I want Linux, what do I need?

[Rody]

[KoolDrew]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

If you have never used linux before you may want to trya live cd so you cna run it off of your CD-drive first just to get used to it without installing anything. Knoppix is good for that. If you are looking for something to install then for linux n00bs xandros will install all by itself and you dont' have to do anything at all, but maany people ahve had problems with it and I hate it too. Mandrake is also a great one which I am on right now. It is a tad bit harder then installing windows but if you cna install windows without any problems then Mandrake will be a breeze. Also I ahve enver tried fedora but some peopel ahve and said it was easy to install.

I would defitely get Mandrake!!!

[DigitalDD]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

Rody: try a live CD distro like knoppix to get your feet wet and see if its something you want to get into a little deeper. Basically with Knoppix you get a full distro with software for most of the stuff you are going to want to try already installed and configured on a bootable CDROM.
try it http://www.knoppix.org/
if you like it then you can install linux on your box and get a little deeper into things..

[Spacejerk]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

I also want to get into linux, but with an older computer. i have an old cybermax desktop its an AMD athalon 500Mhz processor, a 20Gb HDD and 128 Mb RAM, do you thinbk that most Linux based OS will work with this comp? also i just reformatted the HDD on my old comp so how exactly would i go about installing something like knoppix or another linux based OS?

[KoolDrew]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

I also want to get into linux, but with an older computer. i have an old cybermax desktop its an AMD athalon 500Mhz processor, a 20Gb HDD and 128 Mb RAM, do you thinbk that most Linux based OS will work with this comp? also i just reformatted the HDD on my old comp so how exactly would i go about installing something like knoppix or another linux based OS?

Yes linux would run fine on that. My favorite distro is Debian, but if yu are new to linux it may be hard to install. Otherwise I would suggest Ubuntu. It is based off Debian and farily easy to use and install. Another easy one would be Fedora. Some other options are also Slackware and Gentoo, but I never liked them as much as Debian.

[AMD64_N_Linux]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

To everyone,

Hello. I am new to this forum, but just wanted to reply to the topic.

First let me say, that using Linux, is really not a big deal. I have been using Linux since 1994, and the changes that have transpired have made the use of linux, very much more user friendly.

To address the question.....

Starting with Linux, just requires some interaction with other users. This can be done through message boards, chat rooms, IRC, and in a miriade of other ways. The Linux community, many years ago, won an award for "Best Tech Support of the Year" from one of the PC magazines. Not a company spending millions/ yr for customer support, that doesnt usually solve anything, but the group of linux users, from newbies all the way up to the computing GODS, who were willing to offer and share their assistance.

There is one place that you can go to get involved in Linux, that I highly recommend, and have not mentioned yet. IT is how I got started, and it is the best first step I can recommend.

Visit

http://www.linux.org/groups/index.html

This is a list of LUGs, or Linux Users Groups. The page above has a World Wide list of both LUGs and repositories of local groups.

For Rody here is a link directly to the Brazillian Users Groups.

http://www.linux.org/groups/brazil.html

One last thing, there are other list, and a quick GOOGLE should help you out. But I suggest the LUGs, because many of the LUGs have regular meetings, and at many, such as the NTLUG (North Texas Linux Users Group ) if you take your PC with you before or after the meeting, there will be people willing to help you install and configure Linux right there.

[PacketStorm]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

Another easy distribution imo is SUSE. Very easy to set up and work with. But as a few others have mentioned any form of *nix is more involved then windows. Like anything else if you want the power you have to get your hands dirty ;)

I would suggest grabbing a copy of whatever you feel comfortable with and loading it up either on a spare machine or as a dual boot and just playing around with it. It does take some getting used to especially if you have only worked with windows or are too young to have used DOS but once you get the hang of it you will never go back ;)

[gwarden]

Re: I want Linux, what do I need?

I've tried alot of linux versions, and of them all, i'll go mandrake all the way, install's a little rough, but not that bad, u have the option of letting it do practically all the work. My sugestion, like everyone else is though, try a live cd, then, if you like it, try using mandrake and partition the hard-drive so you have both windows and linux (mandrake is great for partition help), u can get mandrake 10 easily enough here: http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29, just download the ISO's and burn 'em and then install.