JUNE 2007 MAXIMUMPC 45
BY WILL SMITH
PhotograPhy by MarK MaDEoIt’s never been easier.
Now is the perfect time to leave Windows
behind and learn to use Linux!
I
’ve written about Linux in Maximum PC quite
a bit over the last three years. You see, I’m
intrigued by the prospect of a free, open
operating system, one that’s available for
everyone to use and modify to suit their own
purposes. Rather than a monolithic operating sys-
tem vendor telling me that I’m not allowed to do
something, there’s an entire community of devel-
opers who are working to make whatever features
I want possible! To me, that’s the essence of what
computing should be about—enabling choice.
Which brings me to the biggest problem with
Linux: the paralyzing number of choices every user
must make. There are literally tens of thousands
of apps for Linux, ranging from vital software
that every end user needs—web browsers, word
processors, and Wi-Fi drivers—to the very trivial.
Frequently, you’ll find 15 applications that do
exactly the same thing, so you’ll need to experi-
ment and discover which is best suited for you.
Writing a comprehensive Linux guide is a
daunting process—and largely unnecessary.
The Linux community does a great job of docu-menting most of its software, whether it’s the
developers actually writing docs or the end users
figuring things out and sharing the acquired info
with their pals. All the information you need to
get running is out there, if you know what to
search for on Google, that is.
And that’s where I come in. Books have been
written with solutions for all the potential pitfalls
the Linux-switcher faces. However, those books
are outdated the moment a new version of Linux is
released. Instead of just telling you what to do, I’m
going to tell you how to do things and explain why
you’re doing them. I’m going to focus on the things
that are truly a challenge (and poorly documented),
but still give you a head start on the easy stuff.
Before you get started, you need to be pre-
pared to be your own support system. While
you can usually get help with Linux problems
on different message boards on the web, before
you do that, you need to make the effort to solve
your own problems. Linux DIYers don’t have
much sympathy for people who don’t make an
effort to help themselves.