OpenEuphoria

2. Re: DosLinux -- sorry 'bout being offtopic

• Posted by Irv Mullins <irv at ELLIJAY.COM> Nov 19, 1999
• 423 views
• Last edited Nov 20, 1999

On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Mike Hurley wrote:
> I'm gonna start putzing w/ Linux just to see why everybody likes it so much.
> I remember I've putzed w/DosLinux before and I got confused and frustrated.
> First, is there some Linux counterpart to AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS?  I
> really don't like mounting my drives and all that stuff.  Please, if you
> respond, tell me any other useful info a DOS/Win9x person should know how to
> do.

Hi Mike:

I don't know if it's really off-topic anymore, since Euphoria runs well on
Linux.  Appologies, however, for the long message which follows. If you
wish, we can continue via private e-mail.

Confusion is partly caused by trying to compare Linux to DOS.  They are two
very different creatures, designed for different purposes. With Linux the
emphasis is on stablility and the ability to serve a number of users
simultaneously, with proper precautions to prevent one user from trashing
(or even seeing) someone else's work.  Each user has his/her own environment,
private directories, and choice of look and feel.

There are a whole series of files associated with each of several Linux
"run levels" which correspond roughly to autoexec.bat and config.sys, in that
they load different  system services as needed for the specific run level.  You
don't have to understand or be concerned about these, however, as they are
set up automatically. There are also "profile" files in each user's home
directory which specify certain individual preferences and programs to run on
startup.

Once Linux is properly set up, you won't often have to mount drives, etc.
That will be done automatically on startup (for fixed drives), and by an
automount daemon (for the removable drives.)

A major difference between Linux and DOS/Win is that Linux sees only one drive.
Everything - second, third hard drives, the DOS partition, the CDROM , the
floppy, even drives on other computers halfway across the world, are simply
(sub)directories on that one drive.

Another major difference is that if you are running Linux on your own, private
computer, you must develop a split personality. Sometimes you will be the
sys-admin, responsible for assigning access priviledges, installing new
software, etc, and other times (most of the time) you will be a user, who can
do lots of things, but not trash the system.  For example, let's say you write
a program that goes into an endless loop, with no way out.  Do you reboot your
pc? Nope, just log on as the sys-admin (root) for a moment, kill the offending
program, then go back to being the mild-mannered user, and fix your code.

I can't comment specifically on DOS/Linux. My opinion is; the very easiest
way to get started with Linux is to buy a copy of SuSE Linux. It's about $30,
but it comes with a helpful user manual and it will set up a full Xwindows/KDE
environment for you with little trouble. I can't put enough emphasis on how
important it is to begin with KDE  That lets you get started in a comfortable
"windows-like" environment. Later you can get into the DOS-like and
completely confusing console stuff.

For me, SuSE has been much more stable than RedHat, Mandrake, or Slackware, and
it is the _only_ version in which everything has worked right out of the box.

Before you buy, look on the box to be sure your graphics card is supported. And
if you are unfortunate enough to have a "winmodem"  - forget using that. Linux
does not, and probably will never, support those. If you wonder why, just take a
look at the CPU load while downloading a file: 99%+ just to run the modem! That
leaves very little processing power for the other 60 or 70 tasks you might be
running.

I understand from others that Debian and Caldera are also easy to use, but
haven't tried them personally.

Regards,
Irv