Linux

bazsal

Following a week spent trying to sort out XP, followed by a couple of days reformatting the drive and restoring the horrible thing, I have decided to give linux a go.

I'll probably do this on dual boot and with a commercial distro for ease of install, drivers etc.

A couple of questions

1) Recommendations for the easiest/best commercial distro to install and use
2) Will the install disks take care of things like partioning hard drive?
3) Heard of issues with ADSL modems, any ideas on that?
4) Decent software websites to buy the distro from?
5) any other potential pitfalls?

All help appreciated. Done a bit of reading and am reasonably PC savvy, but want to make this as easy as possible.

Chippy_Minton

The easiest is probably Knoppix, which allows you to run Linux from a CD without installing anything on your hard disk or affecting your existing Windows OS.

dauphin

I would suggest Linspire or Xandros. Both are professional-looking, easy to use distros. You can also try them free of charge; Linspire has a live cd rather like Knoppix (Linspire Live) and Xandros offers a slightly hobbled (but perfectly usable) version for free download. Either way you can buy a full version if you find you get on well with it.

The installations are very easy and provide for automatic partitioning as far as I recall. These distros will also allow you easy access to your Windows partition.

Re. ADSL modems, I would advise you to visit the user forums of whichever distro you are considering and do a search for the exact model of modem you use. Provided it is not something unusual, it can almost certainly be made to work, though possibly some configuration will be required. User forums are normally very helpful with this type of thing.

No pitfalls as such, but remember you are learning a new operating system so give it a while to familiarise yourself. There is not much you can't do or find a good Linux equivalent program for, except of course commercial games.

wolfman

1) SUSE, Fedora or Mandriva are probably the easiest (non live) to start off with. I use Fedora Core 4 which is very good. There are plenty of sites to help get everything setup and installed if you're new to the Terminal window too (installing apps via commands). You should be able to get all of the above for free if you don't mind downloaded a couple of gig. Oh, and have a cd/dvd writer.

2) You can play around with partitions during install. Well, you can create and remove partitions, I don't think you can modify (ie change the size of) existing ones (a la partition magic).

3) No idea.

4) Again, if possible, just download the distro yourself. You can usually do so direct from the related distro's site, or a mirror link on the site.

5) Keep Windows. It'll take a while to switch across and there'll be occassions when you may still need it. If you're current partitions/drives are NTFS this can be a problem. Linux can handle NTFS reasonably well, it can be tricky to setup depending on the distro you have.

fgaughan

Or take it to a local linux user group http://www.lug.org.uk/lugs/index.php
you could sign up on their local mailing list.
I have a choice of 2 scaborough and york and both are very helpfull.
they have an install day but they are happy to install linux distro of your choice :-)

scotty

I have heard of problems with support for certain hardware (normally the latest kit) and for some normal modems. If you are using a stand alone ADSL modem and the pc connects to it via an network cable, I do not think you will have any problem.

You will often find linux on a magazine cover DVD. I use SUSE 9.2 from a cover disc. The installer did everything necessary regarding partitions and boot loader (the program that lets you select which operating system to load).

bazsal

normal pc magazines or are there specific linux ones?

re other replies - I am going to download a bootable CD, and try that first - am pretty sure I'll be switching though but it helps to hear from people who have done it before.

Darksun

I'd suggest Ubuntu, it's a free distro, easy to use, with great community support. You can ask on the forums there about compatability or any other issues before you install, or else search the web (try (your modem model) + ubuntu).

Toxteth_OGrady

These links may help:

Frozen Tech's Live CD List

LWN Linux Distributions Disk

Article entitled "Linux vs. Linux: Which Distro Should You Dump Windows For?" here.

For a first time user I'd recommend Slax-Kill Bill or PCLinuxOS.

Others worth a dabble are Ubuntu, Kanotix, Knoppix, Jollix and Mepis.

:cool:

TOG