Wonderful World of Linux

Day One and i'm already having teething problems.

I spent the whole day at Rhem's watching him tinker around with my PC. A trojan managed to sneak in my PC the other day, thankfully the firewall wouldn't let it out.

So as we scanned, scanned, scanned we found an old virus lurking from when I linked my ancient hard disk--circa `95--to my PC to retrieve some old but inspired data. The virus spread on to a few folders, imbedding some nice porn links that I didn't know about.

After assuring Rhem that I didn't do net porn and that smutty fanfics were the only thing in my PC that can sear your eyes out--we set out to backing up my data, cleaning some partitions, and finally getting down to "Linux business".

We decided to keep my training wheels and keep my Windows partition, though I put my foot down and refused yet again the upgrade to Windows XP. I've heard the horror stories with the newer service packs and I was fine with my Win2000 thanks, let's not complicate things.

So onto decisions on what Linux version to use. I almost went for Suse, but Rhem told me that I had the extra brain cells to at least manage Fedora.

I had RedHat in my partition before, their last version before they decided to sell out. I couldn't figure out how to mount anything or connect to the net, and with work I didn't have time to read manuals and figure things out. Plus, it loaded on a shell and I lost my notebook with the instructions. I monkeyed around with Knoppix, but didn't have time to read up on setting partitions.

So yes, this is my second comeback to Linux, but this time I was determined to just use it. I finally decided on Fedora...and somehow couldn't connect to the net.

Sigh.

I'd tried installing it before, on my own, but for some reason it wouldn't work. So when it loaded at Rhem's place, I thought we at least had the basics licked.

But no, for some reason Fedora can't detect my modem. So I can't do any updates nor can I connect to the net.

Incidentally, if anyone out there has a free driver for a hsflinmodem-5.03.27 distributed by Conexant for Linux-please tell me. I am begging. I don't do well with message boards, though with Linux that's really your only guide.

It wouldn't even detect Rhem's DSL. :( So home I went, with the two of us determined to find, find, find that driver.

So yes, i'm glad that I kept that Windows boot option.

But I planned on getting my job done on Open Office. Hey, the least you can do right?

Wrong. Because my Fedora was configured on Rhem's monitor, so now it won't detect my monitor. The shell loaded ok, but when the GUI was about to come up, the screen went blank and I almost banged my head on my keyboard.

So if anyone would be kind enough to point me out to a nice X11 tutorial or x0rg.config tutorial or link, it would be very much appreciated.

As a consolation, I plunked in my new Knoppix CD and did some stuff. Of course, with it on CD, working there felt like running on neck high water.

I finally gave up at around 1am and switched to windows.

So now I'm trolling the message boards, looking for something helpful. I'm not giving up. It's mostly patience and persistence that fuels most Linux users, since you have to adjust to everything.

Like, wondering if my camera supports Linux (it fucking should) and searching for a new driver for my printer.

The weird thing about it is that I'm enjoying it. I've got a lot to learn and half the time I feel like a total poser for wanting to learn all this stuff without totally being into it (and give up my other obsessions?) but it's pretty satisfying to have at least some semblance of control on your OS.

At least when you have a problem you have a whole community of users to ask. If Windows crashes the only thing you can do is chew on your hand and cuss Bill Gates.