Hello JGO,
today i needed Linux to solve a small problem for a friend (she forgot her windows user password) and then, i finally decided to take the chance and install Ubuntu for the 1st time ever, i’ve been using windows for more than 12 years now, am not familiar at all with ubuntu and all it’s features, it seems like am going to have a lot of fun ;D
anyway, do you have any advise or suggestion for a total noob :
??
Terminal is important for all Linux users! Use sudo apt-get install [program] to install something. Don’t use that software center.
i literally googled every word you said xD
thanx
Use some cheat sheets for commands in the first few weeks. Just google “linux command cheat sheets”
To feel comfortable, get some apps which reminds you their Windows alternatives. Too much Linux in too small time window will have you return to Windows. Been there 
I hear there are some annoyances with new Ubuntu. Like, it shows ads somewhere etc. Google the solutions. There are some. Don’t do the outrage quit.
I think if you are not a gamer, you’ll do fine with Linux.
Yup, always use terminal. And be ready to give up most games. The stuff you have become accustomed to like printing might become somewhat more difficult, so figure those things out first.
Did you create a true dual-boot or use WUBI? I started out using WUBI and have since gone to a true dual-boot with Fedora. WUBI is incredibly slow compared to a true system, so if you like Linux I highly suggest setting up a true dual-boot. As you are a programmer, using the Terminal will be completely easy, and it will be more fun than clicking buttons to install programs! On the games note, I’ve heard you can symlink to your Windows drive and use Wine to run your games from Windows, though I have not tested this myself to get an idea of whether it works or not and how well it would. On the printing note, setting up a printer is VERY HARD. I spent nearly a whole day on it and had almost no homework done the next day. Now I have to do the same with Fedora as I did with WUBI-installed Ubuntu.
EDIT: Actually, I shouldn’t say that setting up a printer is incredibly hard in that it is not super hard, it’s just hard to know what exactly you are supposed to do.
You can get good documentation of nearly any program (at least from terminal programs) with the ’ man ’ command.
And don’t be afraid of something that might look complicated at first. Once you know how they work, the most things become routine jobs.
[quote]Use some cheat sheets for commands in the first few weeks. Just google “linux command cheat sheets”
[/quote]
This one will work 
http://store.xkcd.com/products/linux-cheat-shirt
thnx everyone,
i really like the new system, it’s a LOT more faster than windows7, specially when it starts ,i think this is because windows execute many programs and services,
for now i spend more than one hour playing around and checking stuff here there, i managed to use the internet (i have a HUWAEI 3g Key so it wasn’t that obvious)
am having a very nice impression about this new System, but i only have a small little issue,
my graphic card is not installed, i have an nVidia 610M (am using a laptop) and the weird thing is on Ubuntu the pc make much more noise, it must be the graphic card’s fan, is it because it’s not installed ??
What version of ubuntu you using?
It’s likely that your GPU’s fans are running at 100% speed all the time since there is no driver to interface with them correctly and determine a better speed. I, for example, have a custom fan curve set for GPU that causes the fan to rev up when the card gets hotter.
EDIT: As to fixing this, I think installing the proprietary drivers worked for me. I have a Radeon card though.
I’ve used Ubuntu for ages (Love it!). A few useful things I wish someone had told me a while ago:
WARING: LOTS OF TEXT AHEAD. You were warned.
Like others have said, get used to bash. If you really want to understand Linux and how it works, avoid the fancy graphical stuff as much as possible. Compiz != Linux
Press to auto complete many things in the terminal. There’s a lot more keyboard shortcuts than that, but is probably the most necessary. It can complete file names, commands, application names, even some arguments (If there’s multiple options, twice should show them all). You can even use it for apt (sudo apt-get install intelli will extend “intelli” to “intellij-idea-ce”, the full name of the IntelliJ package. “ecli” expands to eclipse, “emacs” followed by two tabs will show all packages starting with “emacs”). Saves you having to search for packages using apt-cache search .
Learn all the basic commands (cd, ls, rm, mv, mkdir, cat, killall, less, …) and also how to combine commands via piping. It’s a bit advanced, but pretty useful.
In the default desktop environment, ctrl-alt-t opens a terminal. Much quicker then clicking on something, and if you’re like me (and practically every other Linux user), opening a terminal is something you’ll be doing a lot.
Ctrl-alt-f(1-6) changes tty shell thingy. If ever you encounter an issue with graphics drivers or something goes wrong and you can’t fix it graphically (e.g. can’t even open a terminal). Ctrl-alt-f7 will take you back to the graphical session.
Often, you’ll want to install something that isn’t available on Ubuntu’s repository (aka you can’t get it with apt-get). You might be able to find a repo and install it that way, but IMO that whole process is a total PITA. For most Linux projects the website will have a binary, but often you’ll have to build it yourself. Download the source, install ‘build-essential’ if you haven’t already, then try ‘cd’-ing into the directory and running ‘./make’. if there’s a file called configure.sh you should run that before make, and if there’s a README then obviously read it. It seems really complex the first few times, but it’ll become second nature pretty fast. Also note often programs will use libraries, which you’ll also have to download. Generally though, ‘apt-get install’ can get the libraries. If something asks for ‘libfoobar’, there’ll probably be a package called ‘libfoobar-dev’ available. Sometimes it can be a bit of a pain to build things though. When the building gets tough, remember:
Google (Or DuckDuckGo, or Bing, or whatever you use) is your friend. Most of the time. People on online forums are apparently friendly too, although I’m not the biggest forum fan. IRC channels have helpful people on them, too. Although some people get seriously mad if you type their name on IRC. I don’t know why.
If ever you need to edit files from the command line, nano can generally do the job, and it’s really easy to use. Of course, if you prefer Emacs/Vim, then go with that, but I’m not suggesting you learn either of those.
Also note there’s a project called ‘wine’ which lets you run Windows stuff on Linux, and there’s virtual machines available on Linux that you could install windows on. I’d suggest you avoid those though, unless there’s a program you can’t live without. Most popular Windows programs have a Linux port or equivalent, though.
Even though people have said Linux isn’t very good for games, games written in Java still run fine (And, really, why would you play games written in anything else? :P). There’s even a version of Steam available for Linux. You’ll probably have to go without your CoDs and your Battlefields, but more and more developers seem to be recognising Linux as a platform, possibly due to the Humble Indie Bundle (Which is awesome, check it out if you haven’t already). WINE can play a decent amount of Windows games, and emulators for most older consoles are available.
I just wrote a massive wall of text. Not certain if I should be proud of that, or if I’m just rambling. I wish it was this easy to write essays…
EDIT: As for the fan issue (You posted that while I was typing this so I didn’t notice :P), I had it too.
Short answer: It’s a TOTAL pain in the rear-end. Really. Unless you’re issue is different to mine.
I have two GPUs, a GeForce 540 and a Intel one. My issue was that my computer was using my super-powered GeForce always, even when it could have used the internal one. Apparently, NVidia fixed this issue with the latest version of their drivers, so try that (nvidia-current I believe it is. Don’t use the mesa driver). Otherwise, search up on a project called ‘bumblebee’. It might work out of the box for you, or you might spend a few months trying to get it to work. The one and only issue I’ve had with Ubuntu was my GPU.
if ubuntu doesn’t work out, try Linux Mint 14. it’s the smoothest ride of all the distros i’ve experienced. It comes pre-installed with flash, you can install the same apt packages as you can in Ubuntu (it doesn’t come with synaptic, but that can be installed from the terminal), it comes with flash pre-installed. I was able to run DOOM3 and several other openGL games perfectly on WINE. overall, it’s great.
Oh yes, exactly what deepthought said.
Mint is a GREAT migration if you are coming from windows, for the GUI at least.
Have fun with ubuntu, I’ve used it for ages. The only real issues you can come across are games, but with steam out for linux that shouldn’t be a HUGE problem.
Have fun!
tar -xvf : extract
tar -cvf : create archive
Remember this in case you find a bomb.
Add a ‘z’ in there too!
tar -xzvf
tar -czvf
P.S. try not to use ZIP. since its windows, permissions tend to get messed up
That’s completely idiotic.
You’re obviously supposed to press the big red button.
Speaking of bumblebee, today I tried for about 7 hours to get Fedora 18 to be able to run my NVIDIA video card correctly. In the end it’s running my integrated graphics. I have both, so do I need bumblebee in order to install the NVIDIA drivers?
Anyway:
I’m a user of Linux Mint 13 KDE, and it’s simple to use for basic tasks while still allowing you to easily access ways to do more complex tasks. (if that makes sense)
Appreciated for this. I did not previously know about this.
I’d say its more because of Microsoft going crazy and the high probability that gaming will move to linux soon.
One big popular game that made move: Footbal Manager. I don’t like this game but glad it considers linux platform.
Bigger move that included that, Steam’s move to linux, including big games like tf2, Don’t Starve, etc.