Thinking about converting

[Deadweight]

I hope this is the right forum. Anyway, my computer is very old and is currently running windows ME (which as you may know is aptly dubbed "Windows Migraine Edition") so I've been considering switching to a Linux OS. My computer has 256 RAM, so it can't run anything too big, and we don't have the money to upgrade at the moment. Anyway, I had a few questions for the linux savvy.

Which distribution would run best on my computer and will any of them run well at all (as in at about the same speed of ME or better)?

How well do I have to know Linux? I've heard its best to know what you're doing with it, how much knowledge does that entail?

Do windows emulators work with pretty much everything now or will my use of programs be limited?

If I install Linux does that mean totally wiping Windows first (as in I'd have to install it again from the disc)?

Thanks

[saikee]

(1) I expect most distros will work on yours.

(2) Linux is different operating system from Windows but whatever you need to know you can find it in the Internet.

(3) You have unlimited supply of software from Linux. Emulators may depend on what you want to do. It is easier if you achieve the task through Linux.

(4) No. You put Linux into a partition (two needed if you include a swap partition). Linux co-exist with any PC operating system. You can have as many other free PC systems as you wish.

[gamblor01]

I'll try and elaborate/throw in my 2 cents as well:

1. Yes most of the Linux distros out there should work on your system. For beginners, some good ones are typically Ubuntu and Fedora because they allow a lot of the system changes to made graphically, which means you don't have to start typing commands right away. They will also do things like mount a cd automatically when inserted into the drive. Many other distros require you to manually mount the cd rom (which basically means you're saying take the information on the cd and temporarily make it look like it's in the folder /cdrom for example).

2. How well you need to know Linux depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to just check email, listen to music, maybe some word processing, and browse the web, then you shouldn't need to know much. Most of them have GUI's you can use to navigate through everything like those simple tasks.

It's when you plan on doing things like setting up firewalls in iptables, setting up your file systems to be remotely "mountable" (basically the same thing as "map network drive" in Windows) via Samba or NFS that things start to get more tricky. You'll need more sys. admin. skills to accomplish tasks like that.

3. I wouldn't recommend the Windows emulators much. Wine was only OK last time I tried it, plus it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to install either. Much of the tasks you wish to accomplish are probably doable via someone's package that will run natively on Linux however. They're not always easy to install, but typically you can find files in an "rpm" package which are very easy to install.

You could also use another package manager such as apt. Many good people out there maintain repositories with all sorts of software in it that the apt program can get to. So if you wanted to install a media player called "foo" you can just run the command "apt-get foo" and if that program exists in the repository, it will download and install it for you.

4. The answer to this question is, it depends. As saikee said, you CAN separate your hard drive into 2 different partitions, one that contains Windows, the other which contains a Linux distribution. Then there are some adjustments that can be made so that you have the choice of selecting which OS you want to boot whenever you start up your computer. Setting all of this up is not a simple task however, and I would recommend that you either wipe the entire drive and just install Linux only, or you back up all of your important data in Windows ME before attempting to partition the drive and install Linux.


Some other options to just try out Linux are as follows:

-- a "live cd" which many distros offer. It basically means that the entire distribution runs off of a CD and lives in memory so it doesn't write things to the hard drive. Thus, there's really no need to install anything either. Whenever you would want to use Linux, you could just put the CD into the drive and reboot. If you want Windows, take the CD out and reboot. Of course, this means you're a limited to what information will persist next time you reboot, so I wouldn't be saving files in Linux unless it's to some external drive.

-- Installing a Linux virtual machine. VMware (www.vmware.com) offers VMware Server for free. I don't know if it was built specifically for ME, but I assume the installation would work on any Windows platform. You could install that and then have it guide you through the installation of a Linux virtual machine. This is all pretty simple to setup.

[nolimit974]

Just gonna put my 2 cents in on your second question. You don't really need to know anything before the change. I started out knowing nothing. If you know what irc is you can get on there and chat with everyone from justlinux...directions are in my signiture second line. That is where I go for everything. If you ever want to know more just search google.com/linux or post on justlinux or in the irc channel. Most distro's also have books you can buy at your local bookstore. I use fedora core 8. I went out and bought a reference book for specially for it.

Oh and welcome to the great JustLinux site. Number one choice for all your linux info.

We the people of justlinux are commited to bring all information to all noobs alike. I have come to inform not to flame. To all you flamers out there don't hate congradulate this fine lad on his thinking of us linux users

Don't ask where that^^^^ came from cause i don't know my mind took over my hands

[mrrangerman43]

For question 2 I will ask you a few questions.

1: Did you know how to ride a bike the first time you got on one?
2: The first time you used windows did you know all about it?

Point being, when you start something new it's usually at the beginning.

[loopback48]

I would imagine a machine that came with 256mgs of ram and windows ME is a little long in the tooth. I should know, I've got one. I would also imagine you have a second PC running Windows. If so, don't go to the trouble of dual booting. Being new to the Linux world, you don't need that.

So what to do? Give Linux the whole disk. Believe me, you'll be better off. Don't you think you have enough on your plate without taking on dual booting? I think so. While we're talking about dual booting - Wine won't give you the results you're looking for. Nothing like running a native app, whether it's Linux or Windows.

Ubuntu has been recommended. Good choice. Keep that one in mind. But I'd also recommend Xbuntu - http://www.xubuntu.org/ . It's a lighter Desktop and should work fine with the hardware (RAM) you have. Won't tax it as much as a distro running Gnome or KDE.

Some will recommend DSL or Puppy or one of the barebone geek distros. But I wouldn't. They might be just great for a low powered machine like yours but you're not ready for them. Stick to one of the distros that has plenty for support, ie: forums. And one that won't tax your newbie brain too much.

It's great that you know how much ram your PC has. It would be even better if you knew all of the hardware it's got; graphics card, sound card, HD, NIC, etc. Open it up and make a note of that. That information will come in handy.

As far as 'how well do I have to know it...' ; here's the thing about Linux, no matter what distro you go with, there is usually a forum with members just chomping at the bit to help. Sure there are always a few a$$holes but for the most part, the members as very helpful.

Now go out and do it. Just jump right in and go for broke!