Abstract
Welcome, and thank you for choosing Mandrakelinux! This Quick-Startup Guide will help you understand the installation basics of a GNU/Linux distribution, give you pointers as to what you need to do before actually installing the Mandrakelinux operating system (OS), as well as initiate you to the GNU/Linux environment.
We'll tell you about technical procedures you should follow (Chapter 1, Installation Warning). This is not mandatory, but let us just say we very highly recommend that you follow these instructions! We talk about data back-up, scandisk, and the like.
We cover topics such as BIOS configuration, boot disks and supported hardware in Chapter 2, Before Installation.
Then comes the chapter you have been waiting for: Chapter 3, Installation with DrakX. This utility is designed to guide you during the installation process.
We then discuss the Linux paradigm by comparing it to Windows and MacOS in Chapter 4, Migrating to Linux from Windows®/Mac OS X®. The next chapter (Chapter 5, Linux for Beginners) was written especially to help out new users. In it we describe the first steps a new user must master and we explain concepts such as “logging in/out”, security tips, and more.
We then guide you through a fairly exhaustive list of documentation sources which you can consult in order to attain a better Linux knowledge (Chapter 6, Where to Get Documentation). A Mandrakelinux-specific section points to numerous in-house resources which you can find on the Net.
The last part (Use) gives you a short description of the following daily applications:
the KDE graphical environment in Chapter 7, Using KDE;
the Konqueror file manager and web browser (see the section called “Managing your Files”, and the section called “Browsing the Web”);
the KMail mail client (Chapter 9, Writing E-mails with KMail);
as well as two of OpenOffice.org's components (see the section called “Word Processor”, and the section called “Spreadsheet”).