[Leonardo]

Greetings.... I have been thinking in putting a computer together to play with Linux.

Could someone give me a few tips where to start (right now, I'm reading wiki)

what is:
redhat linux?
Ubuntu?
kernel?
is everything free?

[aitraaz]

Ubuntu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28 ... ibution%29

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Red Hat (/fedora Core):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Linux

http://www.redhat.com/fedora/

Starting to come back to linux after after a few yrs pause, really like Ubuntu, Gentoo is probably another good option. Redhat enterprise products have a price tag, but AFAIK Federa is freely available.

Download some iso's burn the bootable install disk, then get busy. If you want to install dual boot on a win machine, you might get some info about formatting the disk during install and setting up dual boot, just to be sure you dont smoke any other OS's you've got on that box.

[Leonardo]

so Ubuntu, Gentoo, redhat... are like "windows like" interfaces.

is it similar to win 3.1? where windows was an application running on DOS?

Download some iso's burn the bootable install disk, then get busy. If you want to install dual boot on a win machine, you might get some info about formatting the disk during install and setting up dual boot, just to be sure you dont smoke any other OS's you've got on that box

how do I setup a dual boot?
Should I install windows first, and the try to install linux?

[aitraaz]

Yeah, you can choose a GUI that suits your liking (generally Gnome, KDE, but there are many others).

If you want a dual boot machine, I would reccomend setting up windows first. If you wanna make things real easy, use an app like partition magic inside of windows to create a partition formatted with the linux file system (reiserFS, XFS, etx3 a bit old (you might want to surf around and decide which file system is best for you). Or you could just set up a parition from inside windows, and format it in your preferred filesystem when you install linux.

For dual boot, when you do the linux install, it should recognize your window parition and set up dual boot automatically (with an interface during install). If for any reason it doesnt recognize your windows boot, you can fix that from inside linux pretty easy....

[-Adrian]

Hello Leonardo,

There are several good choices to start with. I strongly suggest you take one of the very popular ones so that you can enjoy the backing of a large, active community. Great examples are Ubuntu (Kubuntu might make a Windows-Convert feel more at home), Fedora Core, OpenSuse, Knoppix (essentially Debian), Xandros, Mandriva to name a few.

The switch to a different OS is no easy thing, so be prepared to feel like a total n00b again, but remember how humble your Windows experience started. The frequent bash commands you will stumble upon are not as "deep" as they might seem at first, it's just a matter of memorizing them even if you don't fully understand each and every one.

In the future i foresee good stuff at the horizon, Desktop Linux is gonna become considerably easier. Scenario #2 is that Vista and trusted computing will swipe clean the market and passionate computer users will cling to their 65nm hardware generation until the scene dies out, Hallelujah!

Might also wanna keep and eye on Sabayon Linux and Dream Linux

Obviously feel free to ask further questions until you have an idea where to start.

[Leonardo]

Yeah, you can choose a GUI that suits your liking (generally Gnome, KDE, but there are many others).

If you want a dual boot machine, I would reccomend setting up windows first. If you wanna make things real easy, use an app like partition magic inside of windows to create a partition formatted with the linux file system (reiserFS, XFS, etx3 a bit old (you might want to surf around and decide which file system is best for you). Or you could just set up a parition from inside windows, and format it in your preferred filesystem when you install linux.

For dual boot, when you do the linux install, it should recognize your window parition and set up dual boot automatically (with an interface during install). If for any reason it doesnt recognize your windows boot, you can fix that from inside linux pretty easy....

do you know of any free partition apps?

edit- I'm thinking of taking over a pc at work that it's not in use (we have 3 pcs... and only one person knows how to check e-mails and do the autocad thing -me).

[-Adrian]

so Ubuntu, Gentoo, redhat... are like "windows like" interfaces.

is it similar to win 3.1? where windows was an application running on DOS?

Ubuntu, Gentoo etc. are the whole deal, they are what Windows98, WindowsXP etc. are.

Linux "Desktops" are usually very customizable so i cannot specificially recommend one if you're going for a certain look rather than a certain function/behaviour.

Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, Fluxbox, Gnome on Beryl (for those that don't need to get work done)

[Leonardo]

yeah, I'm getting it now

for a first time user (windows) that plans to do nothing more than just surf on-line and write some papers... what interface would be better?

Gnome or KDE?

[thxraph]

yeah, I'm getting it now

for a first time user (windows) that plans to do nothing more than just surf on-line and write some papers... what interface would be better?

Gnome or KDE?

start with kde, it will handle many things for you & have a great controlpanel, when you'll have linux in hand, you may want to switch to a lighter GUI, like windowmaker of fluxbox

anyway, all the linux desktops can be customize as far as your imagination (&skill) can brings you

Raph

[aitraaz]

Yeah, you can choose a GUI that suits your liking (generally Gnome, KDE, but there are many others).

If you want a dual boot machine, I would reccomend setting up windows first. If you wanna make things real easy, use an app like partition magic inside of windows to create a partition formatted with the linux file system (reiserFS, XFS, etx3 a bit old (you might want to surf around and decide which file system is best for you). Or you could just set up a parition from inside windows, and format it in your preferred filesystem when you install linux.

For dual boot, when you do the linux install, it should recognize your window parition and set up dual boot automatically (with an interface during install). If for any reason it doesnt recognize your windows boot, you can fix that from inside linux pretty easy....

do you know of any free partition apps?

edit- I'm thinking of taking over a pc at work that it's not in use (we have 3 pcs... and only one person knows how to check e-mails and do the autocad thing -me).

If you dont wanna spend the cash on like patition magic (wise decision), i would just say directly from windows create a partition and then format it during the linux install, or you could also partition during the install, it shouldn't be a problem.

Otherwise, some free alternatives:

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/
http://www.ranish.com/part/

These work well, but dont run directly from windows. Partition logic, you have to make a bootable cd to run the app to do the partition. Instead i would just do as mentioned above...

[-Adrian]

make sure you defrag in windows before so you have continuous free space.

[Leonardo]

Hey, I just found this:
http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/index.html

It looks like a iMac interface... It would have fool me as I don't use macs

[Fernando Tella]

Hi people!

I'm in your same situation Leonardo, starting to dig in the linux world. I've tryed Ubuntu; burned the iso CD and tryed it; you can do it just by booting the PC from the CD. I liked the feeling of noobing in another OS and it looked attainable. After that I've been looking other builds and liked more Xubuntu. It looks very clean.

Your founding of Dreamlinux looks interesting too. It comes with many useful apps installed...

Good luck.

[Leonardo]

okay people...partitions

whats the function of:
root and swap

I set root with 2.4 gb and sawp with 6.6 to test around

can linux read a nfts or fat drive once it's installed?

[thxraph]

okay people...partitions

whats the function of:
root and swap

I set root with 2.4 gb and sawp with 6.6 to test around

can linux read a nfts or fat drive once it's installed?

root is you main partition, indeed, there is no C: D: etc in linux, you have your root : "/" it have folder & files, then to acces another partition or disk you "mount" it to the "/" filesystem in the folder you want (described in the /etc/fstab.conf)

read about : /dev/hda /dev/hdb etc

the swap partition is the virtual memory, unlike windows, linux use a separated partition for not fragmenting the OS partition. in theory, the swap have to be ~1.5x the amount of ram (ex: 512M ram => 800m swap is ok)

1Go of swap should be enough if you only want to browser the web and edit office files.

Raph