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| Linux Magazine / DEPARTMENTS / |
This month, let's talk about e-mail. E-mail really is a huge subject, and there are lots of books written about what it is, how it works, and the underlying software involved. Luckily, as a newbie, you don't need to know about most of the information contained in those books. For now, we'll leave the details to the gurus and just cover some of the basics.
When you get a Linux distribution, you are really getting more than just the Linux kernel (see the What's a Kernel sidebar below), you are getting an operating system, a desktop environment, and a large number of development and administration tools, and even some applications. This is quite a lot of software, and it's all packaged together in what's called a distribution. All of these pieces fit together to make your Linux machine both powerful and user-friendly. It's important to note, however, that these pieces don't have to go together. Each individual piece can be added or removed at any time. To make Linux usable for the largest number of people, these pieces are all packaged and distributed together, but you are free to customize your Linux system as much as you like, and each individual piece of the system can be independently upgraded.
In this edition of Newbies, we're going to talk about a number of administrative tasks that are essential for getting the most out your new Linux system. While some distributions do have slightly different administrative tools available, most versions of Linux are pretty much the same under the hood.
What if you have only one computer, and you want to be able to run Linux as well as Windows? Well, you can -- through something called dual booting. Dual booting is an either/or proposition. You can't really run Windows and Linux at the same time. This month's column will be of most use to Windows 3.x/95/98 users. If you're running NT, you should purchase the commercial product,
Whether you use your computer to play games or to write letters, chances are you're going to want to connect to the Internet to use the Web or send and receive e-mail. That's the topic for this month: Getting connected.
The last two months, this column provided an overview of Linux and a step-by-step installation process. This month, we're going tell you a little about Linux's windowing interface -- The X Window System.
Last issue in this space, I provided an overview on installing Linux. I wrote about system requirements, disk partitions, and most importantly, backing up your hard drive. In this column, I will take you through a detailed, step-by-step installation process.
This column is an introduction to installing Linux onto your computer, getting it running, and beginning to explore the best OS in the universe.