Ok Linux People, You Win.

I have thought about this for a while now, and I am going to officially try Linux on my own home PC for the first time .I have to admit, I am VERY scared and I hope it goes OK. I have chosen Mandrake and at the weekend I will install it onto a partition. I have a few questions.Can you use iTunes and iPod on Linux, can you use iPod period?Is it safe without anti-virus software?If the installation goes wrong, what will happen to my Windows partition?

I don't know if iTunes and iPod is compatible with Linux, but it could be.Linux is mostly safe, because not many people makes virus for Linux.If you install your Linux on a different partition than your windows partition (you can create partitions with your Mandrake disc), absolutely nothing will happen to your Windows partition. Though when you boot your computer up, you will have to choose between booting with Windows or Linux, but that isn't really a problem...In my opinion, dual boot (what I'm doing right now) kinda sucks.

If I do eventually want to switch over completely ( God forbid), can I drag and drop all my files (sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I am a stupid person).Also what P2P applications run in Linux?

I have thought about this for a while now, and I am going to officially try Linux on my own home PC for the first time .

Good one Greetings to the Tux World !!.

I have to admit, I am VERY scared and I hope it goes OK.

Dont worry, nothing really can go wrong - at the most trashed partitions or complete hard disk wipeout - if u are careless with the linux fdisk (use disk druid that comes with all the distros) .. hehe.. naah, just kidding.. unless you delete the windows partition (assuming you are going for dual os boot) manually - nothing can go wrong.

I have chosen Mandrake and at the weekend I will install it onto a partition.

::: SSShudders :::

Can you use iTunes and iPod on Linux, can you use iPod period?

Try the following sites as reference. What you are trying to do is quite feasible...
1. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
2. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
3. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
4. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Is it safe without anti-virus software?

I'd say, YEAH PRETTY MUCH because of the way linux handles execution rights - but still now we have quite a few nasty linux viruses lurking out there... you can get a freeware console antivirus for linux (a damned good one at that too) from BitDefender (http://www.bitdefender.de/) - go here and choose LinuxDefender

If the installation goes wrong, what will happen to my Windows partition?

As I said, unless you manually delete the windows partition or overwrite it with Linux nothing can go wrong. And since you are using Mandrake - it's quite end-user friendly and will spit out quite a few grave warnings when you try to overwrite the windows partition. Most likely, your windows partition will show up as: /dev/hdaX where X is a number (if you have only one partitoin - it'll be /dev/hda1)...
Here's the linux way of dealing with hdd's in brief...
All your physical drives are listed with alphabetic concatenations to /dev/hda...
i.e. if you have 2 hdd's they'll show up as /dev/hda and /dev/hdb .... your cd-rom drive is most likely to show as /dev/hdc ... btw, /dev - stands for Device... so fair it should be fairly evident.
Now partitions on each drive are show by adding one more number to this device..
i.e., first partition on first drive /dev/hda1
second partition on first drive /dev/hda2
extended partition on first drive /dev/hda5
logical drives in ext partition /dev/hda6..7...8....so on

first partion on second drive /dev/hdb1 .... similar to above

Depending on how your drive is partitioned right now - if you have the complete space alloted to windows in ONE SINGLE LARGE partition - you better get hold of PartitionMagic or some other similar windows based partitioner which can resize partitions. Then free up some space at the end of the partition... say if your hdd is 80Gig, pull out at least 5-10Gig for Linux at the end...leave it as unpartitioned free space.
When you start installing Mandrake - at one point it'll take you to Disk Druid - the linux disk partitioner. You can either choose Auto Partition (recommended for first few times) or if you care to mess around a little bit - choose manual and make TWO(2) partitions - try to make them both primary.
You can choose the type of filesystems to mount on these partitions - make one of these partitions exactly double the amount of RAM you have in your system or a little less (but not more than twice your system RAM) and select the filesystem type as "Linux Swap"... now allot the rest of the free space to another primary partition and select it's filesystem to be "Linux Native" or "Jounalized ext3fs" or just "ext3fs" - they're all almost the same except different versions of mandrake might use these different terms to refer to the same thing. That's it - you are set...
Oh yeah, couple of more things to keep in mind.. when you create the second partition (ext3fs) - you'll see an option to set a "Mount Point" - click on that and in the texbox, type just "/" (backslash without the quotes) as your mount point.
Second - one point in the installation you'll be asked to choose your BOOT LOADER - between something called GRUB and LILO. Choose GRUB - it's graphical and easier - and then you'll be asked where to install GRUB to :
2 options - a) Master Boot Record and First Sector of Root Partitoin.
Select a) MBR - this will make grub boot first and present you with a selection menu to choose which OS (Win or Linux) you want to boot into.

That's about it - the rest is "read and follow instructions". If you go past the stage mentioned above - NOTHING CAN GO WRONG. And yeah, all those quotes above about being "presented with options" - you gotta keep a watch out for those options, i.e. they come up every now and then and might be hidden in a jungle of other options in the same page... so keep a sharp watch on every installation screen till you reach the "Package Selection Screen".. then you can just click on OK and go for a nice little stroll of contentment
Cheers and all the best..

If I do eventually want to switch over completely ( God forbid), can I drag and drop all my files (sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I am a stupid person).

 

Also what P2P applications run in Linux?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ipod support is still lacking, sadly. As for itunes, you could run it in a windows emulator, but that would probably be far too much effort. Realistically, you should use one of the linux based music players/managers, of which I know there are plenty. The one I have dealt with the most is XMMS, which is most like winamp. Others can certainly give you better advice on that front.

 

As for drag/dropping most of your files, if linux is set up correctly then yes, you should be able to copy most things over that way. However, once again you will need new programs to access them. For your MS office files(assuming you use office), you want openoffice.org. For photoshop, the closest linux comes is the GIMP.

 

Finally, for movie watching, I use VLC, though mplayer is another big favorite. Both will play DVDs as well as all the other video formats.

 

 

To be frank, this WILL be a terrifying experience, and I suggest you keep asking questions to knowledgeable people like qwiljibow or better yet, find a knowledgeable linux user in RL that you can abuse for help in the initial transition. Linux has a high learning curve, so make sure to go in knowing that, and be willing to put in the time.

Linux ever has freeware p2p clients - try: http://qtella.sourceforge.net/features.php
It hooks up to the Gnutella Network.
All the best

Linux without anti virus is far safer than windows with anti virus...
Linux uses preventative securety rather than *clean up afterwards*

Yes.. you can drag copy for files over.

just be prepaired, its very different from windows at times, you will need to read...

visit linuxquestions.org the best ever linux help forum.

ipod works... but sometimes needs a kernel tweak.

do you have an internal pci software modem ? if so, check compatability before attempting... same applies for wireless...

its a steep learning curve... but i thionk its worth it... ive not had a single virii / spyware since i installed linux..

for P2P look at Apollon....
its better than most p2p because it uses all 3 popular file share network's.. fasttrack (kazaa) OpenFT and Gnutella... where most P2p programs only use 1.... usually Gnutella.

http://apollon.sourceforge.net/

when asked.. during install... go for KDE graphical user environment rather than GNOME... kde has more of a windows feel to it. and install the compiler and development tools... you will need them to compile allpication from source should you choose to do so.

EDIT: as for comments about anti-virus....
aslong as you dont abuse the root acount you will be fine.

never login as root...
never run any program as root unless its vital.. and only run programs as root that are part of the OS.. for xample the firewall.

to do somthing as root.. from a normal user login, open a console and type "su" stands for super user. enter roots password, when you have finishwd with root, type "exit"

If I do eventually want to switch over completely ( God forbid), can I drag and drop all my files (sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I am a stupid person).

Yes, if you mount your Windows files partition to make it access-able to Linux. SuSe's installation disc automatically configures that and asks you if you want it, but I don't think Mandrake does that...

Most files are compatible with linux (eg. word documents, zip, etc.), but exe, the core of windows (actually no ), isn't.

Yes, if you mount your Windows files partition to make it access-able to Linux. SuSe's installation disc automatically configures that and asks you if you want it, but I don't think Mandrake does that...

If you are using anything later than mandrake 9 - it does select the windows partition and automounts it during the installation process. Other windows partitions have to be added on later though by modifying the file "/etc/fstab". Mandrake, SuSe etc are good for home users and standalone desktops - but utter **** if you are trying to run even a local server with 3-4 clients. If you ever get to that consider using Fedora Core or Redhat Enterprise.
oh and about using common windows app files (word, excel etc.) - make sure your linux distro contains OpenOffice - that will handle all of them fine

even if your distro doesnt come with openOffice, you can download it free with a graphical installer from http://www.openoffice.org/

 

The hardest part of linux at first is learning what porgrams are called...

when i started linux i asked so many question's like where can i find an mp3 player, only to find i already had several installed.

 

after a few months let us know how your doing...

some people try linux and give it up after an hour or 2.

 

at first i duual booted between windows and linux, doing wha i didbt know how t do in linux on windows, now i can do things in linux that i cant o in windows.

even if your distro doesnt come with openOffice, you can download it free with a graphical installer from http://www.openoffice.org/

 

The hardest part of linux at first is learning what porgrams are called...

when i started linux i asked so many question's like where can i find an mp3 player, only to find i already had several installed.

 

after a few months let us know how your doing...

some people try linux and give it up after an hour or 2.

 

at first i duual booted between windows and linux, doing wha i didbt know how t do in linux on windows, now i can do things in linux that i cant o in windows.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

By the way, reading a review of distro's today, I suggest you go with ubuntu. It is apparently very good at autoconfigure and setting up a clean, user friendly desktop.

 

http://www.ubuntu.com/

KDE is quite some *BLEEP*... It looks like the interface of a baby's toy. All round too-bright colored buttons and stuff...Ojeah... GNOME looks much nicer tooAnd to me, Fedora Core 3 is the best distro... It's up 2 date and is easy to get the hang of it.

note:macromedia and winamp run in linux

KDE is quite some *BLEEP*... It looks like the interface of a baby's toy. All round too-bright colored buttons and stuff...

Thats what the themes are there for.
Gnome has some pretty eye assulting themes too... its just that they are not default.

KDE will provide a much less *alien* desktop for a windows user.

I use Gnome and KDE depending on how im feeling.

KDE is quite some *BLEEP*... It looks like the interface of a baby's toy. All round too-bright colored buttons and stuff...

Ojeah... GNOME looks much nicer too

 

And to me, Fedora Core 3 is the best distro... It's up 2 date and is easy to get the hang of it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They say GNOME is similar to windows, but I think it looks ugly, like rusted... rusts.

 

I think KDE looks much nicer, and looks more like windows than GNOME. I wish I could replace windows' theme with KDE though, cause KDE looks so much better.