[PLUG] It's Here!!

Ron Braithwaite ron at braithwaites.net
Tue May 10 23:31:52 UTC 2005


On Tuesday 10 May 2005 11:43 am, John Jordan wrote:
> Before I forget, is there a file manager that shows the partition you
> are looking at? Every time I use Konqueror it just shows folders. I
> have no idea where I am. You know the old file manager that came
> with Windows 3.0 and 3.1? Something like that, showing all the
> partitions and their folders in a tree-like text-only window (suffering
> from icon overload here).

I just got home from having root canal and I'm not really too with it, so 
please bear that in mind.

I am not aware of any file browser that shows which partition the current 
directory is in (anyone else know of one?), but that is sort of antithetical 
of the nature of *nix. The original idea of Unix that is pretty much still 
the case in Linux (and other Unii) is that /everything/ is a file. When Sun 
shared NFS (Network File System) with the world back in the early 80's, that 
allowed it to use the marketing slogan, "The network is the computer." And 
having to be aware of "where" you are, whether its which partition you are on 
or which computer you are on at gets in the way of the goal of portable code.

> And while I'm on that subject, I need some education about the
> different folders. Like /etc, /usr, and so on. I understand the need
> for short names back in the days when everything had to be typed,
> but I have no idea what those folders mean or what is supposed to
> be in them. Or where I am supposed to install programs. Or where
> my own data files are supposed to go. Is there a beginner's intro to
> Linux folder conventions somewhere? Something I could print out
> and tape up on the wall here would be handy.

Yes indeedy do! Please go to The Linux Documentation Project 
(http://www.tldp.org/) and read away. Another wonderful resource is The Linux 
Tutorial (http://www.linux-tutorial.info/) that should answer many of your 
questions.

And there is this list, PLUG, which is filled with many wonderful people who 
are anxious to help. Some of them have been doing Linux for so long, they 
have forgotten that newbies don't always know all of the acronyms. Be patient 
with them (us) and they (we) will be patient with you.

> I think I'm going to have to wipe out Suse 9.3 and reinstall. It's the
> only way I can think of to get it out of my data partition and into the
> partition I want it in. And, considering my current frustration with
> Suse 9.3, I'm open to suggestions for something else. I have
> Fedora Core 3 here on DVD and CD with the Sam's "unleashed"
> book I got down at Powell's. But if Mandriva will recognize the
> Radeon Xpress 200 and set it up at 1280 x 800 like it is supposed
> to be, maybe that would be a better choice.

Well, I have used many of the different distros (I won't bother enumerating 
them) and I end up always coming back to Mandrake for my laptop machines. 
When it comes to running a server, I personally think Debian is a better 
choice, but for desktops and /especially/ laptops, Mandrake, er, Mandriva is 
the Bomb.

BTW, the reason that Mandriva gives for the name change is that they merged 
with Connectiva, the largest South American distro and so they combined the 
names (Mandrake is based in France). The real reason is that the comic 
syndicate that owns the rights to the Mandrake the Magician comic strip sued 
them to stop using the name. Tacky.

> And how do I get rid of Suse? Parts of it are in the small partition it
> was supposed to be in, but I think it's just empty folders in there.
> The rest is in the big partition. Should I just format them both? I
> know Windows would scream bloody murder if you tried to format
> the drive it's on -- you have to do it from a boot floppy with format or
> fdisk or something.

When you install Mandrake, the (very nice) partition manager will do that work 
for you.

> Man, I wish the next Clinic meeting was tonight! Only at the rate
> I'm going I'd need a whole Clinic _weekend_ to get this thing
> working right! And by the time it was over you guys would be ready
> to throw my computer off the Marquam bridge and me after it. :(

I haven't been to the Clinic for years (the same is true of probably most of 
the folks on this list), If you want, I'll make a copy of the 6 CD set of 
Mandriva 2005LE for you if you will agree to share them with others. Drop me 
a note off list if you want to do that.

Peace,
-Ron

-- 
Ron Braithwaite
Technical Consulting Services
4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd #228, Portland, OR 97214 USA
1917 W 4th Ave #549, Vancouver, BC V6J 1M7 Canada
+1-503-267-3250
ron(at)braithwaites(dot)net



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