The Linux gods must be trying to tell me something.
Reading this months issue of Maximum PC I came across an article: “How to safely install Linux on your PC.” I am a computer geek and have been considering installing Linux for a long time so I was like, yeah… Why not? This article explains how to install Mandrake 9.2 and the screen shots are pretty! Hoping on to the web I download the distro. Four burned CDs later I’m ready to start. The instructions detail how simple it is to do a multi-OS install using the built in OS loader.
After having prepared an entire hard drive to accommodate the new OS I began the installation. It was completely painless! All I have to do now is reboot and choose to load Linux from the LILO boot loader… Where’s LILO? It just went right in to Windows. What the hell? Great. Oh well, I’ll just try again tomorrow.
At work I mention this to one of the known Linux geeks at work. Just like every other Linux user I’ve ever spoken to he suggests using a different distro. I’ve decided to use Mandrake. I don’t have a particularly good reason. I just read about it and I’m stubborn. If they all had their way I would have seven or eight different versions of it downloaded by now. Screw that.
Arriving home I decide to use some of the spare parts and to cannibalize a few from my computer to build a dedicated machine to run it on. I get about half way through the installation before my screen goes blank. Awesome. I restart the computer and I get garbled crap. My video card is toast. That’s ok, it was old anyways. All I want to do is install Linux!
The next morning at work I ask anyone if they have a spare video card I could buy. Explaining why I inadvertently touched off a riot. Eight Linux users got into a brawl over which version they use. “DEBIAN ALL THE WAY HOMOS” screamed a red faced Marco as he used one of the more gangly geeks to beat down the others. “SUSE RULES BITCHES” bellowed another from a different isle, safely out of the reach of Marco. I kept trying to explain what I needed but I was no longer part of the exchange. N00bs apparently get excluded from this type of thing. I’m not “l337” enough I suppose. I decided to just go buy a used card. Less bloodshed.
Having paid fifteen dollars for a used card I went home and installed it. Linux loaded without issue. It was great. I found myself sitting there looking at the KDE desktop thinking “Ok… what now”. I went through all that crap and I have no idea what to do now. Where do I start? Why did I want Linux again?
Reading this months issue of Maximum PC I came across an article: “How to safely install Linux on your PC.” I am a computer geek and have been considering installing Linux for a long time so I was like, yeah… Why not? This article explains how to install Mandrake 9.2 and the screen shots are pretty! Hoping on to the web I download the distro. Four burned CDs later I’m ready to start. The instructions detail how simple it is to do a multi-OS install using the built in OS loader.
After having prepared an entire hard drive to accommodate the new OS I began the installation. It was completely painless! All I have to do now is reboot and choose to load Linux from the LILO boot loader… Where’s LILO? It just went right in to Windows. What the hell? Great. Oh well, I’ll just try again tomorrow.
At work I mention this to one of the known Linux geeks at work. Just like every other Linux user I’ve ever spoken to he suggests using a different distro. I’ve decided to use Mandrake. I don’t have a particularly good reason. I just read about it and I’m stubborn. If they all had their way I would have seven or eight different versions of it downloaded by now. Screw that.
Arriving home I decide to use some of the spare parts and to cannibalize a few from my computer to build a dedicated machine to run it on. I get about half way through the installation before my screen goes blank. Awesome. I restart the computer and I get garbled crap. My video card is toast. That’s ok, it was old anyways. All I want to do is install Linux!
The next morning at work I ask anyone if they have a spare video card I could buy. Explaining why I inadvertently touched off a riot. Eight Linux users got into a brawl over which version they use. “DEBIAN ALL THE WAY HOMOS” screamed a red faced Marco as he used one of the more gangly geeks to beat down the others. “SUSE RULES BITCHES” bellowed another from a different isle, safely out of the reach of Marco. I kept trying to explain what I needed but I was no longer part of the exchange. N00bs apparently get excluded from this type of thing. I’m not “l337” enough I suppose. I decided to just go buy a used card. Less bloodshed.
Having paid fifteen dollars for a used card I went home and installed it. Linux loaded without issue. It was great. I found myself sitting there looking at the KDE desktop thinking “Ok… what now”. I went through all that crap and I have no idea what to do now. Where do I start? Why did I want Linux again?
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