Candidate for article: "5 things to know"

#1 It may be helpful to tell where in the menu structure the install/remove tool can be found.

#2 Ubuntu doesn't have a root password, it doesn't let root log in at all. To do things as root, it uses sudo which asks for your own password rather than the root password. If you don't want to type "sudo" all the time, use "su", or on ubuntu: "sudo su".

#3 99% of G and K apps run just fine in the other environment. They may look out of their natural environment but they will run just fine. Please don't scare users away from mixing apps and getting the best of both worlds.

#5.2 If you often get files from windows users, and pass them on to other windows users, it's a good idea to scan for viruses in those files. That way you help protect those who haven't switched yet. Also, when you're running windows applications in an emulator, it's a good idea to scan those regularly.

#5.5 your are -> you are

point #3 is a bit dodgy:
desktop envionment !- window manager ;; DEs usually include WMs, and having a complete DE is considered bloat by many, whereas noone lives without a WM. KDE's WM is kwin, Gnome's is metacity, xfce's is xfwin4; some use other WMs in a DE, such as compiz in xfce, openbox in Gnome or beryl in KDE, to name a few random combinations.

please name an example of an app than conflicts with some DE, if you know one.
Firefox is a dodgy example for an app that runs equally well in Gnome and KDE: it uses GTK and thus looks native to Gnome rather than to KDE. OOo would be a better example since there are different UIs available for it, including the default one, which looks out-of-place everywhere.

#5.3: GNU/Linux is not case-sensitive, but filenames on it, like on any UNIX system, are, except possibly when using FAT.

#5.4: rox-filer has no menus; you may want to be more precise.

'Unless you have special hardware, your are most likely to simply have an "x86" computer.' is getting less and less true. All modern x86 processors are actually x86_64. You may want to say something like 'Unless you have special hardware, you can simply run the "x86" (or "i386") version.'

This is a good idea to publish it on PolishLinux.org, or even make it part of the static website (e.g. as a *very* first step in First steps subsection). Some of the things you talk about in the article are described in details in the first steps and apps sections, e.g.:
- Installing software: http://polishlinux.org/first-steps/installing-software/
- Terminal and root: http://polishlinux.org/first-steps/terminal/, http://polishlinux.org/first-steps/root-account/
- KDE vs GNOME: http://polishlinux.org/apps/desktop/

Thus, I think it would be better to put it as an introduction article, for example appearing just when you click on the "First steps" button, providing links at the end of each "step" to the articles with more details (we would need to write a detailed article about Linux permissions to be able to do this, but tha't no big deal).

All in all I think it would fit on PL.o perfectly and if you really would like to publish it there, it would be great.

Considering comments...
I agree with most of the things tbuitenh and free-zombie mentioned. One more thing I would not like to do on PL.o is to promote Ubuntu or any other distribution. Sure there's nothing bad in putting a screenshot of Ubuntu's applet for installing applications, but I would not like to make an impression that linux==ubuntu.

One more graphical remark to the article -- in the last section (Various additional details) it would be probably better to organize it a way that attracts users more by putting little headlines above each point, like this :

No defragmentation needed!

You may be used to regularly defragment your hard drive under Windows. Under GNU/Linux, however, the file systems in use are extremely resistant to fragmentation so that this is completely unnecessary.

Anti-virus software made redundant

...

etc

Thanks very much for the comments. As usual, I feel stupid for the mistakes and thrilled by the quickness of the response.

I corrected everything according to your suggestions and here are a few points left:

- Menu navigation to add/remove apps:

What is it in OpenSUSE or in a typical KDE distro?

- root user:

I did not explain it all because I wanted to stay short. The paragraph is written so that it remains true for most main distros.

- Window Manager and Desktop Environment

I think I understand what you mean free-zombie, but I am not sure how to correct this in Joe User's perspective. Can I be correct while not mentionning the Kwin or Metacity?

Michuk, I am glad you consider posting the article. I think it is mostly up to you what we do with it now...

It is a good idea to integrate it more with the existing articles (I started to do this with links to the relevant PL.o articles). We can move / add / remove things to make it more relevant if you want to use it as an introduction to the "getting started" article.
I was thinking about removing points #4 (file permissions) and #5.5 (Ubuntu names), what do you think? I also added some small titles for the 5.x points; and we could mention other distributions if you want.

All in all, this article can be completely modified and adapted to whichever purpose.
I simply was inspired to write it when my sister headed to mozilla.com when she wanted to install Thunderbird on her Ubuntu machine: I didn't want a precise explaination about deb packages but needed one such article.

not saying anything about window managers is easiest

I think that I will just publish this article as is (so that it appears as a regular article) and after a while I will take some parts of this (especially the first 3 paragraphs) to make a better "getting started" guide in the "First steps" section.

Just let me know when you think the article is completely finished (I think it's ok now but if you want to modify sth more, do so) and then I will transfer it to PolishLinux.org. BTW: if you feel like it, you can even do this yourself (register on PolishLinux and publish an article draft). Let me know what you think.

Ok, I will polish it up (both meanings ) tomorrow. It's a good idea this way.
Hopefully now at least the inacuracies are corrected.

Great! I'm waiting for the final version then.

So,
do you think the article is ready for publishing already?
Borys

Sorry for the delay. Too many things going on at once... I will finish it up and post the draft article on PL.o before the end of the week.

Apologies
O

I already posted the article on PL.o as a draft so if you register I will give you rights to edit it (I already adjusted it for PolishLinux formatting and uploaded the pictures, so it would be preferable if you edit the article there, but of course it's all a matter of diffing and merging, so it won't be a problem if you just update the current version as well).

No problem about the delay -- I just though you might have forgotten about it or that you already consider it finished and wait for it to be published