eAction

Moving on further in the lessons, we see that to prepare to install Linux on your computer, you need to find your old computer manuals and have them ready, just in case anything goes wrong. The new operating systems in the linux world are made to walk you through the installation so easily that most people don’t have a problem. But nothing comes guaranteed. Things can go wrong, and you need to know what you’ve got for hardware and so forth.

Personally, I’ve found that it is best to visit the BIOS or CMOS of your computer and make notes of what you have. For instance, in case the installation software can’t find the right make of your graphics card, it’s a good idea to know it’s exact technical name. Then you can insert that or find a model close to yours during the installation without having to turn off the computer and starting over again from the beginning once you have that information.

Look up what you have for USB ports too, and what exactly your extra removable disk drives are called. What’s your screen resolution? Little details like this might save you some frustration and headache. Write them down.

The next big issue is deciding which Linux system you are going to try first. There are more and more of them all the time, and they vary from bare bones, (or swimsuit editions as this lesson online called them), all the way up to the most advanced systems with everything included (as if you were packing gear to climb mount Everest).

For instance, when I installed Mandrake 9.1 - my very first effort - I discovered that I had everything I needed to run my computer as a web server, and an email server. Like, if I knew what I was doing and would keep my computer running 24/7 I wouldn’t need to pay for web hosting or an ISP any more! (I knew I wasn’t ready for that). There were all kinds of programs so that I could become a full-fledged “computer programmer” or graphics expert! I saw stuff that would allow me to connect to someone else’s computer and repair it by remote control.

Yes, really, there are many different kinds of operating systems, and some of them are super deluxe, and others very basic. So before you install a system, you might want to do some research online, or else go with whatever your local guru recommends for your first effort.

The glory of Linux is that you can install more than one system, and you can take one off and replace it with a different one. You can also buy or download and burn a CD with a system in what is known as “LIVE” state. That is, you can stick the CD into your drive, and explore the system as if it were on your hard drive - but it is not. It remains on the CD only. Once you’ve had a test-drive like that, and you could do that with several. Then you can put that same CD into your computer and click “install” and it will install itself on your computer.

Mind you, some of these “LIVE” CDs do not have everything that the full system has, so to get the whole thing you’ll need to get a set of CDs or a DVD to install all of it. In that sense some LIVE CDs are a bit mis-leading. You don’t get the full impact of what it represents until you do the installation.

Here’s another question before we rush into the installation process. Do you want to keep the current operating system on this computer and have the Linux on beside it? That’s known as a Dual-boot computer. This works, but we have to keep certain things in mind as we go.

When I first wanted to try this Mandrake out, I had a lot of things going on my Windows 98 computer that I was afraid I might lose, or it might take me a long time to get things learned and up and running on Mandrake. I had two drives; I decided that I’d really like best if I could keep the Windows 98 on one hard drive, and put Mandrake on the other, then I’d be able to spend time exploring and learning the new system, and switch back to windows when duties pressed.

That worked for a while. In no time I was spending most of my days in Mandrake and just going back to Windows to answer emails. Then one day the windows portion got a virus and seized up. I was forced to work in Mandrake only. Happily by that time I was at home in it, and the transition wasn’t so bad at all.

So, yes, if you want to do a dual-boot, you can do that. You’ll just have to choose your system from a menu whenever you boot up.

We’ll go further next time. Go check out what system you’d like to try.

Sometimes out of the blue, we do get some information that seems important enough to pass on. The piece in the Feature section today came from Fred Miller, the man who persuaded me to change my computer over completely to SUSE, a linux operating system. He keeps very well informed on the news aspect of the conflict between Microsoft (which he refers to as MickeySoft) and the Open Source world which is growing in popularlity almost daily.

But this piece he found in the news is very disturbing and I feel that I should help stir up a warning to all I touch. What happened to this teenage boy, a good, clean kid, could happen to anyone who does not see that their computer is secure and safe. I present it for your information and encouragement, and with Fred’s blessing.

First go read this news item: ABCnews.go.com/

and, an example of one who was charged with a similar crime finally being absolved: news.zdnet.co.uk/

When you’ve read those, come back to read Fred’s response.

What both of these articles confuse is the difference between a PC and an OS (operating system). Just like many people confuse the church BUILDING with the Church (a congregation of people), they fail to understand that Windows is NOT a Personal Computer (PC). It is an operating system. There are several other operating systems available today. With the exception of the Apple Mac OS X, most are free. ALL of them are MORE secure than Windows!! The journalist uses the term PC when he should be saying Windows. Both PCs ran WINDOWS, notorious for its lack of security and vulnerability. Microsoft’s “Dirty Little Secret” is that Windows is IMPOSSIBLE to make secure to any acceptable level by untrained people, and the security holes found in the newly released VISTA indicates that there won’t be much of a change in that tradition. PROFESSIONAL system admins have a lot of trouble making Windows secure (IF at all), what chance do you or your kids have?!

In a recent article the technical reporter for the New York Times did NOT recommend connecting Windows to the Internet!

A Windows computer should never be connected to the Internet. It is NOT IF it will get infected, only WHEN. One survey showed that 11% of the 630 million Windows computers in the USA are continually pumping out zombies, spambots, spam mail, trojans and keyboard loggers. Linux and Open Source software powers 70% of the Internet and Windows powers 28%. Yet, virtually ALL of the malware, that is 100%!, comes from compromised Windows Internet servers.

I’ve been running Linux for over 10 years. For most of that time, my Linux powered PCs have been connected to the internet via a broadband connection (RoadRunner). Yet, in ALL of that time, my computers have never been infected nor have they been hacked into. Hundreds of thousands of emails containing malware have bounced off my email client. I’ve even played with some of them to see what makes them tick, but they cannot automatically infect my Linux OS they way they can a Windows OS.

Because Linux was designed as a SECURE multi-user networking operating system from its beginning its security, speed and stability FAR surpasses ANY version of Windows ever released, INCLUDING Vista. IF you run Linux on your PC it won’t become a DoS launch pad. It won’t become a spambot and spammail server. And, it won’t be downloading illicit materials onto your harddrive because of infections by Trojans…..period!

Keep your kid(s) out of jail. Put Linux on his/her PC!!

Let me recommend openSUSE or KUbuntu…….openSUSE being the VERY MUCH prefered choice. You can purchase a “LiveCD” from several Internet websites or you can download an ISO file(s) (image) to burn a DVD or CDs. Go to: OpenSuse.org. All “LiveCD”s are a bootable disk that you can run entirely from your DVD/CDROM drive WITHOUT touching your Windows installation. OR, after it has booted up into the LiveCD mode, you can chose the install icon and install it on your hard disk.

If you need help, there are plenty of elists and forums to get assistance, but you really MUST/SHOULD be rid of the evil beast that is MickySoft!!

Fred Miller, Lansing, NY

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On December 14/06 I announced that I was going to start taking some online Linux courses, so I could make sure I covered the missing gaps in what I’ve learned as I went along bumping from one need-to-learn to another. This way I’ll be better prepared to teach others.

So here’s where I went this morning: Linux.org/lessons/

It’s all rather tame background information, but for those totally new to this field, that’s good. I also find the writing style here easy to read and very informative.

Here’s a few things that caught my attention;

1. Linux is an operating system meant to be used as an alternative to other operating systems like MS-DOS, the various versions of MS Windows, Mac OS, Solaris and others. Linux is not a program like a word processor and is not a set of programs like an office suite.

2. The kernel was designed by Linus Torvalds, a student at the university of Helsinki, who wanted something that would take into account the ideas and suggestions of users for improving it.

3. Linus joined together with Richard Stallman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) who had programs, but no kernel. Neither one could accomplish much until they helped each other out. (Sort of like the horse and carriage, or love and marriage - you really can’t have one without the other).

4. Linux systems now have such a reputation for stability that some computers have been known to run for a year without needing to be rebooted except for some maintenance. That stability is what is attracting people. While it was considered mainly for geeks and gurus in the 1990s, Red Hat began to produce it on CDs with simple instructions that anyone could understand and use to install on their computer. Now it is taking off in the 2000s!

Next time we’ll move to lessons on installation.

Blessings,
Ruth

Usually I wait until I’ve tried something for a while before I start telling you all about it, but right now my head is full of this social bookmarking that I’m just catching on to, so I thought I’d tell you with this “bursting news.” I’ll use the feature article space to tell you about it.

My prayer and planning retreat time last week was a great encouragement and although there are so many things to divide my time to, it looks like I’ll never get it all done, I’m brashly forging ahead, ready to try - TRY - T-R-Y! Even if I don’t get everything done on my lists this year, at least I’ll have more done than if I didn’t try. Right?

Several people showed an interest in learning internet skills from me in December, so I’m more keen than ever to organize what I know into lessons for those who are “New to the Net.” I’ve decided that the best spot to work on these lessons is right here in my eAction blog/ezine. I’ll also put these on the BouquetofEnterprises.biz site, so that whenever I meet someone new who is eager to learn, I won’t have to repeat myself over and over again. I’ll just send them to this blog or the related web page.

For those who have heard or read this stuff from me before, I hope you’ll bear with me, or at least consider the stuff refresher courses. I’ll do my best to make it easy and fun.

Have you discovered the new online craze for social bookmarking? Maybe you’re still struggling to figure out how to save your Favourites or Bookmarks in your Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Firefox. That’s a good place to keep your own favourite links, and it is smart to put them in folders and sub-folders so you have all your links well organized. Social bookmarking is where you share your favourite links with friends or the rest of the world by listing them on special websites that basically do nothing else, but give you an account, and let you post your links and help you share them.

Apparently there is getting to be quite an elaborate process for notifying friends of new links, or going to visit your friends’ bookmarks to see if you can find anything that looks worthy of a visit.

There are so many smart netpreneurs out there, it’s amazing. Some have already figured out how to use this to their advantage. Well, ours too, if we catch on and use the same technique.

This is what I’ve learned from SearchBigDaddy.com the search engine affiliate program that is branching out into everything hot.

What we need to do is create a nice long list of all our websites, and affiliate links - being very thorough and double-checking for typos.

Then you go join all these various social bookmarking sites, networking membership/friends sites, and even those places that offer you a “My Page” such as Yahoo, MSN, Excite, all kinds of places. Depending on how long your list of URLs is that you want to promote, this could take several sessions, or days, to complete.

But then you can sit back and see how the traffic starts to flow in as the search engines discover and list your site - recognizing it as being more popular because so many other sites have links to it now (and your affiliate URLs as well!) As others come to explore your social bookmarks, they too, will click on your links and come pay a visit.

In some cases you are allowed a title and a short description for each link, as well as a list of keywords that relate to it. Yes, this will take more time, but in the end, it will be more effective for you, because when people do a search for a certain keyword, on these bookmarking sites, your link, if it is of that keyword, will come forward and before their eyes.

Personally, I feel that a lot of these networking and friendship sites so you can give each other your referral links are very time consuming. I already have a busy life, and I’ll bet you do too. However, I do see the value of these incoming links, and I figure, this looks like a clean and productive marketing ploy. I can do the signups and listings and hold back on all the other social activities offered. It’s faster than trying to exchange links with other webmasters, that’s for sure!

Now just where you begin is up to you, but if you want to follow me around, start with these links;

SearchBigDaddy.com (once inside the back office you find links to these others)
SearchBigDadddy.net (has a row of icons/links to lots of social bookmarking sites)
BigDaddyFriends

Del.icio.us (I had already joined this one)

My time for working on this is up today, but I plan to spend a few more days at this, and hope to have a good report of success next time. However, don’t hold your breath that I will sign up with all of those bookmarking societies.

To quote an old proverb (translated) of my Grandpa Gerhard, “The limits for kids and cattle, mature adults have to know.“

This is related to the above feature article. When you are signing up for these various programs and you are not sure whether they will inundate you with all kinds of extra emails and pressure to buy this, upgrade here, whatever (and BigDaddy does this), I recommend that you use a free but fairly reliable email service, maybe even sign up for a new one just for this whole area of promotion. Then if you discover that they are snowing you under a huge drift of emails and you can’t shake them, (or ignore that email:) , then you can simply delete that email as you last resource, and go get a new one.

However, if you are signing up with several programs, you’ll want to carefully record off-computer as well as on it, your signup details;
your user ID, your password, and the email you signed up with. Some day you’ll be looking high and low for this stuff! Make sure it is where you can find it!

You and I might be called slow by some, but it’s better to be thorough, and to be able to continue without needless frustration. I have often avoided paying up, and just milked a program for all that I could get out of it free. That’s how I’ve educated myself!

Which emails do I recommend? If you can afford it, go for http://rmf.mailshell.com (About $30/year) or open a Yahoo or Excite webmail account. (Hotmail has a bad reputation for not getting through spam filters).