP9? Is there some hidden "features" (We all know about Microsoft's "features" ) that we should know about?

 

[rosco6912]

gonzo that's another topic alltogether - check out slashdot.org, i'm sure there's plenty there...

or if you want a real treat... www.f***microsoft.com



Wizard - what is compile and what is rpm?

Thanks

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: rosco6912

Wizard - what is compile and what is rpm?

Thanks

Sometimes, the creator of a program isn't able to (or just doesn't want to) provide an executable file for every flavor of linux, but since most linux programs have their source code (the plain, raw instructions of a computer program before its been compiled or built) available for free, you can still compie that program on your own. The bad thing about compiling is that you have to make sure you have all of the files that the programmer had in order to make things work. Since mandrake is rpm-based though, you shouldn't have to worry about this.

An rpm file is what some linux distros use to distribute their programs. Usually, you can install these in mandrake by double-clicking the file. It's linux's way of installing software (i.e. instead of windows' install.exe and setup.exe). Most popular linux programs com available in an rpm file. (The word rpm, though, is actually just the last three letters of the file name)

 

[Haden]

Here is list of programs (I use) and win analogs, might help:
XMMS - Winamp,
MPlayer - Windows Media Player,
MPlayer,Xine - WinDVD,
DVD::rip - Smartripper+xmpeg (dvd ripping/encoding),
EClipt Roaster - Nero,
Grip - EAC (cd ripping),
KMail - Outlook,
KGet - Getright,
MC - FAR

 

[rosco6912]

ugggg Mandrake 9.1 not working w/ Geforce4 4400 TI.... the graphics are all screwy...

I finally rigged it so I can get some kind of visibility inside Linux, and downloaded the drivers-- I just don't know how to install them... there are 2 rpms, 1 is a kernel and 1 is a glx... w/e the hell that means ;(

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: rosco6912
ugggg Mandrake 9.1 not working w/ Geforce4 4400 TI.... the graphics are all screwy...

I finally rigged it so I can get some kind of visibility inside Linux, and downloaded the drivers-- I just don't know how to install them... there are 2 rpms, 1 is a kernel and 1 is a glx... w/e the hell that means ;(

To install Nvidia's drivers first install the kernel then install the glx (I don't really know what that is either.). To install in mandrake all you have to do is double-click on the file and then input your password in the box. Then all you have to do to get it installed is edit your XF86Config4 (its in /etc/X11) file and make sure the modules section has a line that looks sorta like this:

Load "glx"

and remove these lines (If they are there):

Load "dri"
Load "GLCore"

After that, restart your system and everything should work just fine.

(By the way, since Mandrake 9 is still in beta it may have a few bugs in it, so I think you may want to download 9.0, and Nvidia's 9.0 drivers may not work with Mandrake 9.1 anyway.)

Edit: Added install info