disgruntled windows user seeks new blood!

[Cryptonic]

Hiya Everybody

im thru with windows i just lost alot of important work due to a crash
32 gigs of mp3's
and months of work

so this is win2ks answer to better preformance instead of crashing every hour we will just crash once and really make u mad by losing everything

so im fed up but i have never ran through a forest blinded so im looking for some input

this is what i have "Heard"

a. linux is free its software is free and it runs smoother faster then windows and that it doesnt crash


b. however i have heard that the hardware support is limited


now as far as the hardware is related i have checked all of my gear IS supported ..but to what extent..here are my specs please point out any limitations i might come accross as it relates to my hardware


Dual P3 Coppermine CPU's at 800mhz each

256mb SDRAM

ma****a CD-RW CW-7586

ATi Rage fury pro 32mb with video in/out (for video capture)

Creative Audio PCI EC1371

3com etherlinkXL

how would my system run under linux? good bad ?

as for what i do on a computer

1.graphics such as programs like photoshop etc

2. play quake map quake

3.chat on mirc

4. and im going to be takeing programing classes next semester

i dont want to dual boot i am fed up with windows and want to get as far away from it as possable

i have never used any older OS than ms window95 no dos and what not

i want to switch and i am willing to learn

i was pointed to this site by a friend on the net i am asking you now for another point in the right direction

any and all information that will help me move to linux would be great please base these pointers on my total lack of experince

Thank You For Your Help In Advance.

[bdg1983]

Most would suggest Mandrake 8.1 as the distro to start with, BUT I will say, give Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1 a try. I believe all you hardware you listed will be supported and setup correctly with Caldera. Mine has always been.

For a Photoshop alternative, there's Gimp which is up there among the best and most distros include it.

There's also KDevelop which is highly recommended as a IDE.

[7]

Hi

a: yup, I'd say

b: nope. Most hardware is supported, certainly all of your hardware will work fine. Hopefully someone will testify on the performance of your ATi Rage fury pro card - but i've read that it works enough to play quake.

1: GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/). Reckoned to be as good as PhotoShop, but I can't give any professional opinion.

2: no problem

3: Xchat (http://www.xchat.org). No problem

4: You could not find a better platform. Linux is almost perfect in this respect. Your screwed if you need to learn MFC (Microsoft Foundation (GUI) Class) though.


i dont want to dual boot i am fed up with windows and want to get as far away from it as possable
Me too.

The best place for you to start is Mandrake (http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/). Go download the CD, or buy it if you can't be bothered.

and i am willing to learn
You had better be. There's lots of reading ahead.

[Cryptonic]

AHHHHHHHHHH! god damn linux is big i went to linux.com clicked the get linux link now im standing in the OS shelf from hell (for me)

debain slackware mandrake caldera redhat??

now i know this is not gona be an easy road to travle im already confused LOL

is there a "best" distro or is this strictly a matter of prefrence?

[7]

Race you mdwatts!

The best for you, Cryptonic, is Mandrake. Ignore mdwatts, he's insane.

If your an OS type, you will move to Slackware, or my favorite, Debian.
If your an "a computer is a tool" type, you will stick to Mandrake or Redhat.

[Cryptonic]

okie i am downloading the ISO image for Mandrake it said i would have to burn this onto a disk that shouldnt be a problem there site has info on how to do that

looks like i got about 9 hours for this to complete..thank god for cable id hate to see how long this would take on my houses phone lines (cant connect any higher than 26.4kbps via dialup here)

[scanez]

Usually at least once a day someone asks what the "best" distro is, and off we go on a flame war where people start praising their own distros and bashing others. In short, there is no "best" distro overall, one may be better for your needs, but not best overall. Try out a few and see which one you like better. Mandrake is usually considred the most newbie-friendyly so you may start with that but also consider later trying another distro such as slackware or debian. Just experiment and decide for yourself.

Welcome to the world of linux
SC

[bdg1983]

http://www.caldera.com/download/

You won't be sorry. All the idiots here will always say try Mandrake, but you can never go wrong with Caldera.

I may be insane, but I'm not stupid.

Search the forums here for Mandrake and you will see ALL the problems there are. What a pile of ;)

[Cryptonic]

heh 7 my computer takes up alot of my time i enjoy it rather much its far more than a tool for me it is part of my lifestyle and the better it runs hey im all for it :)

[bdg1983]

Originally posted by Cryptonic:
<STRONG>okie i am downloading the ISO image for Mandrake it said i would have to burn this onto a disk that shouldnt be a problem there site has info on how to do that

looks like i got about 9 hours for this to complete..thank god for cable id hate to see how long this would take on my houses phone lines (cant connect any higher than 26.4kbps via dialup here)</STRONG>

You'll be sorry...

Don't come crying to me when your pc explodes.

[bdg1983]

Mandrake???

You will wish you never ditched Windows.

[Sweede]

Originally posted by Cryptonic:
<STRONG>Hiya Everybody

im thru with windows i just lost alot of important work due to a crash
32 gigs of mp3's
and months of work
</STRONG>

Oddly enough..

my power went out to my Debian Linux box, and when it came back on it did its file integrity/partition check (remember that? Journaling FS's such as NTFS and XFS dont need that).

when fsck was done on my 20 gig partition FULL of Mp3's and other usefull stuff (i figured since Linux is almost 100% stable and the file system would be too, i backed up everything to there), was totally lost.

no /lost+and+found/.#files, no nothing..
except 20 gigs of free space in my backup directory.


Now, i've used Windows 2000 since beta 2, NTFS 5.0 beta's, HUNDREDS if not thousands of just un-plugging my computer while its running, even moving gigs of files from one partition to another.

i've put my poor computer through hell. one time i accidently unplugged the IDE cable from the drive !. thank god my drive didnt fry out, NOR did NTFS lose a single bit of data.

no lost files, corrupted files, NOTHING.

but then, thats just me.

[ferg]

Ey,
Make sure you do your analysis.
I did.
I got RedHat. It was the best for me
Try it. You might like it.
Take care

[Cryptonic]

okie HA! ill just download all the iso for the mentioned distros i have the disks why not heh

this will take a bit of time :)

[ 16 October 2001: Message edited by: Cryptonic ]

[thedexman]

You might consider making backups this time so the same thing doesn't happen to you again....

[7]

Ive changed my mind on Mandrake. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=006526

mousedrake? wtf is that!?