On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 07:29:41PM -0000, MuskokaCowboy wrote: > > > 1) when downloading programs from the internet, where should I save > the archive to and where should I install the program files to?
Before answering the question, let me make one comment. Ubuntu (and therefore, as far as I know, Mint) has 23000 packages. The chances of having to actually download and build a program are usually small. In almost every imaginable situation, you should use the available packages. (A handy tool is aptitude--for me it's easier to type aptitude than apt-get, apt-cache, and so on. Once installed you can type aptitude search <package name>. (Install aptitude with apt-get install aptitude). Supposedly, apt is getting deprecated and the new canonical (pun intended) way to do it is with aptitude. Ok, to answer your question--assuming you're using Gnome with firefox, it will probably either default to your desktop or a directory named downloads. So, if you download by firefox and open a terminal, if you do cd Desktop, you should see it. (Or just see the icon on your desktop.) There's no *right* way to do it, it's a matter of taste. For example, primarily using Fedora (which has far fewer packages, 8000 I believe, so I have frequently download programs) I have three directories--rpmdownloads, tarballs and iso. I put iso files in--yup, you guess it, iso, rpms in rpmdownloads and tarballs, that is, tar.bz or tar.gz files in tarballs. You can divide it any way you want. You can also, if you're building a lot of packages, just make a directory for it in /usr/local/src. It's really up to you. (You can change firefox's default download behavior in Edit=>Preferences in the main section.) > > 2) I was using Thunderbird Email in XP. Is there any way to transfer > my mailboxes and account settings from XP to Thunderbird in Mint? I don't know, I should really try that. It's easy if you have an imap server. :) Ahah. Google is your friend. Using moving thunderbird from windows to linux (I never capitalize when doing google searches, as I'm lazy) brings up this as the first hit. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_from_Windows_to_Linux > > 3) Do I need to use a firewall? I am behind a router and in addition > my router connects to my ISP using a high speed wireless connection > which is also firewalled on my ISP's end. It can't hurt. Probably not really necessary if you're not running a server, but there should be a firewall running by default, no? I'm not sure, Fedora has you allow and disallow services during installation. I'm sure Mint has a firewall configuration thingie. By the way, often both Mint and Ubuntu forums can be good sources of information when you're in a hurry. (I would guess that almost everything on Ubuntu forums will apply to Mint, though there are differences.) It's good to hear that it's going so well for you. New York Times Business section article on Mark Shuttleworth and Ubuntu for anyone interested... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/business/11ubuntu.html?_r=2 (Roy, if you've read this far, good stuff for your blog?) -- Scott Robbins PGP keyID EB3467D6 ( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 ) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6 Oz: We survived. Buffy: Yeah, it was some battle. Oz: I meant high school. ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [email protected] & you will be removed.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
