Beginner, soliciting input for where to begin.

[John Heim]

I think that without a hardware synth, all the really easy ways to get 
started are out. It wasn't that long ago, that there was no way to install 
without either a hardware synth or some fairly specialized knowledge.

I'm probably not the best person to answer this question but since nobody 
else has taken a shot I'll guess i'll give it a go. The problem is that all 
I can do is tell you what I had trouble with.

I think your most promising option is grml. See www.grml.org. It's a "live" 
distro based on debian linux. You should be able to boot a grml CD and get 
speech. Then you can use the grml installer to install to your hd. I haven't 
really worked at getting grml2hd to work but I had lots of trouble with it 
the couple of times i tried it.  I thought it asked too many questions and 
did not have reasonable defaults. I've installed linux without an installer 
where I did each of the steps an installer would normally do by typing the 
ccommands at the command line.  But even so I found the grml installer 
difficult.

Plus, when you're done, you're stuck with grml. That may not be bad. But I 
don't know anybody running grml full time from their HD. It may be difficult 
to find support. I don't like grml for full-time use.

Another option is ubuntu. That's another live CD. This would have the added 
benefit in that the GUI would work right away, assuming the installation 
works. I never got that to work either. I think the problem I had with the 
ubuntu installer is that I had only 384 Mbb of ram. I don't think that was 
enough to run both the GUI screen reader (orca) and the ubuntu installer 
(ubiquity). My theory is that I didn't have enough RAM but it could be that 
it just didn't work. There are still problems with both ubuntu and orca as 
they're both fairly new. Ubuntu isn't as stable as Windows XP, for example. 
And orca isn't as stable as jaws.

Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting you stay away from ubuntu or orca. 
In fact, I just bought the parts for a new PC which I intend to use to 
switch from Windows/jaws to linux/orca permanently. But I expect to have to 
make some sacrifices. I'm not expecting it to be as smooth as Windows & 
jaws. So I'm not sure that would be the best option for someone new to 
linux. You might not want to use bleading-edge software while you're 
learning.

You might consider doing an installation of fedora via telnet. You're going 
to need to know a little bit about networking to get that working. Not much, 
I suppose.

And the last option (as far as I know) is to do a serial console install of 
either debian or fedora. When I first started out, this was the only option. 
You need a null-modem cable. That's about $5 at Radio Shack. I don't think a 
serial console install is real easy for a beginner either. The only other 
benefit of this approach is that you'd have to learn about serial consoles 
and that is good knowledge to have if you get into servers. I mentioned that 
when I first started out a serial console install was the only option and I 
still use my knowledge of serial consoles all the time when one of my 
servers loses it's network connection.

Well, actually, there is one more option... You could boot a live CD like 
grml or knoppix and start speech. Then you could do the install "by hand". 
Run all the commands to install linux at the command line. It's really not 
that hard although you'd have to figure out each step one at a time. I can 
point you to documents to explain how this is done. But I would find them by 
googling for "fdisk OR parted mke2fs debootstrap". You can probably skip a 
step and do that yourself.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christopher Bartlett" <bridgeweaver at khanfusion.net>
To: <blinux-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 8:37 PM
Subject: Beginner, soliciting input for where to begin.


>I have decided it is time I get into the world of Linux.  I've flirted with 
>the idea for years, but I'm ready to take the plunge at this point.
>
> I am going to have a dedicated linux machine to work with.  Here are the 
> considerations I want to take into account, and I am asking for opinions 
> on which of the several access solutions I should adopt.
>
> First of all, I am reasonably technically literate, and am not afraid of a 
> learning curve.  When all is said and done, I am looking for comprehensive 
> access to my system as I intend to learn to be a Linux power user.  The 
> access solution I adopt must provide comprehensive coverage of the 
> environment so that I can get in and tweak what I need to tweak.  I'd 
> prefer a system that provides coverage from boot up to shutdown, rather 
> than something that I have to start up after the system boots up.
>
> I am happy learning (or relearning) how to operate in a command-line 
> environment.  I was a DOS user back in the day, and have actually used 
> Unix shell accounts, though it has been a long time.
>
> That said, I would like to be able to use a GUI environment to have access 
> to applications that work under x-windows.  If I can prove to myself that 
> I don't need this access then so much the better, but I want to be able to 
> perform word-processing and other office applications, browse the web and 
> use audio editing/production software with the same facility that I can 
> under Windows.
>
> I would like to learn how to use virtual machines so that I can run 
> Windows applications in a native Windows environment rather than relying 
> on emulation, which I understand isn't perfect.
>
> I want to be able to use software-synthesized speech; I don't own a 
> hardware synth and I don't want to spend money on one; if I'm going to buy 
> tech toys they are going to be music production gear.
>
> With all these considerations, what would folk recommend for the optimal 
> access solution for learning to install, run and work in Linux?  I am 
> certainly willing to use multiple solutions if they play well together.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Christopher Bartlett
>
>
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