Table of Contents
This chapter documents the most important information you will need to know in order to start using your computer: turning the computer on, running applications, accessing your floppy drive, and safely shutting down the computer. [WHAT ABOUT UNIX ESSENTIALS?]
If you have some computer experience, much of the information in this chapter will likely be familiar to you. You will probably want to skim through the chapter (or the table of contents!) and then read sections in more depth as the need arises. If you have some computer experience but have never used Linux before, you may find the sections on saving files to floppy [WHERE?] and shutting down your computer [WHERE?] relevant. [AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN UNIX AND WINDOWS?]
Even if you are new to computers, you need not spend hours poring over this chapter. You may want to skim through the contents once to get an idea of how to use your computer, but do not worry too much about topics you do not understand fully. The most important topics to learn about are how to set up your computer [WHERE?], how to run applications [WHERE?], how to save files to floppies [WHERE?], and how to shut down your computer [WHERE?]. You will also need to know how to boot your computer [WHERE?] but you need not worry too much about the step by step explanations of the boot process.
Most of all, do not be afraid to explore. Although it is possible to mess up your computer by fiddling with the wrong things, it is very difficult. Many people are too afraid of their computer to play around, and that is a shame -- playing around is one of the best (and one of the only) ways that people learn.
Having said that, there are a few situations in which you do need to exercise caution. You need to be cautious when deleting files. You need to be cautious when changing the configuration of your computer. Finally, you need to be cautious when using the root account of your computer (if you don't know what the root account is, you are not using it). For more information about safe computing, see Chapter [WHERE?]
Before you start your machine make sure that you have connected the hardware together properly. Here is a checklist of the usual connections. For more information, see [WHERE?]
Of these tasks, it is most important to make sure that your monitor and case have power, that your monitor cable is plugged into your case, and that your keyboard and mouse are plugged into the proper port.
Be careful: it is easy to mix up the PS/2 keyboard and mouse connections, and it is easy to plug in serial mice into the wrong place. Fortunately, it is easy to tell if you get things wrong: often your computer will beep and complain at you if you don't plug your keyboard in properly, and if your mouse is plugged into the wrong port, your mouse will just fail to work. [POINT TO REFERENCE]
Once you have your cables set up, you are ready to boot up the computer.