decisions before installation

[keoki]

Well first of all I was wondering which distro would people here recommend mandrake 8 or SuSe 7.1? I'm sure this topic has been covered before? but what I'd like to know which is easy to install and what are the cons and pros of each? and which works best with DSL earthlink connection and is configuration simple?

Also I'm deciding to have linux on a second HD which would be the slave. Before I do that should I partition some space on the primary drive(containing windows)? what would I use in order to do so? and how much space should the partition have on the primary HD?

I'm new at this and this is one of the things I'm curious about. I'd really love to experience linux and would like to know anything before I do this.

and one last thing would i be able to run window aps in linux such as macromedia flash, dreamweaver, etc? if so how stable is it to run them? and would i be able to transport files i have in windows over to linux easily or if so possible?

Thanks and hope my questions are answered since i truely want to make the transition to linux hopefully then dumping windows completely.

[TheMuso]

Hi there.

First of all, I would recommend Mandrake for a distribution as it is very easy for newbies to start getting the hang of linux. However, you should do some reading about all distributions and make your mind up.

Secondly, if you are going to use a second hard drive, you don't need to partition any space on your windows drive at all. Linux can take care of that.

Thirdly, DSL will certainly work in Linux. You should, however find out a few details from your DSL provider, eg DNS addresses and host name, and whether they use PPPOE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet).

Any more questions, don't hesitate to post, and do plenty of reading. That is how you learn.

Welcome to LNO and hope you enjoy your experiences with Linux and your stay here.

[Muzzafarath]

Mandrake 8.0 and SuSE 7.1 are both good distros. Use whichever you want. I'm sure that both will work just as good with your DSL connection (it's the same OS...).

Why would you want to partition the drive with Windows on it when you're installing Linux on another disk? There's no need to do that... Linux is will fit nicely into the slave. No need to partition the other drive.

You *can* run some Windows apps in Linux with Wine. It's not really stable or fast right now though. I recommend finding "real" Linux replacements for the Windows apps you want to run in Linux.

Linux can read and write Windows (FAT) partitions just fine. Linux can read NT's NTFS partitions, but write support is experimental. With a special program you can read and write Linux (ext2) partitions in Windows (the program is called explore2fs).

[keoki]

Thanks for replying!

Well I was wondering if I needed to do a partition on the primary drive because it would need space so when it boots? Though im sure im wrong but how would I switch between OS? would lilo take care of this or would i need something like system commander? I think Im just worried about the installation process, it's probably simple once I get to it. Im just a concerned newbie entering a whole new world! but thanks again for the info, appreciate it.

[trekker]

You can use lilo or system commander to dual boot. If you are familiar with system commander, I would suggest using sys commdr and not install lilo till you are more familiar with it.

If you want to try lilo, the NHF (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/osbooting/index.html) should be able to guide you along. Just make sure you back up your data and have a boot disk, both for windows and linux. Then you can go ahead and experiment without worries.

Just my 2c... hope it helps :)

[Muzzafarath]

Well I was wondering if I needed to do a partition on the primary drive because it would need space so when it boots?


Nah, that space is already allocated (first 512 bytes on the harddrive) :)


Though im sure im wrong but how would I switch between OS?


(This is the way SuSE does it, Mandrake is a bit different, not much though). When you install, it will detect that Windows is installed on another harddrive and set up LILO on the first drive (or on a floppy, or the second drive, or not at all). So when you start your computer you'll get a prompt that says "LILO:". Press TAB to get a list of OS's you can boot. So for example, you type "linux" to boot Linux, "windows" to boot Windows etc... Setting up dual boot with two harddrives is a breeze, trust me :)