[Techtalk] hello, anyone out there

David Merrill david at lupercalia.net
Fri Aug 2 12:10:58 EST 2002


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On Friday 02 August 2002 11:52, Jenn Vesperman wrote:
> On Sat, 2002-08-03 at 01:38, Sam Bradshaw wrote:

I'll just add a bit more to what Jenn said...

> > 3) I am pretty concerned with privacy because people are always
> > trying to hack into my computer (for several reasons), what is a good
> > firewall software to install for Linux.
>
> It's pre-installed. I forget whether it's IPtables or IPchains that's
> the current tool, but whichever it is is already there. It will need
> configuring, however. (Someone with more experience than me will point
> you at the relevent HOWTO.)

Both IPchains and IPtables are supported in the 2.4 series kernels.

As a new user, I'd say you should go with a GUI configuration tool, and 
not have to learn the command-line tools which are quite complex and 
intimidating. You should learn them, but you don't have to do it today.
I think firestarter is a fairly good configuration tool for new users. 
Nice gui, easy to understand, you never have to use the command line.
Maybe somebody else can suggest others.

HOWTOs are published by the Linux Documentation Project at 
http://www.tldp.org. It's oriented more towards system configuration than 
anything else, and we don't have much application documentation. But when 
looking for how to configure a network card or modem or firewalling, 
we're probably the best place to start. We publish over 500 documents, 
some of them full length books, so we probably have what you're looking 
for.

> > 4) I don't know how to install anything! The look and feel that I
> > picked for Linux mandrake does not include Netscape but some other
> > junk browser, how do I actually install the Netscape browser.
>
> Galeon, Konquerer and Opera are all good browsers. However, Netscape is
> available.

I think Mandrake has its own installer program, but I don't know Mandrake 
at all.

Netscape is based on Mozilla. Undoubtedly Mozilla is included in your 
Mandrake CDs. Opera is commercial, all the others are Free Software. I'd 
go with Mozilla if I were you.

Question: What's the "junk browser"?

> > 5)I need some good "office type" software that will be somewhat
> > compatible with word, etc.. what do I do?
>
> There's probably some already installed. Check your menus for any of
> the following:
> AbiWord
> StarOffice
> OpenOffice
> KWord
> KOffice (I think)

OpenOffice (and its commercial cousin, StarOffice) is the most compatible 
and fully featured. Abiword is getting there. KWord (part of KOffice) is 
also. I'd go with OpenOffice if Word compatibility is really important to 
you.

- -- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Lead Developer                                 http://www.tldp.org

In Microsoft world, you are always one click away from harming yourself.
	--Elias Levy, BUGTRAQ mailing list moderator.
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