Linux Difficulties

Hello, right now, I'm posting from a Knoppix Live-CD distro.

Anyways, I'm trying to switch to Linux, however, I'm having trouble getting it to work rightly for me.

Firstly, I don't know if my printer will WORK with linux. I can't seem to be able to print stuff out atm. And I don't know if the Lexmark printer driver will work with say... a Ubuntu or Debian distro.

Next, this one is a bit of a nuisance, on Windows, with Firefox when I middle click, I can scroll down super fast on pages. Now, with Knoppix, right now, when I middle click on Firefox, I'm redirected to ad pages for software or some blog or something, which is strange.

Like, if I middle click on this page, I am sent to http://www.zizasoft.com/products/zsDuplicateHunter/index.shtml. I'm not sure if the people who designed the Knoppix distro mae money from shelling these ads in their Live-CD, or if it's just a glitch or a hidden feature or something. Either way, it makes me less anxious about switching to Linux.

get debian

>>1
Switching to Linux eh?

Prepare for problems. Lots of problems.

>>1
I, too, have the middle buttom problem.  I'm less sure its with your distro as it is the pages you're on, as it is with the functionality of the middle button in linux.  For me, it appears to search for the text I click it with.

As for Printers, your printer either works with CUPS or it doesn't.  Linux doesn't have "Drivers", it has Kernel Modules.

>>4
OP here.

Is there a list somewhere on the internet that shows which printers work and don't work with certain distros or Linux in itself?

>>1
First off, you should actually install a distro because it is quite a different experience using one that you installed and customized yourself. The middle click issue can be fixed by going to about:config and setting middlemouse.contentLoadURL to "false". To see if your printer is compatible, you can try looking for it at http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi or by searching on search engines.

>>3
Watcha talking about?  Linux is super easy to use.  Everything is just supposed to work.  If it doesn't that means you are a dum-dum.  No drivers?  Dur, write your own.  If you can't do something that simple, gb2/Windows.

>>1
First search for linux and your printer model and the word "work". I have a lexmark x73 and x1170 but I had to fiddle around in ubuntu to get it working in ubuntu 5.10 . I don't know if these printers work with ubuntu 6.06 out of the box.

as for the middle mouse button, this behaviour originates from when linux traditionally used the middle click for copy paste.

>>3
staying with windows eh?
prepare to become a network security administrator.

>>6
how do i make it scroll fast then?

when i installed firefox in windows i was kind of suprised that you _couldn't_ hit the middle mouse button to load urls :/

now i installed ubuntu on my laptop, and since it doesn't have a scroller thing on the mouse, i want to use the middle button for scrolling fast.

it'd be convenient if i could set it so like the middle mouse button scrolled fast, but the left and right mouse button together loaded urls.

>>9
>>10
for firefox, you could try the scroll anywhere extension: http://perso.orange.fr/marc.boullet/ext/extensions-en.html

I've haven't used it though. I've given up trying to make konqueror and firefox work with "middle mouse click quick scroll" and just left it to be copy paste.

I search for you and your printer will work after choosing to install a new printer and selecting the correct model (at least in Ubuntu).

I think that the middle button doesn't work in Linux or at least I never managed to make it work to scroll really fast in Firefox.

After tasting Linux (I would advise you to choose Ubuntu, which is based on Debian), I think you won't want to come back to Windows unless you're a hardcore gamer. If that's so, get a dual-boot Windows/Linux

>.>
Middle Button Auto-scrolling works great for me on Firefox, in Gentoo.

I simply turned off the middle button load-URL, then went into the preferences and turned on Autoscrolling.  Been working like a charm since then.

>>13
oh shit
that was simple
thank you

(it also seems to work even if you don't turn off middle button load url)