Here’s how to use Linux, which is Linus Torvalds’ imitation of the Unix operating system.

I’ll explain Linux’s most pleasant distribution, which is SuSE Linux (pronounced “Soozuh Linux”). I’ll explain its newest version (SuSE Linux version 8) in its least expensive form (the Personal edition, which lists for $40).

 

Here’s how to install SuSE Linux 8 Personal onto a computer that already contains Windows Me and is already scandisked and defragged.

Boot the CD

Make sure the computer is off. SuSE Linux 8 Personal comes on a set of 3 CD-ROM disks. Turn the computer’s power on, then immediately insert disk 1. The computer will say “SuSE”. Then the screen will go blank. Then the computer will say “Select your language”. Press ENTER. The computer will say “Installation Settings”.

Time Zone

The computer assumes you live in the US/Pacific time zone. If you live elsewhere, click “Time zone” then your time zone (such as “US/Eastern”) then press ENTER.

Partition

The computer is going to partition your hard disk into two parts: one part will retain Windows; the other part will be devoted to Linux.

How big should each part be? The part devoted to Windows should be big enough to hold all your current Windows files, plus any Windows files you’ll add later. The part devoted to Linux should be at least 2 gigabytes for Linux’s fundamental parts, plus an extra gigabyte if you want to install Linux’s advanced parts, plus space to hold any Linux files you’ll add later.

The computer assumes you want to keep your current Windows files but devote most of the rest of the hard disk’s space to Linux. If you plan to use Windows mainly and use Linux just lightly, request more space for Windows as follows:

Copy

Click “Accept” then “Yes install”.

The computer will reorganize your Windows files. (If the computer gripes about a bad partition, just retry. You’ll probably succeed the second time.)

The computer will copy Linux files from the CD-ROM to your hard disk. Be patient: the copying takes about 10 minutes.

The computer will say “The LILO boot sector has been written to disk.” Press ENTER.

The computer will say “Please remove all installation media”. Remove the CD-ROM from the drive. Press ENTER.

The computer will reboot then say “Please insert CD 2”. Insert disk 2 and press ENTER.

Passwords

The computer will say “Enter a password for the root user”.

Invent a password for the root user (which is the person who’s the system administrator). The password can include capital letters, small letters, digits, blank spaces, and these symbols:

The password must be at least 5 characters long. Write the password on a sheet of paper (so you don’t forget it). Type the password. (Your typing will be automatically hidden by asterisks, to prevent your enemy from seeing it.) When you finish typing your password, press the TAB key. Type the password again and press ENTER.

The computer will say “First name”. Type your first name, then press the TAB key. Type your last name.

Click “Suggestion”. The computer will suggest a user login name for you.

If you don’t like the suggestion, you can edit it, but the user name should consist of just small letters (no spaces, no punctuation). Write the user name on a sheet of paper.

Invent a password for the user, using the same rules as the root user’s password. (If you’re not sharing the computer, you can reuse the same password.) Write the password on a sheet of paper. Type the password, press TAB, type the password again, then click “Next”.

Press ENTER.

The computer will say “Installation Settings”.

Printer

If the computer says “Printers Not detected”, do this:

Modem

If the computer says “Modems not detected”, do this:

Shutdown

Click “Next” then “Shutdown”. Remove the disk from the CD-ROM drive. Click “OK”.

The computer shuts down all programs. Finally, the screen’s bottom line says “The system will be halted immediately”, and the computer beeps twice.

After a short pause, the computer tries to turn itself off, so the screen goes black. Turn off the power to the computer & monitor.

 

Turn on the computer’s power. The computer will say “SuSE” and show this menu:

If you want to switch to Windows, quickly choose “Windows” from that menu (by pressing the down-arrow key twice, then ENTER); otherwise, the computer will give you the first choice (Linux) and proceed as follows.…

You see an icon for yourself. (For example, if your name is Jennifer Jones, your icon is probably labeled “jenjon”.) Click that icon. Then the Login box contains your user name.

Type your user password (which is hidden by asterisks).

Make sure the Session Type box says “kde”. (If the box says something else, click it then “kde”.)

Press ENTER. The computer will say “KDE 3.0”. You’ll hear a brief burst of jungle music.

If the computer says “Welcome to SuSE Linux”, press ENTER then click “Finish”.

See the K button

At the screen’s bottom left corner, you see the K button, which looks like a gear (a circle having 8 “gear teeth” sticking out of it). It’s also called the Application Starter button. Seeing it means you’re using the K Desktop Environment (KDE).

If the computer says “Kandalf’s useful tips”, press ENTER.

Click the K button. You’ll see this K menu:

Log out

Whenever you finish using Linux, you should log out. Here’s how.…

Say “Logout”, by choosing one of these methods.…

The computer says “End session”. Click “Turn off computer”. Press ENTER.

The computer shuts down all programs. Finally, the screen’s bottom line says “The system will be halted immediately”, and the computer beeps twice.

After a short pause, the computer tries to turn itself off, so the screen goes black. Turn off the power to the computer & monitor.

 

KDE includes a calculator.

To use the calculator, click the K button (so you see the K menu) then click “Office” then “Calculation” then “KCalc”. You’ll see the KCalc window, containing a picture of a pocket calculator.

To compute 42+5, click the calculator’s 4 key (by using the mouse to point at the 4 key and then clicking), then click 2, then +, then 5, then =. The calculator will show the answer, 47.

Instead of using the mouse, you can do that calculation a different way, by using the computer’s keyboard. Here’s how:

Try fancier calculations, by pressing these calculator buttons:

Advanced math

If you click the 7 button and then say “squared” (by pressing the x^2 button), the computer will multiply 7 by itself and say 49 (which is called “7 squared”). If you click the 7 button and then say “factorial” (by pressing the n! button), the computer will multiply together all the numbers up to 7 (1 times 2 times 3 times 4 times 5 times 6 times 7) and say 5040 (which is called “7 factorial”).

Famous constants

To get pi (a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter), click “Inv” then “EE”. The computer will say 3.14159.

To get Euler’s constant e (used in advanced math), click 1 then “Inv” then “Ln”. The computer will say 2.71828.

Change the window

To move the KCalc window, point at the word “KCalc”; then drag that word to a different part of the screen (by holding down the mouse’s left button). To widen the KCalc window, point at the window’s right edge (so the mouse pointer has two arrowheads), then drag that edge farther to the right.

Close

When you finish using the KCalc window, close it by clicking its X button (which is in its top right corner). Then the KCalc window disappears.

KDE includes an editor, which lets you type and edit words, sentences, and paragraphs.

To use the editor, click the K button (so you see the K menu) then click “Office” then “Editors” then “KEdit”. You’ll see the KEdit window.

Type whatever words, sentences, and paragraphs you wish. For your first experiment, try typing this poem:

Here’s how to type it:

Whatever you type is called a document.

Save

Here’s how to save the document (copy it onto the hard disk).

Click the Save button (which is below the word “Go” and looks like a floppy disk). Then invent a name for what you typed. The name can be short (such as “Mary”) or long (such as “Stupid Poem of 1999”). At the end of the name, press the ENTER key. Then the computer will copy the document onto the disk.

If you change your mind afterwards, edit the document some more: when you finish that editing, save it by clicking the Save button again.

If you’re typing a long document, click the Save button every 10 minutes, so that if an accident happens you’ll lose at most 10 minutes of work.

Suppose you save a document called “Mary”, then edit it, then save the improved version. The computer makes the improved version be called “Mary” and makes the previous version be called “Mary~”. So “Mary~” means “Mary’s previous version”.

Print

To print the document onto paper, click the Print button (which is below the word “Tools”).

Then deal with this headache about paper size.…Since Linux was invented in Europe, Linux assumes you’re using European-size paper (which is called “A4”), unless you teach Linux that you want to use US “letter-size” paper instead. If you’re in the US, do this:

Finally, press ENTER (again). The computer will print the document onto paper.

Close

When you finish working on a document, you have two choices.

Before the computer obeys the X button or “Close”, the computer checks whether you saved your document. If you didn’t save the newest version of your document, the computer asks, “Would you like to save it?” If you click “Yes”, the computer copies your document’s most recent version to the hard disk; if you click “No” instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.

Optional word wrap

If you type near the KEdit window’s right edge, and you type a word that’s too long to fit in the window, you probably want the computer to automatically move the word to the line below. KEdit does so just if you’ve requested word wrap.

Here’s how to request word wrap:

To paint pictures, click the K button then “Graphics” then “Graphics” again then “KPaint”. You’ll see the KPaint window.

Enlarge the canvas

In the window’s middle, you see a white rectangle, called the canvas. You’ll paint on the canvas.

The canvas is small: just 320 dots across and 200 dots high. Make the canvas bigger, by doing this:

Tools

In the window’s top right corner, you see these 9 tools:

Stare at those tools now.

Use those tools to draw on the canvas. Here’s how.…

Squiggle To draw a squiggle, click the Pen tool (which looks like a squiggle). Then put the mouse pointer on the canvas, where you want the squiggle to begin, and drag! Try it now!

Line To draw a straight line, click the Line tool (which looks like a diagonal line). Then put the mouse pointer where you want the line to begin, and drag to where you want the line to end.

Circle To draw a circle, click the Circle tool. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the circle’s center to be, and drag to until the circle is as big as you wish.

Rectangle To draw a rectangle, click the Rectangle tool. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the rectangle’s top left corner to be, and drag to where you want the rectangle’s opposite corner.

If you click the Rounded Angle tool instead of the Rectangle tool, the rectangle’s corners will be rounded (instead of sharp 90-degree angles). If you click the Ellipse tool instead of the Rectangle tool, the rectangle’s corners will be so rounded that the rectangle looks like an ellipse (oval).

Spray Can To vandalize your painting by using a can of spray paint, click the Spray Can tool. Then put the mouse pointer where you want to begin spraying, and drag slowly.

Text To type words in your painting, click the Text tool (which looks like the letter A). Click where you want the words to begin, then type them.

If you typed a character wrong, press the BACKSPACE key then retype the character correctly. Your wrong typing and your correct typing will temporarily appear in the same place as each other and look like a smudge; but when you later click the mouse, the wrong typing will disappear, leaving just your correct typing on the screen.

Cut

If you dislike what you drew and want to erase everything from the canvas (so you can start over): just click the Cut button (which is below the word “Tools” and looks like scissors). The entire painting will disappear.

If you want to delete just part of your painting, do this instead:

Copy

Here’s how to copy part of your painting.

Draw a dashed rectangle around that part of the painting (by clicking the Area Select button, then dragging from where you want the rectangle’s top left corner to the opposite corner). Then click the Copy button (which is below the “Im” of “Image” and looks like a pair of pages with bent corners). Click the Paste button (which is to the right of the Copy button and shows a clipboard with paper on it).

Click where you want the copy’s top left corner to appear. You can click several places, to create several copies.

Color

Normally, the shapes you draw are red, and the text you type is black, all on a white background.

To draw in green instead of red, drag with the mouse’s right button instead of left button. To remind you that the drawing colors are red & green, you see a red button and a green button at the window’s right edge.

To switch from red to a different color, do this:

To switch from green to a different color, do this similar procedure:

Here’s another way to choose colors:

Save

To save your painting (copy it onto the hard disk), click the Save button (which is below the word “View” and looks like a floppy disk).

Type whatever name you want your painting to have, but afterwards put “.png” (which stands for “painting” and “Portable Network Graphics”). For example, type “picassofake.png” (and press ENTER).

Later, if you edit your painting further, save that editing by clicking the Save button again.

Close

When you finish working on a painting, you have 2 choices.

Before the computer obeys the X button, the computer checks whether you saved your painting. If you didn’t save the newest version of your painting, the computer asks, “Would you like to save it?” If you click “Yes”, the computer copies your painting’s most recent version to the hard disk; if you click “No” instead, the computer ignores and forgets your most recent editing.

Tool properties

To change the ways the tools acts, click the Line tool then “Tools” then “Tool properties” then “Line Properties”.

When you draw a line, the line is normally solid. If you want it to be dashed or dotted lines instead, click the Line Style box then click what you want (“Dashed” or “Dotted” or “Dash Dot” or “Dash Dot Dot”).

When you draw a line, it’s normally thin (with a width of just 1 dot). If you want the line to be wider, click the Line Width box then click how many dots wide you want it (2 or 3 or 4).

When you finish, click “OK”.

Your choices affect all future lines and all future squiggles and rectangles and other shapes, too!

Fill Properties When you draw a circle, its inside is normally blank. If you want the inside to be filled in, do this:

 

KDE includes games. To play games, click the K button (so you see the K menu) then click “Games”. You’ll see this games menu:

Potato Guy

When you were a kid, did you ever play “Mr. Potato Head?” It’s a game where you make a potato look like a person’s face by buying a kit that includes fake eyes, fake ears, fake eyeglasses, etc.

You can make Linux imitate the Mr. Potato Head game. Just get the games menu onto the screen, then click “Fun” then “Potato Guy”.

You see the Potato Guy window. It shows a potato that has arms and legs sprouting out of it.

It also shows a collection of additional body parts and clothing: you see eyes, ears, noses, mouths, eyebrows, a moustache, a hat, a watch, a badge, a cigar, an earring, bows, sunglasses, and spectacles. Click them (to hear a woman’s voice tell you what they’re called), or drag them to the potato. If you change your mind about dragging, drag them back (or click the Undo button, which is a green arrow bending to the left).

If you drag two objects to the same place (for example, eyes and eyeglasses), the second object will wind up in front and partially hide the first object.

You can make Mr. Potato Head look gay or female. It lets young kids practice dragging the mouse and dressing in drag.

When you finish playing with him/her/it, close the window by clicking its X button.

World Clock

Get the games menu onto the screen, then click “Fun” then “World Clock”.

You see a map of the world. Maximize it (by clicking its Maximize button).

Some parts of the map are light; other parts are dark. The light parts are the regions that are in daylight now; the dark parts are the regions that are in darkness now (after sunset and before sunrise).

Black dots show some cities. If you point at one of those cities (without clicking), you’ll see the city’s name, current time (on a 24-hour clock), and date.

When you finish admiring the map, close it (by clicking its X button).

XEyes

Get the games menu onto the screen, then click “Fun” then “XEyes”.

At the screen’s top left corner, you see a spook’s pair of eyes. The spook itself is invisible, but you see the eyes.

As you move your mouse, the eyes move, so they always stare at the mouse pointer. Try moving the mouse pointer to all four edges of the screen. As the spook’s eyes follow the mouse pointer, the spook seems to be on drugs.

Alt key How do you move the spook? You learned that to move the KCalc window, you just drag the word “KCalc”; but the XEyes spook doesn’t have a word “XEyes” to drag. Instead, drag the middle of an eye while holding down the Alt key. Here’s how to do that, in detail:

To change the size of the spook and its eyes, right-drag an eye while holding down the Alt key. Here’s how to do that, in detail:

XEyes box At the screen’s bottom edge, you see a box that says “xeyes”.

To make the spook and its eyes consume the whole screen, do this:

Close When you finish admiring the drugged-out spook, close that program by doing this:

KAsteroids

To play asteroids, get the games menu onto the screen, then click “Arcade” then “KAsteroids”. You’ll see the KAsteroids window.

Click “Game” then “New”.

The computer will say “Press L to launch.” Tap the keyboard’s L key.

You see your spaceship and a moving asteroid. Your goal is to prevent the asteroid from crashing into you.

The simplest technique is to shoot the asteroid and blow it up. To do that, rotate your ship (by holding down the keyboard’s left-arrow or right-arrow key) until you’re aiming at the asteroid, then fire (by pressing the SPACE bar).

When a big asteroid explodes, it breaks into 4 smaller asteroids, which all come at you eventually, so you have to blow them up too!

Moving If you want to move the ship, tap the up-arrow key. The ship will start moving. It will keep moving in the same direction, at the same speed, until you make it do otherwise. To make it move even faster in that direction, tap the up-arrow key again.

To slow down, you can try two techniques. The best technique is to turn your ship around 180 degrees, then tap the up-arrow key again, so you’re thrusting in the opposite direction. An alternative technique is to tap the brake (the keyboard’s X key), but the brake is usually too weak to make much of a difference.

If you (or an asteroid) try to zoom past the window’s edge, you’ll reappear at the window’s opposite edge.

Upgrade When an asteroid explodes, it sometimes releases a yellow object. That object is a present: free fuel, a brake upgrade (to make your brake work better), or a shield upgrade (so your shield will give you more powerful protection when you turn it on by pressing S). To grab that present, you must chase after it and bump into it.

Pause To pause the game (so you can go to the bathroom or wipe the sweat off your brow or grab a snack), tap the keyboard’s P key. To resume the game, press ENTER.

How it ends Eventually, you’ll screw up and an asteroid will hit your ship. You’ll hear the crash. The computer will say “Ship Destroyed. Press L to Launch.” Press the L key again, to start your second round. You also get a third round.

Then the computer will say “Game over” and tell you your score — except that if you have one of the 10 highest scores, the computer will first say “Congratulations” and wait for you to type your name (and press ENTER).

If you want to see the 10 highest scores, click “Game” then “Show Highscores”. When you finish admiring them, press ENTER.

After all that, either play the game again (by clicking “Game” then “New”) or quit asteroids (by clicking the window’s X button).

 

After you’ve created documents (by using programs such as KEdit and KPaint), you can rename those documents or delete them. Here’s how.

Click the Konqueror icon (which is at the screen’s bottom and shows a house in front of a blue folder) then click the big Documents icon.

Notice I said “click”, not “double-click”. In Linux, icons are typically clicked just once, not double-clicked.

Maximize the window (by clicking the button next to the X button). You see icons for all your documents.

View

To view what’s in the document, click its icon.

If the document was created by KEdit, you see the words. If the document was created by KPaint, you see the painting.

If you want to print the document onto paper, do this:

When you finish viewing the document, click the blue left-arrow button (which is near the screen’s top left corner).

Rename

To rename a document, do this:

Delete

To delete a document immediately, do this:

To move a document to the Trash folder instead, do this:

Here’s a more sophisticated way to get rid of unwanted documents:

After choosing one of those deletion methods, press ENTER (to confirm that you really mean it).

View modes

If you click “View” then “View mode”, you see this menu:

Each time you start using Konqueror, the computer assumes you want “Icon View”. That’s the best view for beginners. It makes the file icons appear horizontally across the screen. Then if you point at a file icon (without clicking), you see additional info about the file.

If you click “MultiColumn View” instead, the file icons are arranged in a vertical column instead of horizontally.

If you click “Tree View” instead, you see a table, giving lots of info about the files. The table’s column headings are “Name”, Size”, “File Type”, “Modified”, “Permissions”, “Owner”, and “Group”. To sort the files (put them in alphabetical order, or in order of size, or grouped by file type, or otherwise), click the column heading you want to sort on.

“Detailed List View” and “Text View” resemble Tree View but include less info and are less useful.

Close

When you finish using Konqueror, close its window (by clicking its X).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linux lets you play tricks.

Peek in the Trash

To find out what’s in the Trash folder, Click the Trash icon (which is at the screen’s left edge). You see icons for all the files that are in the Trash.

To delete one of those files immediately, do this:

To delete several of those files immediately, do this:

To rescue a file out of the Trash folder and move it back into the Documents folder, do this:

When you finish peeking in the Trash, close its window.

If you want to delete all files from the Trash folder do this: right-click the Trash icon, then click “Empty Trash Bin”.

Lock the screen

If you want to walk away from your computer for a few minutes (to go to bathroom or grab a snack), here’s how to prevent your work from getting viewed or altered by your enemies, colleagues, customers, ex-lovers, toddlers, and cats.

Say “Lock the screen”, by choosing one of these methods.…

The screen will go black.

If anybody touches the keyboard, the computer will say “Enter password” then wait for the person to type your password (and press ENTER). Just if the person does that successfully, the screen will return to how it looked before you said “Lock the screen”.

Run command

Instead of using the mouse so much, you can type commands on the keyboard. Here’s how.

Say “Run” by using one of these methods.…

Then type the name of the KDE program you want to run, in small letters:

At the end of your typing, press the ENTER key. Then the computer will run the program.