Linux Questions?

I have some questions about switching to Linux, first off, approximentely how much space would it take to Dual boot Linux and Windows? How would I dual-boot Linux and Windows? Which free (keyword free) Linux version would be best to use/ safest?

Can anybody also give me some more info about Linux, I've heard alot about it, and do know a fair amount about it, but I know there are people who know so much more, so please inform me.

For starters. Almost 90% of Linux distors for home users are Free as in Speech and as in BEER. A list of such distros can be found at http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/.

I will have to assume that you ahev a decent system and wnat to take full advantage of it. So if you have lets say 512 MB of RAM you would need atleast 1024 mb (1 Gb) of swap. It is recomended that you have swap twice the size of RAM. Next up is you linux partition or / as it is called. Well it totally depends on how many programs you want to install. 6 GB would be enough for a Linux system with almost every thing you need. 6 GB means not only you base OS but productivity softwares..office suite games and blah blah.
Last but not least it is a good idea to have a seprate /boot..lets say 64 MB should be enough.

ease of Linux installation/use depends on what distibution you are using. For a starter i would recomend using either SuSe or Ubuntu. I my slef use Ubuntu @ work and its very easy to install and does an easy Dual Boot system. They used to ship CDs for free and you can download them off the internet too. They recently released a new version just few days back ..so check it out.

Also it would be a good idea to give Linux a try with a LiveCD distro . A live CD ditro just copies its self on RAM and uses harddisk as swap. It does not install any thing on you harddrive. Primary aim for such a distro is demonstration/ recovery / installattion.

Kopooix is the most fmaous of all LiveCD distros. There are many more live distros out there ..like for chinses language and for just playing a movie etc.

So give LiveCD version a try..check SuSe and Ubuntu live CDs and decide which one you wana use. Ubuntu uses Gnome and SuSe (i think) uses KDE by default. So you will find some difference there.

One thing about Live CD is that it is slow cause it runs from CD ..so dont be taken aback. Installaed version of LINUX would be much faster.

Feel free to Private Message me if you have any questions.

Ok, a small suggestion ... if you are planning on learning to use GNU/Linux, I would advise you to go through it all the way. Don't stop in the middle just because it's too annoying to use. I know, because I've been there . There are times when you want to do a simple thing like copying a file from one place to another place and it might take you well over a half hour just to figure out how to do it ... especially if it's the first time you're experiencing a linux environment and no one is nearby to show you the ropes. But keep at it. It's not all that difficult once you get the hang of it. Things that you can do in windows in seconds might take hours to do or configure in linux initially. But once you figure it out, it becomes like second nature. Linux is just as versatile and useful as Windows is.

Now, with the word of advice out of the way, let's get to your actual question

To be able to dual-boot, you can use one of the distros mentioned below. They're very user friendly and take care of dual booting your system without much effort.

But you need to have some unpartitioned space on your hard disk in which you can install Linux. If you don't have one, you need to make one by deleting one of your windows partitions. You need atleast 5GB of space for a comfortable install with some space left over, but if you intend to use it regularly, I would suggest atleast 10GB space.

Hatim has gone over most of the important points. Most of the distros these days have KDE and GNOME, so it shouldn't be too difficult for basic usage like surfing and listening to songs. Here are some of the good beginners distros (in my order of preference):

1. Open SuSE / SuSE
2. Mandriva
3. Ubuntu
4. Fedora Core 4

All of them are free to download and use. You can get the ISO images directly from the websites. To read a brief discription about each of the distros, you could go over to Distrowatch and check them out. These distributions are among the top 10 most popular ones.

But, if you want to just try out Linux without installing, you should try out a LiveCD. You just pop it into the CD drive and reboot and you're in a Linux environment in minutes. You can even surf the net and watch movies with it. It's the best option if you want to first get a feel of Linux before you alter anything on your hard disk.

Ubuntu has a regular installation CD as well as a LiveCD. You can try that out or you can also try out Knoppix.

Feel free to Private Message me if you have any questions.

Goes for anyone on this forum. You want help ... you can ask anyone and we'll be glad to help you out .

Hope this helps you out.
Cheers.

Defintively, Mandrake free version is the best one for the purpose you describe here. The simplest way is doing as follows :First of all, you have installed or you have to install Microsoft Windows on the first partition. I would suggest install it on a "very small" partition, let's say 5 to 10 gigs.Secondly, create your other windows partitions, in FAT32 mode. I suggest 10 gig partitions, it's the most friendly way because if you want windows to defrag your partition it will go very fast for a 10 gig partition.Leave unpartitionned a space, 8 to 10 gigs, for Linux.Then, boot on the first Mardake CD. It will ask you if you want to use the whole free space, say "yes". Then it will detect your hardware (mouse, keyboard, display, Ethernet etc..), will ask you confirmation for your IP address (DHCP if you are connected to your Internet router box.It will do the whole job automatically, just accept each default value. It will automatically give you access to all your windows FAT32 disks, they will appear as /mnt/windows1, /mnt/windows2, etc.. So each file you will have written with Microsoft windows in your d:\ disk will be available in /mnt/windows2. And if you write a file named brol.txt in /mnt/windows2/tmp, it will be seen by your microsoft install as d:\tmp\brol.txt.Moreover, it will install the dual-boot thing. When the system will boot, it will give you to choose between windows, and linux. If you want to boot on Windows, you will have ten seconds to press the "down" key to highlight windows. Else, it will boot to the default which is Linux. (by the way, this defaut to linix behaviour is very easy to change, on my system the default is windows).Hope this helpedYordan

yordan said : Defintively, Mandrake....errr....u meant Mandriva

OK, wow, thanks for all of the help everyone, I think I will try out some of the LiveCD's you guys recomended first, then if I like it enough I will actually install the full thing on my PC.And if i like it enough I might get rid of Windows completely, but I would be giving up some of the programs that are for windows only that I like, but I can make sacrifices...

^Or I could try to find a good Windows emulator for Linux, anyone know some good ones that don't lag too much?

I have some questions about switching to Linux, first off, approximentely how much space would it take to Dual boot Linux and Windows?  How would I dual-boot Linux and Windows?  Which free (keyword free) Linux version would be best to use/ safest?

Can anybody also give me some more info about Linux, I've heard alot about it, and do know a fair amount about it, but I know there are people who know so much more, so please inform me.

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Another thing to consider is create a partition to share between the two OSes. I you have, say, 20 GB, you can use 6 GB or linux, 6 for Windows and 8 for shared storage. Make the shared partition FAT32 which can be used from both sides. Then put your documents and a lot of your data on the shared partition, such as your word processor stuff, your MP3s, etc.

 

That way, you don't need to copy files back and forth as much, you can access the same files from both sides, and it becomes easier if you decide to get rid of one or the other. If someday you decide to go all the way and blow away Windows, for instance, you can delete the Windows partition, reformat it for linux, move everything over and away you go. It gives you a bit more room to play with if you end up with too little space on one side or the other and makes it much easier to rearrange.

 

When I originally made the switch (like '92 or so), I forced myself to do everything in Linux for a month. That's enough time to get over the culture shock and start figuring out how linux is supposed to work. It is not a "Windows substitute", it's an "alternative" and it has a very different mindset and philosophy. It's like learning a language when you hit the point of not translating word by word and start realizing there are whole ideas in one language which cannot be expressed in another.

 

Anyway, good luck and have fun.

yordan said : Defintively, Mandrake....

 

errr....u meant Mandriva

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Sorry, Mandriva, you'r right.