I'm drenched behind my ears when it comes to Linux.

[lazer_viking]

No actually, make that completely under water/drowning lol.

Okay, so I'm wondering... I've already installed Debian and I've been tinkering with it 30 minutes to 1hr at a time for a few weeks... I've figured out how to explore folders, copy files from CD to HD.. hmm and that's about it!! I don't know how to install or execute programs, or anything like that.
I would prefer to not be dependant on a "desktop" (http://mac.linux.be/desktop.png like this). I think I want to learn to use it with only the shell (correct term??) at first, and then later on after a couple of months, after I become somewhat fluent with using it, I may switch to a desktop GUI. Is it possible to install a GUI with Debian later?
Anyway, the main tasks I want to accomplish are (in this order
-playing a video file (since I like to watch movies and stuff on my laptop)
-browsing the internet (can you view webpages (in color) while only using the shell (term?)? How does this work? Is it "window" style? How do you do this when it appears to be text only?)
-hmm after I learn these things I should probably be self-suffeicent from there on out.

Is Debian a good distro? I may host a webserver for a few websites (would require mysql, php, ect. all the goodies), but I mostly want to be able to do most simple tasks that I do normally on Windows, like browsing internet, playing movies, listening to music, (although I understand gaming is pretty much not an option on linux. I'm okay with that though, thats what my SLi rig is for ).

Thanks for help, you can put this in your "another n00bi3 enlightened" list.

Also, I first tried experimenting with Linux on my gaming computer, which I'm pretty sure I need to stick with Windows for. How do I take off that GRUB OS loader thing?

 

[The General]

So you don't have Gnome installed?

If not run the command:

apt-get install gnome

There are tons of video players for Linux, they all require a GUI. (or at least an X server, unless you're going to run them in text mode, lol)

You can browse the internet in a shell with lynx, but it's really stupid. Just use FireFox in a GUI.

Debian is a good distro.

Gaming not an option? lol... Doom 3, Quake 4, UT2k4, UT2k7, ET:QW, WolfET, RTCW, Nexuiz, all have native Linux versions. And yes, SLi is supported.)

How are you planning on booting without a boot loader?

 

[lazer_viking]

Hmm... downloading the gnome package now. (is gnome the GUI desktop thing? I'm assuming so...)

Well, so you're saying that shell isn't an option for graphic things? It's something I didn't know =) although, I was trying fathom in my mind how you could possibly watch a video while it was in that text mode.

So waaaaay back when everyone still used the shell and GUI's weren't invented, how did they watch videos? Or did they not? Idk, since I'm not old enough to remember a time without GUI's. The reason I wanted to use the shell only for a little while is so that I didn't have to dependant on a GUI. What if someday I need to do something with a computer that doesn't have a GUI? I'll be screwed and I'll look like a dumbass because I'll have to say "Well, geez wizz if I can't point and click to fix it, I don't know how!"

So anyway, I can probably go back and tinker with the shell later even with a GUI installed. If I have a GUI installed, I can probably figure everything else out from here. I tend to have an intuitive nature, I think. This will put my intuitivity to the test lol.

 

[lazer_viking]

Actually, I do have another question. It would look as though gnome is done installing, but how do I launch it? Is there some sort of "execute" command or something? Or do I simply reboot?

edit: Okay, I figured out that I should

exec gnome-session

But, it says:

(gnome-session:1453): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display:

Does that mean my drivers aren't installed?

EDIT::: BAH!! ubuntu is so much easier. quoting the guy that helped me "no one should ever have to type "startx"" =)

 

[A-mak]

thats a bad quote.

to install programs:
You can go the easy way.. learn nothing, download debian packages.
OR
you can get the source from the site, open up good ole Konsole (or Terminal.. you gnome freaks, kde rules!) go to the folder where you extracted it to (I usually can never be bothered extracing from within cli)..

These are the commands;
ls = view a list of whats inside the current folder
cd = change dir
./config
make
make install
make clean.

say if I had something in /home/amak/myproggie

I could type this

cd /home/amak/myproggie
./configure && make && make install && make clean

Linux has alot of dependecy's, to play a video file the most needed program is Xine, that contains pretty much all the library's (you can download more to view more files).. once you've compiled and installed that I usually use Kaffiene to view all my video files, alltho that is only for KDE (because its better). Alternativly, you could go download VLC (video lan client) compile and install that.

the gui is very good, I use it every day.. I also use the Terminal every day.. the more you tinker the more fun it gets . Debian is a very good distro, I've heard great things about it.

Alltho I'm going to quote someone myself

"Install Debian, Learn Debian. Install Slackware, Learn Linux"

I'm running on slackware atm, and I had to use the cli greatly.

Also, for the graphics problem, you might not have gtk dependencies installed (whcih should have installed when you installed debain)

Try xorg xorgconfig xorgmenu (or something like that.. Not sure if it will work, I had to do this in slack)

 

[horndude]

Hmm... downloading the gnome package now. (is gnome the GUI desktop thing? I'm assuming so...)

Well, so you're saying that shell isn't an option for graphic things? It's something I didn't know =) although, I was trying fathom in my mind how you could possibly watch a video while it was in that text mode.

So waaaaay back when everyone still used the shell and GUI's weren't invented, how did they watch videos? Or did they not? Idk, since I'm not old enough to remember a time without GUI's. The reason I wanted to use the shell only for a little while is so that I didn't have to dependant on a GUI. What if someday I need to do something with a computer that doesn't have a GUI? I'll be screwed and I'll look like a dumbass because I'll have to say "Well, geez wizz if I can't point and click to fix it, I don't know how!"

So anyway, I can probably go back and tinker with the shell later even with a GUI installed. If I have a GUI installed, I can probably figure everything else out from here. I tend to have an intuitive nature, I think. This will put my intuitivity to the test lol.

Actually you can watch video in text mode, mplayer will do it using the svga library.

Learn the commandline, its where all the power is to begin with, I think you will find most experienced linux users will usually have one or more terminals open all the time even when using a GUI, its just too easy and quick to get things done that way.

 

[The General]

Horndude, does that display the video as it would look if I played it in a GUI, or does it use letters and numbers and characters and stuff?

 

[horndude]

it looks just like it would on TV

if you dont configure the svga library settings first you have to run it as root, but if your video card supports it it will work just fine, ive done it before, both savage4 and nvidia cards work fine, any device which supports a framebuffer will generally work

 

[lazer_viking]

A-mak: I tried that and it looked like it was going to work for the first few seconds, then it said

configure: error: no acceptable C compiler was found in $PATH

I'm pretty bummed out. I know Linux is sooooo much better from what people tell me.. but it seems too complicated

edit: okay read somewhere i need this "gcc" thing. so im installing it atm.

 

[horndude]

gcc is a compiler, you will also need the C libraries and any other libraries whatever software your installing depends on