Power Off?, Security?, Best Book?

[smitty8]

3 Questions - First Post
Hoping to drop MS, A friend just installed Linux/Fedora in my new Compaq Presario desktop AMD Sempron 2800+ 256/40GB for my home use - writing, financial, email, and attempts at orgainizing projects. This is all new to me. A few questions:
1. At end of shutdown acpi_power_off called appears on screen but the only way I've found to power off is to then hold button in about 6 seconds. I suppose I could leave it on all the time, but like to turn it off at night or when away for days. Any suggestions?
2. He says, and I've read, not to worry about security. I used F-Prot Antivirus and ZoneAlarm with Windows 98, Norton with my XP laptop. Router has adequate firewall and don't worry about viruses???
3. Can you recommend a general use book - something that will provide basic info about the most popular programs coming with Red Hat (Fedora, Open Office, Firefox, T-Bird, Gnucash, Gimp, etc.). I bought the O'Reilly Linux Pocket Guide but it really isn't much help to me. At this point I'm trying to figure out how to use what's there rather than learning line commands (later???).
I'd hoped to have a dual boot setup with the XP that came bundled, but friend had trouble getting that part set up (he's a Linux person with limited Windows knowledge). Maybe I'll ask question about that later.
Thank you very much, in advance, for your kind and patient assistance!!!

[bAdWaYz]

Hiya Smitty,
Welcome to both linux and CTH. As far as the first question goes do you know what the settings for ACPI are in your BIOS? Sometimes if you disable ACPI in the BIOS the computer will power down instantly. For security if you have a router just go with that as the firewall. I have yet to find a software firewall that I like as much as the hw firewall in the router. You can run F-Prot in linux as they have a ver for linux and that should keep you pretty well protected. Now on to books and docs for Fedora.....I will post a few links for you. The first link is to the RH Fedora Bible, this book is a nice tool to have around and very complete as far as the info you will find about Fedora you can find it here Now if you are looking for online doc's they are out there but not as many as you would think due to Fedora still being the new kid on the block and open source. The doc's out there are good however so the first one would be the RH 9 doc's. They can be found here Yes this is RH 9 so some of the filenames and packages are older but for install and partitioning or general use this doc still applies. Next there is the Fedora Doc's project here This is a task based doc so you can see how to get things done a task at a time. Finally there is a Fedora Wiki that can be found here So with those links you should be pretty set. I hope this helps and post back if you have any more questions.

[Jaytee]

Hi Smitty.
Also you my want to look at a book called "linux for non geeks" well written, easy to understand and has acheivable projects based on Fedora core so you will not get a "distro" conflict

[DaveQB]

I wouldnt be too concerned about a virus scanner unless you have Windows computers there and connected to this PC in some way. There's only been 6 viruses for Linux in its history and they all cant effect a modern kernel anyway.

[twistedcranium]

As badwayz mentioned, F-Prot is a good choice, and I would also suggest chkrootkit to help scan the system for rootkits that may be running. They are rare, but better to play it safe.

www.chkrootkit.org

Quick article that explains what a rootkit is.

[DaveQB]

hmmmm that sounds good although it hasnt been tested with anything above kernel 2.4