Ready to take the plunge into Linux and XML....

[Aidan Wilson]

Heather, as a linux convert of some 4 years ago, and as a former Windows 
slave, I fully recommend upgrading to Ubuntu. The amount of control over 
how your computer operates is wonderful - you'll find that you can make it 
do what you want it to do, how you want it to do it, as opposed to Windows 
doing what it thinks you want to do, and doing it however it likes.

However I would warn that there can, nay, will be difficult times when you 
need to configure something somewhere to fix some serious issue (such as 
an external wi-fi card not being supported immediately, or flash not 
working unless you manually download and install it from Adobe). It will 
require you to perform some actions in the terminal (Unix version of cmd).

But on the plus side, there is a huge support community of volunteers who 
are always willing to help out Windows apostates. Firstly there are the 
Ubuntu Forums (http://ubuntuforums.org/) where you will likely get timely 
advice, or if you're familiar with chatrooms, there's the #ubuntu channel 
on the freenode IRC server (irc://chat.freenode.net/#ubuntu - needs an IRC 
client, like ircle on a mac or babbel on both mac and windows). Here, 
there are probably hundreds of users who tend to answer questions very 
quickly.

I'd also suggest, if you want to keep windows, to run a dual-boot. The 
configuration I had, which worked extraordinarily well for 3 years, was to 
take my laptop hard drive and partition it into three drives, one for data 
and the other two for the two operating systems, linux and windows. Both 
can communicate with the data partition equally well, so the net effect is 
that you can simply reboot in windows and go back to the file you were 
just working on in linux and open it in a windows program. However this 
configuration takes quite some setting up.

As for XML, you really should get a license for Oxygen, an XML editor. It 
won't teach you about xml, W3schools is excellent for that, but it will 
allow you to edit XML files without breaking the very delicate structure, 
as it validates as you type, and produces errors and red squiggly lines 
under ill-formed chunks.

-Aidan Wilson

-- 
Aidan Wilson

The University of Sydney
+612 9036 9558
+61428 458 969
aidan.wilson at usyd.edu.au


On Mon, 10 May 2010, s.t. bischoff wrote:

> Hi Heather,
> 
> w3schools might be a good place to start with XML. You'll find useful tutorials and other resources, and it's
> free. In terms of linux, I've been using Ubuntu for about five years with no problems, no Microsoft, and no
> viruses.
> 
> Good luck,
> Shannon
> 
> On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 9:46 PM, Heather Souter <hsouter at gmail.com> wrote:
>       Taanshi,
>
>       Well,  I am finally ready to take the plunge into Linux and XML.... 
>
>       I would like to know what the list suggests I read to get a better idea of what Linux (Ubuntu?)
>       is all about.  I have a MacBook Pro and purchased a partitioning program (Parallels) with at the
>       same time.  I  have been thinking about putting a Windows OS on it but now I am thinking that
>       perhaps I should put a Linux distribution instead....  One of the main reasons I have wanted to
>       put a Windows OS is to be able to use some software (propriety and open source) I can't use (or
>       at least don't think I can, LOL!) on my Mac.... 
>
>       I also want to know if anyone knows of a good "dummies introduction to XML for
>       non-computer-oriented community-linguist types"?  I want to learn about it now that I don't feel
>       as if I am having an allergic reaction at the mere mention of any kind of computer programming!
>       LOL!
>
>       Well, I look forward to your suggestions....
>
>       Eekoshi pitamaa.
>       Heather
> 
> 
> 
>