[kde-doc-english]rought draft migration guide

Sun May 25 00:40:45 CEST 2003

[..]
|
| I have included a very rough draft of my initial
| attempt to write a migration guide. I have some doubts
| about whether than I can mention programs that are not
| QT based and how in depth should I go. It looks like I
| have to explain in detail a few basic concepts for new
| users. It might eventually turn into a general
| migration guide instead of being KDE specific. Is this
| allowed?. I mention Linux at places and I have used
| KDE only under Linux. Should I leave out stuff, which
| cover some low-level information pertaining to
| operating systems. Please let me know

My opinion on this matter is that you should try to cover KDE as much as 
possible. You want to write a KDE migration guide not a general migration 
guide, right?

| 		I could cover only KDE specific stuff and refer
| users to a general migration guide somewhere else but
| that would leave out essential stuff like how do I
| access windows partitions? From this document. I
| personally feel this kind of stuff should be covered
| here itself. What more can I cover?

I think you forgot some things  ... you can find them along this text.

| Windows to KDE migration Guide
|
| 		Are you a new user just looking into Linux and
| wondering how KDE works compared to Windows? Welcome.
| You have found just the right place to learn more
| about KDE. Here you can find quick answers to the
| questions that you are likely to ask first as a
| Windows user along with detailed information on how
| things work in KDE.  This guide is pretty much
| task-oriented and aimed towards users migrating from
| Windows. If you are new to Computers or wanted to
| learn more about KDE, please use the KDE user’s guide.
|
| Users and companies can heavily customize KDE, as they
| like. The way KDE works can be different depending on
| your distribution of Linux. If your distribution of
| KDE does not work exactly as specified here. Take some
| time to look around and check out yourself how things
| work.
|
| What is KDE?
|
| 	KDE, which stands for K Desktop Environment, is a
| user-friendly graphical interface for Unix systems. It
| works in a similar fashion to Windows interface, so
| you can easily learn to use KDE if you have used
| Windows before.
|
| Where is the Start button?
|
| 	The K menu in KDE works very similar to the Start
| button in KDE. It is usually on the left bottom corner
| and has the symbol K in it. If you don’t find it
| there, right click on an empty space in  your KDE
| panel <link> and click add>special button>K menu.
|
| Where is the Taskbar?
|
| 	The KDE panel also known as Kicker works similar to
| your Windows taskbar. For more information about
| Kicker, right click on an empty space in Kicker and
| press help.
|
| Where is My computer?
|
| 	KDE does not have a My computer. My computer is a
| directory in Windows which gives you quick access to
| various partitions in your hard disk like C: or D:. in
| Linux the partitions are not maintained separately and
| is viewed as a single tree. Your partitions can be
| mounted under any directory you want. Mounting is the
| process of attaching partitions to your file system.
| For example, your C: partitions may be mounted under
| /mnt/hda1, D: on /mnt/hda2 and so on.  

You should emphasize that Linux is even more flexible and that you can 
determine your own layout as concerned to partitions. Hell, they can have "My 
Computer"  if they want to ... :o)

| (should I
| explain- I have explained how mounting works and how
| devices are named in Linux here<link>?)

Yes, or else they cannot copy stuff from their media :oP

| How do I use my floppy disks?
|
| 	Check whether you have a icon on your KDE Desktop
| which looks like a floppy. If not right click on your
| Desktop, go through New link> Create floppy disk and
| click on that. In the Window that pops up press the
| third tab called ? and make sure that the link points
| to /dev/fd0. Press ok to create the link.
|
| 		When you click on that floppy icon in your desktop,
| you will see a Window opened in Konqueror which would
| display the floppy contents. You can then do whatever
| stuff you want to do in it. Make sure you unmount the
| floppy after using it by right clicking on the floppy
| icon and clicking unmount.
|
| How do I format my floppy?
|
| 	Right click on the floppy icon in your desktop and
| press format. If you don’t find it there read the
| previous question to learn to create a link to your
| floppy drive.
|
| Where is Windows Explorer?
|
| 	The file manager in KDE is called Konqueror. It also
| acts as your Internet browser. You can find it  under
| K>Internet>Konqueror. You can access it quickly by
| pressing alt and F2 keys and typing  konqueror in the
| run box that pops up.
|
| Where is Internet Explorer?
|
| 	Like I said before, Konqueror is both a file manager
| and a Internet Browser, so you can use it for
| accessing files in your system as well as viewing web
| pages on the Internet.
|
| Where is My Documents?
| 		My Documents in a directory in Windows, where you
| can save your documents and other files. In KDE, you
| can save your files under your home
| directory(/home/username) or any directory below it
| which you have created. If you are using KDE as a root
| user you can change files anywhere but this is
| certainly not recommended.

I think you can have the equivalent to "My Documents" in KDE as 
/home/username/Documents/ So KDE provides you with that

| Where is Recycle Bin?
|
| 	The Trash icon in your KDE desktop works like the
| recycle bin in Windows. Please remember that the
| delete option when you right click on a file actually
| deletes the file permanently. You should click on Move
| to Trash option if you want to be able to recover the
| file later.
|
| Where is Network Neighborhood?
|
| In Windows, you can use the Network Neighborhood,
| which shares files using the SMB protocol. In Linux,
| files are shared in a network using the NFS protocol.
| You can use ftp to transfer files between systems
| regardless of which operating system you use. You can
| share files between Windows and Linux users using a
| software called as Samba. For more information about
| Samba, please read the Samba Howto<link> or visit the
| samba website<link>
|
| How do I use FTP?
|
| 	FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is used to transfer files
| in a network. If you want to access ftp resources
| anonymously, type ftp://ftp address in konqueror on in
| the run (alt+F2) box. If you want to login into a
| remote system, type ftp://username@ftp address. A text
| box will pop up where you can type in your password.

You can emphasize the fact that we have loads of kio-plugins

| Where is Scandisk?
|
| 	Scandisk is a software which is used to check files
| in Windows. In Linux, there is program called fsck
| (File System Check) which automatically scans and
| rectifies your files if you have not logged off or
| Shutdown your system properly. You usually don’t need
| to use fsck manually.

Do we need fsck these days. Tell them about journaling filesystems

| Where is Disk Defragmenter?
|
| 	Windows in general uses a file system called as FAT
| and Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP can also
| use another file system called NTFS. Their file
| systems are prone to fragmentation of data and hence
| require software like Disk Defragmenter. Linux uses
| file systems like ext2, which manage fragmentation of
| data by themselves and do not require external
| software. You do not need to worry about fragmentation
| of files under Linux and hence KDE does not offer an
| equivalent software.

Say it more in at generic way .... "Nowadays Linux uses a journalling 
filesystem" 

| Where is Outlook Express ?
|
| 	You can use Kmail in KDE to check mails. It has a
| look and feel similar to Outlook Express and you can
| import existing mail and filters using the Imports
| option in the settings menu in Kmail.

mention IMAP

| Is there a software similar to Microsoft Office?
|
| 	Yes. Koffice is an integrated office suite available
| for KDE. It does not support Microsoft’s proprietary
| file formats. 

not yet I guess ... :-( 

please do emphasize that this is a work in progress .. 

| You may not have it installed in your
| system. You can either install it from your
| distribution disks or from the Koffice
| website<link-koffice.org>. If you want to exchange
| files with Windows users, you may want to consider an
| alternative office suite like OpenOffice.org<website
| link-openoffice.org>
|
| Is there a software similar to Winzip?
|
| 	Yes. Konqueror by itself supports many compression
| formats. Ark is the KDE archiver, which supports
| common compression formats like Zip, Gzip, Bzip2, Arj
| and Rar when the underlying tools are installed.
|
| Is there a software similar to Winamp?
|
| 	Yes. Noatun is the KDE audio player which has a
| plugin to look like Winamp and even supports Winamp
| skins. Alternatively you can try out XMMS which also
| supports Winamp skins and Plugins. In RedHat systems
| mp3 is not supported due to license restrictions.
| Download the mp3 plugin for XMMS(link to xmms.org) to
| play mp3 audio.

Do mention juK as well also KMplayer and Kxine. Please do not talk about 
license restrcictions for the sake of ... 

| How do I play movies in KDE?
|
| 	You can use a program like Mplayer(link) or
| Xine(link) to play movies in KDE.

with kde frontends like kmplayer and kxine 

Missing Kopete here :o)

|
| How do I close a running software forcibly?
|
| 	Press the control alt and escape keys together. The
| cursor would change into a skeleton symbol. Click on
| the software that you want to close. Remember that the
| software would close immediately and would not be able
| to save any information. Don’t use this unless a
| software wont respond.

very drastic approach .. not  :oP

| How do I view a list of running software?
|
| 	Press control and escape keys together. You will get
| a list of processes running in your system. If you
| want to view your own processes change the option in
| the menu at the bottom.
|
| How do I use Windows Partitions in KDE?
|
| 		Your system may have been setup to automatically
| mount Windows partitions. Check under your /mnt
| directory to see whether they are already mounted. If
| not, you can use the file called fstab(file system
| table) under /etc directory  to automatically mount
| Windows partitions. Here is an example:
|
| Example fstab file
|
| DeviceName	Mount point	filesystem	Options Check
| filesystem? Check Priority
|
| /dev/hda2	 /mnt/hda2	 vfat
| umask=000,gid=username,uid=username defaults 0 0
|
| Do I have to give a Username and Password everytime to
| use KDE?
|
| 	In a multiuser system like Linux, passwords are used
| to protect your files. If you do not need such kind of
| protection you can use the Control center in KDE to
| autologin into your system.
|
| Use Kcontrol>System>Login Manager to change your KDE
| Login Manager settings. Your system may have been
| setup to use an alternate Window Manager like Gnome.
| You have to change it to KDE Login Manager before you
| can start using these settings.(cover how to change?)

nope do not cover that ... way too deep for now ..

| Is there something like Windows registry In KDE?
|
| 		No. Linux does not use a registry to store settings
| in a central place like Windows. The settings are
| maintained in individual files which are usually under
| the /etc directory. You can use any text editor to
| change these settings if you want to. This is usually
| needed only for advanced options. ( is there any
| utility for managing these options?)
|
| Can I play games in KDE ?
|
| 	Of course. You have a separate package for playing
| KDE games. If you have installed it, it will be
| available under K menu>games. You can also play other
| games installed in your system.
|
| How do I quickly run some software?
|
| 	Press alt and F2 keys together. In the text box that
| pops up type the command for running the particular
| software.
|
| How do I use the command line in KDE?
|
| 		Use K Menu>System>Konsole to type commands in KDE.
| You can access it quickly by typing konsole in the run
| box(Alt+F2) .
|
| How do I logoff/restart/shutdown my system?
|
| 	Use K Menu>logoff option to perform these tasks. If
| you do not see the options to restart or shutdown your
| system, it means that you are not using the KDE Login
| manager in your system. You can type restart or
| shutdown in the Konsole or create links manually.
|
|

Nice job .... I do hope you spice it up a little with some screenies.

Please do post a newer version. 

Cheers'

Fab

-- 
Fabrice Mous
fabricemous at xs4all.nl
fabrice at kde.nl ~~ http://www.kde.nl
vosberg at suse ~~ http://www.vosberg.be