[clug] A New Users perspective on Linux

[Ian Bardsley]

Peter Barker wrote:

>On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, Ian Bardsley wrote:
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>>The Mandrake cds provided all of the common applications but I needed
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>Ah! Well, now you've put all that trouble into getting Mandrake working, I
>guess it MUST be time for you to try a different distribution ;)
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>>Desktop Publishing, 2D CAD, a working DVD player and a sound sequencer
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>Can you tell us all what did you decide to go with for all of your
>applications?  I find I hear about all these cool applications but never
>have time to play with them at all, or if so, only a cursory glance. Had a
>play with Scribus the other day, for example, but couldn't give it a
>really good workout. Others might have the same problem as me....
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>>_I now need to research the best approach to Anti-Virus, Anti-Spywear
>>and a secure Firewall so any suggestions or feed back would be very
>>welcome._
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>Ah. Well.
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>IMO, you shouldn't worry about explicit anti-virus stuff. Just make sure
>you keep your system up to date. There should be facility somewhere in
>Mandrake to tell you when "updates are available". And keep backups :)
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>Anti-spyware is an interesting one. There were some (almost certainly
>sensationalist) headlines the other day about spyware authors starting to
>target firefox. Again, probably just best to keep your machine up-to-date,
>and be careful of what plugins/whatever you allow for
>firefix/mozilla/browser-of-choice-which-is-certainly-as-good-as-either-of-those-two.
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>As for firewall... if you are connecting this machine directly to the
>internet, make sure it's kept up-to-date! As Martijn pointed out, the
>"iptables" package will allow you to configure a firewall. Most firewalls
>are misconfigured, though... so you might want to looks for some HOWTOs on
>tightening boxes up from a security point of view (e.g. turning off unused
>services).
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>>To conclude.  Is Linux a viable alternative to Windows for the non IT
>>industry user....Yes.... although not quite yet for those with no PC
>>experience.
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>Really soon now, I hope.
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>It really is nice to hear success stories every now and then :)
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>>Ian Bardsley
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>Yours,
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Thanks for the feedback. I think I would need a seperate PC to play with 
other Linux Distros. I'm pretty happy with the setup of this system and 
i'm not looking for a new hobby at the moment..... but maybe one 
day....Tomorrow or the next day!!!

The applications I have chosen for this PC

Open Office
Gimp
QCad (still available for free but Author wants paying to get from his 
site... no problem when the next iteration is available as it's a pretty 
competant package)
Xine (Plus some work arounds to overcome the licencing issues associated 
with DVD copyright.
Zapping for TV (easy to setup and searches channels well) My PC is our 
2nd TV
K3B
Mozilla (Browser, Mail, Development...dont do chat)
Rosegarden, Qsynth, Jack plus free soundfonts let me compose, structure, 
sequence, record and publish music and sound
Scribus (the least developed product at this stage but shows promise and 
is usable (just)
GamBas ('cos i've used VB and I was interested in looking at the Linux 
alternative and all the other development platforms are double dutch to me

Thanks for the anti virus info...I had an unrequested web page jump on 
this system whilst Googling for information about configuring Jack. I 
think there are mischief makers out there and thats a worry (or would be 
if I were the worrying kind)

Have Fun


Ian B