[xubuntu-users] Is there a list for *ABSOLUTE* beginners with Xubuntu?

[Peter Flynn]

On 09/08/2013 10:42 AM, David Walland wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I've been watching and reading all your input and am beginning to
> suspect that some of you think that there is a problem with the
> Xubuntu on my old laptop.  I have to say that I doubt that.  I can
> *use* parts of it.

It sounds as if the operating system itself is working fine.

> I can write letters etc in Open Office, even if I can't work out why
> I can't replace it with Office Libre.

What happens if you use Synaptic to delete OpenOffice entirely,
and then install Libre Office entirely?

Oh wait...Libre Office probably isn't in the 10.04 repositories. Can you
download it from their web site at http://www.libreoffice.org/download
into /tmp (at least the main one, which is 154Mb of .tar.gz file).
Unwrap it with tar zxvf filename.tar.gz and then install it with
gdebi *.deb (if gdebi isn't installed in 10.04, install that first).

> The things I can't do are almost certainly there for the doing, if
> only I knew enough to ask the right question or look in the right
> place.

I think you're asking the right questions in the right place, but I
suspect that the machine is having problems with memory. It simply
doesn't have enough.

> I've emphasised to you that I'm a real old fogy with computers but
> have been only a user for more that 20 years now.  Even in this I'm
> an old fogy.  I liked DOS SHELL so much when it first came out that I
> mostly use its modern equivalent - Windows Explorer for launching
> programs and sorting around in my computer.  I can't even do the
> equivalent to *that* in Xubuntu, so I'm really pretty ######ed (as
> the technical term is).

The equivalent is the Terminal, which runs a shell canned "bash". Some
of it will be familiar to you from DOS (eg the cd command to change
directory), but there are LOTS of commands available, and there are
plenty of useful web pages about getting started with bash.

> What I believe I need is not more computers (even though I now have a
> more modern laptop which will be loaded with current Ubuntu if it
> survives a BIOS update - the purpose for which I *bought* it -
> shocking I know but my source of freebies has dried up.

I think you should pursue this first. Install a more recent Xubuntu; in
fact try 13.04, which comes with Libre Office by default, and which runs
happily, if slowly, on an ancient DELL laptop in my office with 1Gb memory.

> Lest anyone should think me profligate I hasten to add that the total
> price including memory HDD and upgrading from celeron to P4m
> processor *and* including postage will total well less than $50).  If
> I go that route, I end up with *two* machines which work at a low
> user-type level and *still* not enough knowledge to go further.

We're here to help with that.

> So it's this most basic knowledge, which all the "HELP" files and
> knowledge bases *assume*, which I need to get my head around, so I
> can start to learn on my own.  I'm more interested in mentoring than
> upgrading.

Excellent. The world will thank you for that.

> So thanks for all your input.  I very seriously appreciate it hugely.
> I'm still in need of mentoring to enable me to ask meaningful
> questions though...

You're doing pretty well so far.

///Peter