August 19, 2014 at 15:07Experience migrating from Windows to Linux / Unix
Being a fairly experienced IT specialist and for various reasons, I decided to learn Linux / Unix for practical use. I share my impressions of the process and the results.
After analyzing, I chose Debian, leaving FreeBSD as a server OS for later. I figured out the necessary place, freed up a place for installation on the hard drive. I chose the option of placing the main file system partitions on separate logical partitions of the disk, started the installation from under Windows 7. Everything went smoothly, but maybe I pressed something wrong. As a result, after installation, part of the free partition remained unallocated, which surprised me, because as far as I remember, I quite clearly chose the installation option on a dedicated free non-distributed partition in automatic mode. Without hesitation, going back under Windows, I added the remaining free space back. Which irreversibly led me to problems at the next boot, as GRUB did not swallow the partition structure. I had to perform a GRUB recovery with new options on the command line, which required some effort. According to the results, after choosing an option in the Windows boot GRUB, the Windows / Debian Installer option appears, which is not a bit ice, but scary getting into it is something after the GRUB recovery.
The first problem arose with font smoothing on the LCD monitor. Digging through the settings, creating .font.config in / home, we managed to achieve a more or less acceptable result, but far from the desired one. The system is even less. In browsers, fonts are still blurry quite a bit. In Java applications, not only are they blurry, but they also look a little strange. But since time is money, I decided to rest on our laurels, because it was already possible to work.
I chose Gnome as the GUI to be in the GPL stream. I started to press buttons for money and after some time I realized that something was bothering me. He listened to himself and realized: the screw "creaks" constantly. Something is wrong with architecture, I thought, because with 4GB of RAM under Win, I forgot that the hard drive is not SDD. I had to go into reviews and analyzes again, which confirmed the hypothesis. Solution: you need to shift to KDE. No sooner said than done.
I am under KDE. I start the package manager, the root password for su is required. Feel free to enter - access deny. 5 repetitions. There is no result. Strange ... everything worked fine under GNOME. Again, we move to the documentation and forums, where it turns out that you need to set some separate password for root. This causes cognitive dissonance, as during installation, an account for root was created and under Gnome the scheme worked. Maybe I don’t understand something, but something is wrong in the kingdom if different window managers implement a different model of access rights on the same system component. But what to do, the terminal ... commands and parameters ... everything worked.
I decided to watch a movie on the Internet. Need a flash plugin. Install the package. Under FireFox (Debian fork), the plugin worked. Under Cromium, no. We climb into google - you have to shaman. Survive without Flash in Cromium: time is money. I stuck a loop in DVI, the table expanded. Rummaged in the monitor settings, the image was synchronized, but there was no sound. We climb onto the Internet, watch forums, something needs to be conjured in the terminal. We reboot into Win and watch a movie.
Debian is ~ 37,500 packages. The number of categories in a single-level package classification is ~ 20. Eyes run up. Nevertheless, the variety and possibilities of software are impressive. For various complex and interesting tasks, even without taking into account programming, you can find a lot of interesting packages. The problem is to find, but with the help of Google the question is conditionally decisive, because if a package didn’t make it to the sample by keyword, it is not possible to find out about its existence, because most of the packages are not commercial and, as I understand it, relatively narrow groups of specialists who already know about the package use them. The server and software part of the packages are certainly out of competition.
Each task has its own superprogram command, programs in the pipeline, and the goal is achieved. Everything is limited by your imagination. This is in theory. Inspired by this idea, I cheerfully opened the list of system commands in the help, where my enthusiasm for becoming a hard-core Linuxoid shook when I saw the size of the list of system commands. But as a brave and experienced IT specialist, who once hacked visually in the Hex-editor managing the game under MSDOS, I boldly entered one of them to gain practical experience, where my enthusiasm faded when I saw two pages of text with the parameters and options of the command. With the theoretical ability to understand, there was no practical desire to dive into the MS-DOS command-line times on such a scale, although there was a dissonance in a steady desire to learn how to program in C. Apparently, IT specialists have some genetic features, because there is no practical need for this. At the same time, as an architect and system analyst, a rhetorical question arose: why with such a number of commands multiplied by the number of their parameters and options, supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for parameter format were not created and text program options and configurations for constructing custom pipelines. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit. supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for the format of parameters and options for text programs and configurations for constructing custom pipelines were not created. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit. supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for the format of parameters and options for text programs and configurations for constructing custom pipelines were not created. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit.
I will share my personal conclusions, not claiming universality. Firstly, I don’t remember where, but I read from an experienced specialist that the work / configuration ratio of Linux-Unix 50/50 is 10/90. Apparently, you should try out FreeBSD. All these terminal difficulties with text commands make you think about installing Android-x86, the benefit of Java-applications and Google Play close almost all tasks, and it’s easier to pay once for setting up VDS or your own server and changing the root password, which of course carries risks, but less than Win systems whose security is compromised by life experience. On the whole, there is a contradictory impression, expressed in a sense of home-grown realization of most elements on the one hand and IT-itching from the wealth of opportunities on the other.
Installation
After analyzing, I chose Debian, leaving FreeBSD as a server OS for later. I figured out the necessary place, freed up a place for installation on the hard drive. I chose the option of placing the main file system partitions on separate logical partitions of the disk, started the installation from under Windows 7. Everything went smoothly, but maybe I pressed something wrong. As a result, after installation, part of the free partition remained unallocated, which surprised me, because as far as I remember, I quite clearly chose the installation option on a dedicated free non-distributed partition in automatic mode. Without hesitation, going back under Windows, I added the remaining free space back. Which irreversibly led me to problems at the next boot, as GRUB did not swallow the partition structure. I had to perform a GRUB recovery with new options on the command line, which required some effort. According to the results, after choosing an option in the Windows boot GRUB, the Windows / Debian Installer option appears, which is not a bit ice, but scary getting into it is something after the GRUB recovery.
Customization
The first problem arose with font smoothing on the LCD monitor. Digging through the settings, creating .font.config in / home, we managed to achieve a more or less acceptable result, but far from the desired one. The system is even less. In browsers, fonts are still blurry quite a bit. In Java applications, not only are they blurry, but they also look a little strange. But since time is money, I decided to rest on our laurels, because it was already possible to work.
I chose Gnome as the GUI to be in the GPL stream. I started to press buttons for money and after some time I realized that something was bothering me. He listened to himself and realized: the screw "creaks" constantly. Something is wrong with architecture, I thought, because with 4GB of RAM under Win, I forgot that the hard drive is not SDD. I had to go into reviews and analyzes again, which confirmed the hypothesis. Solution: you need to shift to KDE. No sooner said than done.
I am under KDE. I start the package manager, the root password for su is required. Feel free to enter - access deny. 5 repetitions. There is no result. Strange ... everything worked fine under GNOME. Again, we move to the documentation and forums, where it turns out that you need to set some separate password for root. This causes cognitive dissonance, as during installation, an account for root was created and under Gnome the scheme worked. Maybe I don’t understand something, but something is wrong in the kingdom if different window managers implement a different model of access rights on the same system component. But what to do, the terminal ... commands and parameters ... everything worked.
I decided to watch a movie on the Internet. Need a flash plugin. Install the package. Under FireFox (Debian fork), the plugin worked. Under Cromium, no. We climb into google - you have to shaman. Survive without Flash in Cromium: time is money. I stuck a loop in DVI, the table expanded. Rummaged in the monitor settings, the image was synchronized, but there was no sound. We climb onto the Internet, watch forums, something needs to be conjured in the terminal. We reboot into Win and watch a movie.
Packages
Debian is ~ 37,500 packages. The number of categories in a single-level package classification is ~ 20. Eyes run up. Nevertheless, the variety and possibilities of software are impressive. For various complex and interesting tasks, even without taking into account programming, you can find a lot of interesting packages. The problem is to find, but with the help of Google the question is conditionally decisive, because if a package didn’t make it to the sample by keyword, it is not possible to find out about its existence, because most of the packages are not commercial and, as I understand it, relatively narrow groups of specialists who already know about the package use them. The server and software part of the packages are certainly out of competition.
Unix way
Each task has its own superprogram command, programs in the pipeline, and the goal is achieved. Everything is limited by your imagination. This is in theory. Inspired by this idea, I cheerfully opened the list of system commands in the help, where my enthusiasm for becoming a hard-core Linuxoid shook when I saw the size of the list of system commands. But as a brave and experienced IT specialist, who once hacked visually in the Hex-editor managing the game under MSDOS, I boldly entered one of them to gain practical experience, where my enthusiasm faded when I saw two pages of text with the parameters and options of the command. With the theoretical ability to understand, there was no practical desire to dive into the MS-DOS command-line times on such a scale, although there was a dissonance in a steady desire to learn how to program in C. Apparently, IT specialists have some genetic features, because there is no practical need for this. At the same time, as an architect and system analyst, a rhetorical question arose: why with such a number of commands multiplied by the number of their parameters and options, supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for parameter format were not created and text program options and configurations for constructing custom pipelines. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit. supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for the format of parameters and options for text programs and configurations for constructing custom pipelines were not created. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit. supplemented by a huge number of configuration files in the GPL Unix / Linux community, one program with a GUI interface and a standard for the format of parameters and options for text programs and configurations for constructing custom pipelines were not created. Maybe I'm not aware, but I guess that if such a system existed, it would be put by default in the distribution kit.
Conclusion
I will share my personal conclusions, not claiming universality. Firstly, I don’t remember where, but I read from an experienced specialist that the work / configuration ratio of Linux-Unix 50/50 is 10/90. Apparently, you should try out FreeBSD. All these terminal difficulties with text commands make you think about installing Android-x86, the benefit of Java-applications and Google Play close almost all tasks, and it’s easier to pay once for setting up VDS or your own server and changing the root password, which of course carries risks, but less than Win systems whose security is compromised by life experience. On the whole, there is a contradictory impression, expressed in a sense of home-grown realization of most elements on the one hand and IT-itching from the wealth of opportunities on the other.