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Programming a must, to learn Linux?

post #1 of 16
9/19/06 at 7:18pm
Thread Starter 
Hello everyone,

I tried Mandrake 9 (dual boot) a few years ago just to test linux, everything installed and ran fine, but I couldnt even make a desktop icon. So I only used it for a couple weeks. It also corrupt my MBR after I uninstalled it, but that was my fault.

Well fast forward to now and im at my wits end with Windows. I almost threw my laptop yesterday cause it kept crashing/rebooting/going on standby (I knew I shouldnt of updated it). So I checked some of the links on this site and alot of sites i've been to have code on how to do things in linux. I have no programming knowledge, although I may take a C++ class. From what I read linux is great because you can customize it to your liking. So if I want to seriously try and switch over to linux (except for games) do I have to learn how to program? I dont mind doing so if needed.
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post #2 of 16
9/19/06 at 7:58pm
No programming needed. Try ubuntu Linux.

www.ubuntuguide.org
www.ubuntuforums.org
www.getautomatix.com
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post #3 of 16
9/19/06 at 8:46pm
to use linux as a productive home user requires absolutely no knowledge of programming. BT is on teh right track, pop in ubuntu and you should be ready to run out of the box.
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post #4 of 16
9/19/06 at 9:41pm
Thread Starter 
Ok thanks for the link! I will give it a try within the next day or two.
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post #5 of 16
9/19/06 at 11:27pm
Programming is certainly not needed, but understanding how a programmer thinks might not be a bad idea for understanding the way linux or open source software works half the time

Try out Ubuntu, I doubt youll have any problem. One of the greatest indications of this to me recently was we loaded up an old computer in a lab I work at with linux. We have lots of students come in there, primarily education majors or grad students, NOT technically inclined(Most cant refill a printer with paper)

Out of all of them, of all the people that work there, the only person to even NOTICE they were on a strange OS asked me what it was. One out of several hundred aint bad. Other than that noone has had the slightest bit of problem running their day to day stuff.

This was a standard Ubuntu install+automatix

It is perfectly useable for many people once it is set up. Setting it up can be tricky, which is why Ubuntu gets reccomended so much around here, it is the most painless most of the time in the setup phase, but if you DO run into problems, please GOOGLE first, SEARCH these forums, and if you cant answer it through that, please feel free to post and we can probably help you quite easily.

Seablade
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post #6 of 16
9/20/06 at 3:20am
I started using Linux in 1994, and I just started learning a real programming language (as in not BASIC/VB) this year. I never had any problems because I didn't know C, though I will admit it would have been nice to know it sooner. If you use Linux long enough, you'll start to pick up at least the basics of shell scripting just because it'll make your life easier.

Once Linux is set up, it really is as easy to use as anything else. I maintain the public computer in my building, and the first thing I did was get rid of Windows. There's no way I want to deal with a Windows system that's used regularly by a bunch of computer illiterate people. The funny thing is that nobody seems to have noticed it's not Windows. I find Windows programs and installers saved to the desktop pretty regulary. Nobody has had any problems using it, except for being unable to install any random crap they download from the web. That system is running Gentoo, since that's what I'm most familiar with.
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post #7 of 16
9/20/06 at 6:49am
Well, I think it depends on how deep you want to understand Linux. If you just want to learn basic productivity tasks, then try ubuntu, which need no programming for that purpose and easier installation method than even Windows (subjective thinking).


When you want to control the configuration of an application in linux, I think there is still no need for programming. Although most configurations are done in text files, all you need is familiarize yourself with "man xxx" and searching google and linux forums.

The need for programming will come when you want to create something to be ran on linux, or customize an application by modifying its source code.

Happy linux, and dont ever try to throw your lappie :-)

I'm sorry if my English is poor.
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post #8 of 16
9/20/06 at 9:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by voronoi
Happy linux, and dont ever try to throw your lappie :-)

nothing wrong with doing this! running ubuntu on my laptop just fine. the only down side i can think of is i can't standby, but that has to do more with ati's crappy fglrx drivers than anything else.
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post #9 of 16
9/22/06 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by seablade
We have lots of students come in there, primarily education majors or grad students, NOT technically inclined(Most cant refill a printer with paper)
I lmao when I read that!

Quote:
Originally Posted by seablade
This was a standard Ubuntu install+automatix

It is perfectly useable for many people once it is set up. Setting it up can be tricky, which is why Ubuntu gets reccomended so much around here, it is the most painless most of the time in the setup phase, but if you DO run into problems, please GOOGLE first, SEARCH these forums, and if you cant answer it through that, please feel free to post and we can probably help you quite easily.

Seablade

I usually google everything before I post =) . I just read that alot of people who progam, run linux, so I figured it would be best to be a programmer. I'm glad that its not a must, although I would like to give it a shot. I found a pdf on the web on how to do shell scripting in linux, so i'll read that to help me out.

The only other question is about dual booting. I dont have a 2nd HD so im just going to make a new partition on it and install linux. It went well last time I did it, but my problem was uninstalling the OS, I corrupted my MBR. My question is how do I uninstall linux w/out messing up the MBR? I tried following the directions on linuxlaptop, but something went wrong lol. Actually I have 2 questions lol. When I uninstall linux, what will happen to the empty space? Will I have to convert it back to ntfs manually? The reason im asking is beause I plan on trying it on my old pc first before I put it on my laptop.


Thanks
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post #10 of 16
9/22/06 at 1:41pm
If you are going to give programming a shot then some bash scripting is a good start. If you want to go a little further and get into things like object oriented programming then scripting languages like python and ruby are phenominal. They are installed by default by virtually every distro so you can get into it right away.

A big advantage in going with Ruby is that you can easily pick up the Rails framework and build some very powerful web applications with minimal effort. Plus Rails has some great AJAX libraries. As far as I know, Python only has the Django web framework which is nice, but it's not widely used and not well documented yet (plus no isps support it).

Once you learn an oo language like Ruby getting into C++ (which is what Ruby is written in) is much easier. Ruby isn't nearly as strict as C++ with its syntax so it's easier to get started with, but the concepts are still the same.
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post #11 of 16
9/22/06 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sygen
how do I uninstall linux w/out messing up the MBR?


Thanks

just boot of the windows install disk, go to Repair and type in "fix mbr" done...
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post #12 of 16
9/23/06 at 12:54am
ABFs suggestion is what most of us do.

You could also choose to install the bootloader to the HD partition instead of the MBR. I dont have much experience with this though myself, I find it pretty easy to do the above, or did when I still dual booted.

Seablade
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post #13 of 16
9/29/06 at 2:22am
Thread Starter 
HAHA This is sweeet...Ubuntu has this thing called Live CD and I could use linux w/out even insalling it!!! All my hardware works perfect, it even found my wireless card, configured it and connected it.

How do I get my cpu temp next to the time like I see in peoples screenshots?
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post #14 of 16
9/29/06 at 10:35pm
livecds are really nothing new.....but glad you like it. to make most use of what ubuntu has to offer (now that you know it supports all your hardware) is to simply install it, run automatix to configure the rest of it....and you'll be flying.
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post #15 of 16
10/2/06 at 1:20pm
You do not need to program.

I'm a semi-experienced programmer (I've been programming in various languages since I was about 13), and do know a fair amount, but I've never had to use it for Linux. Unless I want to write/contribute to some of the Linux programs or Linux itself.

One thing I really, really like is the command prompt. Now, the first thing you need to do is throw out the pain-in-the a$$ image you have from trying to make MS-DOS do what you want. I'm talking about using the command prompt to quickly pass powerful commands to the operating system. That's where a lot of the power comes from in Linux, and it helps to try and learn some of the basic commands.
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post #16 of 16
10/3/06 at 1:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by attilathepun
I'm talking about using the command prompt to quickly pass powerful commands to the operating system. That's where a lot of the power comes from in Linux, and it helps to try and learn some of the basic commands.
I think we all agree that programming is not required, but virtually every distro comes with support for shell scripting, ruby, python and perl. That's an incredible amount of programming/scripting power right out of the box. If someone is actually interested in doing some programming, those are all a great way to start- That's really what makes the linux command line so powerful, imo.
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