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Tips from our Members

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
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mechanic
Posts: 18
Joined: 2005-11-24 19:03

Re: Tips from our Members

#31 Post by mechanic »

dbbolton wrote:
You might be shocked once you've stuck around a bit longer.
I see from the joining dates that I've been around for longer than you - but so what?

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Raffles10
Posts: 191
Joined: 2008-12-09 16:36
Location: London, UK

Re: Tips from our Members

#32 Post by Raffles10 »

hazel wrote:I would rather tell beginners that, since the graphical side of Linux is an add-on to the basic system, they can choose what kind of desktop they want. The fundamental choice is between desktop environments (big, tightly integrated, resource-hungry, and coming with a full suite of applications with a common look and feel) or window managers (lean, mean, fast, but requiring you (or more positively encouraging you) to assemble your own personal collection of favourite apps). I think that corresponds to a basic temperamental difference in users.

If they decide to go the DE route, then there are big DEs (gnome, KDE), medium-size (xfce) and small ones (lxde). But even the smallest requires more resources than a simple window manager on its own. Only those who definitely want a big modern desktop environment with plenty of eye-candy need to choose between gnome and KDE.
I'm currently using KDE 4.3.4 on a Tesing/Sid install, previously I had an Openbox set up with no DE installed. I've found that the demands on system resources at start up differs by approx' 5%. KDE with compositing enabled boots with about 20% RAM usage (of 2Gb) whereas Openbox used to start with 15% with xcompmgr running. I think the differences between the "resource hog" DE's and the "lean mean" WM's are much overplayed.

Tip:
Try things for yourself, don't use other people's experiences as a basis for your own decision making.
Debian Squeeze + KDE 4.4.4 + AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000 + nVidia GeForce 8600

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dbbolton
Posts: 2129
Joined: 2007-06-20 08:17
Location: Iapetus

Re: Tips from our Members

#33 Post by dbbolton »

mechanic wrote:
dbbolton wrote:
You might be shocked once you've stuck around a bit longer.
I see from the joining dates that I've been around for longer than you - but so what?
Assuming your implication that join date is connected with reading forum posts regularly, then you must have seen how many migrants come to this forum and are shocked to find out that Debian isn't exactly like Ubuntu. But since you didn't see that, per your earlier post, my assumption must be false.

Probably the most common thing is sudo-- "It wasn't installed/set up automatically for me like it was in Ubuntu". Of course this could go for any number of things.

There are also a lot of people who actually join #debian to ask questions about Ubuntu, and are appalled when someone refers them to #ubuntu. I've seen this happen several times.
GitHub | zsh docs in Letter PDF
Telemachus wrote:Put down the CGI.

mechanic
Posts: 18
Joined: 2005-11-24 19:03

Re: Tips from our Members

#34 Post by mechanic »

Ah, I think I see the source of our little disagreement, you missed the ironic nature of my initial post. Perhaps you are a US citizen?

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dbbolton
Posts: 2129
Joined: 2007-06-20 08:17
Location: Iapetus

Re: Tips from our Members

#35 Post by dbbolton »

mechanic wrote:Ah, I think I see the source of our little disagreement, you missed the ironic nature of my initial post. Perhaps you are a US citizen?
I was actually being sarcastic until you called my integrity into question.


Disclaimer: This post is not a serious post.
GitHub | zsh docs in Letter PDF
Telemachus wrote:Put down the CGI.

jstnice
Posts: 2
Joined: 2010-04-15 08:50

Re: Tips from our Members

#36 Post by jstnice »

hazel wrote:
kman wrote:I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to linux but when i try to convince people to try a linux distro , i tell them that if they like mac then they would be more comfortable with gnome and if you are a windows familiar person you would be more comfortable with kde3 (xp like) and kde4 ( vista or windows 7 like).
I would rather tell beginners that, since the graphical side of Linux is an add-on to the basic system, they can choose what kind of desktop they want. The fundamental choice is between desktop environments (big, tightly integrated, resource-hungry, and coming with a full suite of applications with a common look and feel) or window managers (lean, mean, fast, but requiring you (or more positively encouraging you) to assemble your own personal collection of favourite apps). I think that corresponds to a basic temperamental difference in users.

If they decide to go the DE route, then there are big DEs (gnome, KDE), medium-size (xfce) and small ones (lxde). But even the smallest requires more resources than a simple window manager on its own. Only those who definitely want a big modern desktop environment with plenty of eye-candy need to choose between gnome and KDE.
thanks for you to share your mind.

weedeater64
Posts: 166
Joined: 2008-03-18 15:17
Location: Norfolk, Va.

Re: Tips from our Members

#37 Post by weedeater64 »

I see it often said to "search the forum" for the answer your looking for, before posting a new thread. Fine, but I've found the forum search utility to be less than useful. Usually you'll get either no results or a whole bunch of irrelevant results *IMO*. I once did a search on this very forum for something, I can't recall exactly what at the moment, but the first result was a thread where someone had posted try using the search function, true story.

Anyway, I learned a while back one way to make better use of google, and (in my opinion a better way to search the forums).

You can search a single domain in google like this,

Code: Select all

site:forums.debian.net  put search terms here
Doing this, I've had much greater success than by using this or other forums built in search.

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debil
Posts: 1336
Joined: 2008-05-11 08:55
Location: Mazes of Menace, surrounded by brown puddings

Re: Tips from our Members

#38 Post by debil »

weedeater64 wrote:You can search a single domain in google like this,

Code: Select all

site:forums.debian.net  put search terms here
There's also a yubnub command that performs the same thing: go to YubNub and type the following into search entry:

Code: Select all

duf put search terms here
Q: Why is the Eunux kernel so bloated?
A: It was made in the image of its founder.

Lou
Posts: 1739
Joined: 2006-05-08 02:15

Re: Tips from our Members

#39 Post by Lou »

Sometimes the installation does not go ok, the network, dns, partition, etc. This was the case of my paper boy and his old PIII/256mb ram/intel integrated tower.

We decided to clean the old hard drive, i introduced a copy of the SLAX live cd, it entered X fine, went to the terminal (it's already on root) and filled the hd with zeros:

Code: Select all

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda 

or hda if it's an ide drive.
I left it running for an hour (the screen won't show nothing) then i stopped with Ctrl-c, rebooted, got the slax cd out, inserted the Lenny netinstall cd and this time everything worked. We did a minimal install and installed LXDE, he's happy as a pig in manure.

Just a tip...

Lou
Posts: 1739
Joined: 2006-05-08 02:15

Re: Tips from our Members

#40 Post by Lou »

I just wrote a couple of howtos in the Docs, Howtos, Tips, and Tricks subforum.
They are basic Lenny instalation and configuration.

It might answer some questions...

Lou
Posts: 1739
Joined: 2006-05-08 02:15

Re: Tips from our Members

#41 Post by Lou »

Great howto, comes with screenshots of the installation, best one i've seen:

The Perfect Desktop - Debian Lenny - by Falko Timme
http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-d ... bian-lenny
Devuan Jessie - IceWM - vimperator - no DM
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

leema
Posts: 3
Joined: 2010-08-27 10:40

Tips from our Members

#42 Post by leema »

Hi I am new to this site....................

Lou
Posts: 1739
Joined: 2006-05-08 02:15

Re: Tips from our Members

#43 Post by Lou »

Welcome!
Devuan Jessie - IceWM - vimperator - no DM
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid

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AMLJ
Posts: 973
Joined: 2009-03-18 07:40
Location: Mierlo, Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Tips from our Members

#44 Post by AMLJ »

I just want to suggest new users, not to mess with things too much unless they understand how Debian works.
And another tip, Google your questions before asking here...

That's it! Have fun! :mrgreen:
AMLJ**0-1-47

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bmc5311
Posts: 545
Joined: 2008-11-16 15:21
Location: lost in the vast machine

Re: Tips from our Members

#45 Post by bmc5311 »

tip for openbox users -

volumeicon -http://www.softwarebakery.com/maato/volumeicon.html

works well from the tint2 system tray, better and lighter weight then kmix.

best volume control thing-a-ma-bob i've found so far.

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: Tips from our Members

#46 Post by secipolla »

Looks very similar to volwheel.

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bmc5311
Posts: 545
Joined: 2008-11-16 15:21
Location: lost in the vast machine

Re: Tips from our Members

#47 Post by bmc5311 »

it's better - i tried volwheel before i settled on kmix.

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MeanDean
Posts: 3866
Joined: 2007-09-01 01:14

Re: Tips from our Members

#48 Post by MeanDean »

ehhh....I just stick a shortcut to my favorite mixer on my panel

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dbbolton
Posts: 2129
Joined: 2007-06-20 08:17
Location: Iapetus

Re: Tips from our Members

#49 Post by dbbolton »

MeanDean wrote:ehhh....I just stick a shortcut to my favorite mixer on my panel
The nerve.
GitHub | zsh docs in Letter PDF
Telemachus wrote:Put down the CGI.

User avatar
bmc5311
Posts: 545
Joined: 2008-11-16 15:21
Location: lost in the vast machine

Re: Tips from our Members

#50 Post by bmc5311 »

MeanDean wrote:ehhh....I just stick a shortcut to my favorite mixer on my panel
excellent idea, however can't do that with tint2. and i kinda dig using the scroll wheel.. :)

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