So, i want to go Linux.... advice?

binary visions · Aug 24, 2004

The most user friendly flavor of linux, in my experience, is Red Hat. If you have zero experience with linux, or you are not a very, very hardy computer geek, that's a great place to start.

That said, I've not installed linux in at least two years so the most recent iterations of Suse and other flavors might be just as friendly. I did a little looking into Red Hat about 8 months ago though and it is still just as user friendly as ever.

Another thing to keep in mind is that linux has never been particularly friendly with laptops. Patience is a virtue, and a book such as Linux Unleashed or one of the Que manuals can be your best friend - personally, I hate reading online documentation. Those books are invaluable resources, especially when you start extending beyond the basic installation into really configuring your system.

Good luck, linux is awesome and while it may require a little more work in the beginning, it's very rewarding to have a supremely stable, very fast, and extremely configurable OS like that.

Tenchiro · Aug 24, 2004

Go burn a knoppix CD. You can boot from it and check out Linux in full without bothering to install it.

s1ngletrack · Aug 24, 2004

Tenchiro said:
Go burn a knoppix CD. You can boot from it and check out Linux in full without bothering to install it.

Good advice - If you have another machine (desktop) I would install it on that first - if for no other reason than to get the hang of tracking down drivers, installing updates (I've only had luck with "yum" for updates, etc...) Linux, from my limited experience, is very cool - but I would be very hesitant to jump in and install it on my laptop without first getting to know it a bit - unless you're into the "Trial by Fire" sort of thing. Also, it might behoove you to check out the pros / cons of different distros and to decide which best suits your needs (no different really from deciding if you want to race cyclocross or drop 40 foot cliffs before buying a bike - it just makes sense)

Tenchiro · Aug 24, 2004

math2014 said:
Thanks guys, i friend of mine has the exact same laptop as me and runs linux flawlessly so i know that i wont be having any hardware issues.

Given a dual boot XP/Linux system, in other words to install Linux on the 2nd partition (made by partitionmagic7) and have dual boot with lilo will i be fine? I figured that i could uninstall it later on if i disliked it.

ou have to install Linux after Windows. Windows has a tendancy to blow out other OS's boot partition. Try Knoppix though, it is fully functional without the install headaches.

binary visions · Aug 24, 2004

math2014 said:
Given a dual boot XP/Linux system, in other words to install Linux on the 2nd partition (made by partitionmagic7) and have dual boot with lilo will i be fine? I figured that i could uninstall it later on if i disliked it.

Yep, it'll be fine. "fips" is another utility that does non-destructive partitioning, and it's free. Comes with most linux distributions, but if you look it up in Google you'll find a billion download sites for it. Very small utility.

Just make sure your hard drive is defragmented, and you aren't running any disk recovery utilities like Norton that store little bits of data at the end of your drive.

toughguymagee · Aug 24, 2004

I agree with Tenchiro, go with Knoppix. Its a very user friendly version on Linux and its bootable if you want it that way.

Echo · Aug 24, 2004

What distribution is your friend with the exact same laptop as you running? It seems like that would be a good place to start looking for info...

Tom Church · Aug 24, 2004

I say Suse is more user friendly than Red Hat...especially since Red Hat has canned all support for home desktop linux...

I run Suse 9.0 and it works great.

Few things to be aware of...be ready to be frustrated...have patience...you will learn it all eventually. also there is a Sever lack of media players for Linux...Real says they are developing a good one but I'll believe it when I see it...

Tom

Ciaran · Aug 24, 2004

SuSE Linux is great and also has a Live CD wherein you can check it out without having to install it. Like others said, install Windows first, then Linux. I have done it on many machines and they all run fine. Get rid of XP Home, and get XP Pro.

Toshi · Aug 24, 2004

step 1: start reading slashdot 24/7 http://slashdot.org/

Toshi · Aug 24, 2004

math2014 said:
hmm whats that about bro?

its slogan is "news for nerds. stuff that matters." it's a site of daily holy wars between linux crusaders and the windows-using infidels (with mac os x and *bsd users sneering on the sidelines). it has many interesting articles throughout the day. i recommend reading at +5.

Tenchiro · Aug 24, 2004

don't forget www.userfriendly.org and this little gem. http://ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=54

Toshi · Aug 24, 2004

math2014 said:
done!,
So toshi you are a linux fan? I could use some advanced advice sometime, if you can of course.... either on msn/yahoo or pms.

i'm one of the sneering mac os x users.

i ran linux in college on my powerbook before os x was released, and rate the os x experience as far superior. the only reason for me to run linux would be if i was a Free software zealot (note capitalization

: ) and i'm not one.

bomberz1qr20 · Aug 24, 2004

Iv'e used linux Mandrake off and on for the last couple years, in a dual boot machine.

It's a bit bulky compared to alot of other distros, but the installation is bullet proof. You'd have to be brain dead to screw it up.

All the drivers install perfectly, including a TV card, printer, etc.

I've even set up a small business server with it, (for file serving to both Macs and PC's), which was also a no-brainer.

That or Red Hat will make your laptop happy. Download the ISO's and burn em.

http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3#iso

http://fedora.redhat.com/download/

steve45 · Aug 24, 2004

after reading this i decidied to take the leap and go linux as well, downloading SUSE 9.1 just now.
but god damn its one mother of a file, 716.9mb even on 724kbps broadband its taking over 2 hours.

BarbaRosa · Aug 24, 2004

knoppix knoppix knoppix.... i just got a distro and booted it on a old toshiba laptop...

http://www.knoppix.net/ http://www.linuxquestions.org/

dropkick · Aug 25, 2004

BarbaRosa said:
...http://www.linuxquestions.org/

I spent a ton of time there when I first installed RH9.

My old computer has an old ghetto sound card that nobody supports anymore so that was a bitch to get running. Other than that everything was pretty simple. I've been out of the loop for a while, but I've heard a few good things about fedora core 2 from redhat.

steve45 · Aug 26, 2004

hmmm a quick question, all of the versions of linux are just slightly over 700mb in file size does this mean i'm gonna have to go out and get 800mb/90min CD? all the CD's i have are 700mb/80min, SUSE is 700.4mb, that has P'd me off:mumble: .

BarbaRosa · Aug 26, 2004

steve45 said:
hmmm a quick question, all of the versions of linux are just slightly over 700mb in file size does this mean i'm gonna have to go out and get 800mb/90min CD? all the CD's i have are 700mb/80min, SUSE is 700.4mb, that has P'd me off:mumble: .

zip
compress
pack
stuff

or span it (multi disk)

wahoofishything · Aug 26, 2004

Gentoo Linux is also great distribution. You can go the long route and customize/optimize it for a particular system or choose a precompiled version. They also have a LiveCD version similar to Knoppix.

http://www.gentoo.org

steve45 · Aug 26, 2004

yeah i'm talking about a live cd, i'll give that a go. hopefully it'll work if not i'm gonna have to wait till the weekend.
thanks :thumb:

binary visions · Aug 27, 2004

Cool:

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5325181.html?tag=zdnn.alert

steve45 · Aug 27, 2004

math2014 said:
i hope it works steve, coz i am unable to burn cds bigger than 700mb

absolutley no luck yet, burned the disc fine and it verified the data fine but when i try to boot up cdrom nothing happens its just not working, i'm gonna look for another linux distro and see if i can get that to work.

the disc seemed to hold that extra .4mb no problem at all.

supposedly your just meant to pop in the CD, boot it up and it will start the setup, but it dosnt.
well thats what the installation guide says, theres gotta be something i'm missing.

HypNoTic · Aug 27, 2004

I'd second on Gentoo. Specially if you're a geek and ex-Unix admin. You can customize just about anything and everything.

Also, Slashdot is nice for "Linux vs the World" war, but lack some important information for newbies, so I would recommend TheRegister.com which is a source much more up to date and without as much bias as /.

Yet another solaris admin

bomberz1qr20 · Aug 27, 2004

steve45 said:
absolutley no luck yet, burned the disc fine and it verified the data fine but when i try to boot up cdrom nothing happens its just not working, i'm gonna look for another linux distro and see if i can get that to work.

the disc seemed to hold that extra .4mb no problem at all.

supposedly your just meant to pop in the CD, boot it up and it will start the setup, but it dosnt.
well thats what the installation guide says, theres gotta be something i'm missing.

You downloaded the .iso file, then told your burning software to burn a bootable CD from an .iso, right? If you just copy the .iso to the disc, it wont work.

You need to tell it to burn a complete image to disk. That's what an .iso is for.

Different cd apps have different names for it - Nero for example has you go "FILE > BURN IMAGE", etc.

bomberz1qr20 · Aug 27, 2004

This might help...

http://members.home.nl/lsnoek/iso.htm

steve45 · Aug 28, 2004

thanks a lot, after many burned and binned CD's i decided to download a better
burning program, i then followed the guide on that site, Finally have a working disc. :dancing:

cheers for the advice :thumb:

So, i want to go Linux.... advice?

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