My thanks to all who responded. David wrote a few days ago

...

I have just gone over, or come over, to Unix - Mandrake 10.0 they call it. It feels great. Are there any hints or advice for a new guy?

Ari P

Learn to read documentation, including how to find it. Not much more to answer to such a broadly stated question.

D (If I were to read the documentation, I might actually get educated.) It is good advice. Unix is somewhere between an education and a way of thinking (or life), it seems. I have no specific question at present but I am going to have. My hometown was placed in the broadband zone recently, so soon I intend to move over to jetstream. I have applied to my ISP for it, and the hardware is going to be installed in my computer next week. When I do move over I just know there will be qs I can't handle. Also, accessing the web via a computer prog, preferably in Pascal rather than C, is something coming up. I don't know Perl nor Java, nor the jargon of this technique, nor where the problem overlaps Unix and wlug, nor even if it is possible in Pascal, But I won't ask these qs yet. FH

Using Linux fulltime only since last September (Gentoo), I know in a way what you mean. I'd suggest to latch on to a very active Mandrake forum which has a good searchable archive.

D I haven't started looking for an MDK forum but it is something to do. GD

If you an get into Hamilton on a Monday night, get along to the lug meetings. [snip] you will build good friendships and strong networks. Linux is more community than OS IMHO ..... And the OS really rocks.

D My car is presently unreliable, but person to person contact is what I want. I want to go. The OS gives the impression of steady and stable. Several times I have had the computer on for ten hours, and it never got slower (like the old OS did) and it never froze. It is really a good feeling. LD

I strongly agree with Gavin. Sounds like you have had a good start anyway.  Not many people have come to me saying "I have just installed (whatever) Linux on my machine and it feels great", a lot of people have said, "I tried to get Linux working on my machine, but I couldn't get it to work...", and a lot of those people were IT professionals - they have got sucked in too deep into the dark side.

D I deliberately waited for Mandrake 10.0 (Official), and waited a bit more. It probably paid off. If I didn't have the specifc purpose of downloading, de-tarring, and installing a Pascal compiler, and using it to compile a prog, then I wouldn't have had an initial success and the good feeling. I suppose it is similar to the trick some people use when learning a second spoken language, say Spanish: They read a well-known English-language story or poem in Spanish. Getting the compiler up and running was a struggle but now that I have that feather in my cap, the rest should be easier and more relaxed. Bascially, I have my nice little computer back. LD

Yep, there is a steep learning curve ahead, but it's really worth it. Open Source Software has done a lot for me than any variant of MS Windows will ever do.

D That inspires me to keep with it. LD

I'm not anti-Microsoft - but the more you get into Linux, the more you realise why other people think Windows Sux, furthermore you are siding them with those views.

D What gets me is the gaul (sp) or the chutzpah (sp) of the co-founder of ¬. He sold something he didn't own, and that didn't really exist, to people who shouldn't have bought it. And if they had only waited a bit, none of this thingamjig would have happened. DB

Learn to search Google for your problems (unless you have paid your $20 to be a member, then you can bug them on #wlug ;)

D Google sure is an amazing library. I have used it alot for research into old texts and historical events (I write historical fiction in my spare time). I haven't paid $20. If I prove unable to get my jetstream running, and they do, it will be worth $20. GW

So, have you found yourself Pascal compilers yet?

D Yes indeed. I used to use the one available on freepascal.org (and .com) so when I switched to Unix I simply went back to the same well. I had to log on as root ('su') then I could instal. I reckon 'tar' should be called 'dar', for disk archive, rather than tape archive. The Vim editor and the KWrite editor are both much better than what I am used to. And the shell (Konsole) or Terminal Program they call it, is so versatile. It didn't take me long to discover 'ls' instead of 'dir', and './' before the assembled and linked file; and forward slash instad of '#' (oh well, my keyboard doesn't want to give it). PL

We try hard to put any advice or hints into the wlug wiki. http://www.wlug.org.nz/ If you find some piece of information you found difficult to find, please put it somewhere in the wiki.

D This resource is very handy to know about. My thanks again to all who responded to my query. David C in Huntly, NZ,  amateur Pascal progger, digest member.