Looking to start Linux--some questions

[rick420]

Hi, I am currently in school taking A+ and Cisco classses(love them by the way) and was thinking I should start trying to learn a little Linux. I currently have a 750 mhz Athlon with a 20 gig HD. I am connected to the internet thru my other comp. that has a cable modem and a router. I bought a Linksys NIC(said compatible w/Linux on it) and I have a 17" Mag Flat Screen monitor. Oh yea--an ATI video card (rage pro 8mb I think). Currently I have Win98SE on my primary partition (about 3.5 gigs--need win98 to play some games and use some proggies) and win2000 on a second--using about 12 gigs. That left me w/ about 3-4 gigs extra for my Linux install.

Questions for all you great Linux people:
1) what damn linux should I try? someone that I know w/ a good amount of computer knowledge suggested Red Hat 7.0.
2) how hard is it gonna be to set this up to triple boot b/n all 3 w/o screwing up my windows partitions (by the way--when I boot win98 I have a c: and a d: drive, when I boot 2000 I have a c :(win98) and an f :(2000)
3) if I install it w/ a gui, can i still learn some command line?

sorry for the long post--thanks a lot for any help :) ;) :D :cool:

[freaker]

Originally posted by rick420:

1) what damn linux should I try? someone that I know w/ a good amount of computer knowledge suggested Red Hat 7.0.

For a newbie, I would reccommend Mandrake - Personally I would go with
:D Slackware :D
RH7 is too buggy IMHO. There is a NHF on the different distros you might want to check out..

2) how hard is it gonna be to set this up to triple boot b/n all 3 w/o screwing up my windows partitions
Not hard at all - just plop the disc in, and Lilo will prob. configure itself for the win OS's you have, (depending n the distro)

3) if I install it w/ a gui, can i still learn some command line?
sure, that is just a fraction of what is done text based, once your into it, you will see, everything you want to do can be done from the CLI

again

:D Slackware :D


freaker :cool:

[trekker]

1) I myself am running on RedHat 7... my first distro :) I survived the installation but I have read many posts advocating Mandrake as the one for newbies. My friend who had quite a bit of problems installing RedHat 7 had no sweat at all when he switched to installing Mandrake instead. So I guess Mandrake is a good choice.

2)Now this is something that you have to sweat over. Read the NHF on Triple OS Booting. LILO or Grub should get you through nicely.

3)No worries about that. You can always get into a virtual terminal and type away at the CL.

Hope this helps!! :p


Oops... was typing my reply when freaker posted. sorry for duplicating the info :D

[ 07 March 2001: Message edited by: trekker ]

[Frawg]

DAMMIT!

Ok. So i'm running RH7!!! Now i read this! I've got my MP3S WORKING FINALLY!! (sound was a bnatch) So what am i supposed to do!! I like my gnome desktop, and i am getting used to RH7, and i keep going to my local bookstore and reading rh7 boooks... Now almost a month into my linuxing i get this... mandrake mandrake?!?!? MANDRAKE?!?!? Of all the distros i spent so many time downloadinf?!?!?! ! MAND RA AKE????!?!?@?@?

fine.
I'm sticking with my redhat. in your face!! you won't swaaayy me!!!...
maybe i'll run mandrake.. hell it only takesd about 30 minutes to get my redhat back to where it's taken me 3 weeks to get it...
heh
ok
im out

[freaker]

I wasn't saying there is anything wrong with running RH7, but as I did say IMHO its too buggy.. If you like it, stick to it. A lot of companies use RH as their server.

:D Slackware :D

freaker :cool:

[rick420]

OK, I'm gonna go download Mandrake and try this out. I did read the triple boot NHF, but it was referring to starting from scratch--I really wanna do this w/o having to reformat my HD. And another question, I dont think I want to write on the MBR, but can't u just set up Linux to boot from a floppy? And once I get this downloaded, where do I start on installing? I've read many posts about how its kinda hard to install Linux, and about Linux having to be within the first 8 GB--while I was hoping on putting it in the last 4 gigs I have left. Thanks again for your help :)

[witman]

I think the latest version of Mandrake comes with the new version of LILO which doesn't have the 1024 cylinder barrier. You should do fine.

About the hard drive formating, if you already have a windows partition free, Linux will let you delete it and install there. If you do not have a free partition, you need to do more fancy stuff like Partition Magic or Fips.

Cheers

[rick420]

Thats good news--Im downloading Mandrake 7.2 right now. Do I need disk 2 also? About the install, I have 2 partitions currently, one for win98 and one for 2000. I have about 4 gigs of unpartitioned space to put Linux in--is that good? Just kinda worried b/c I really dont feel like having to install all my windows again if I mess something up. Thanks for the help :cool:

[Q-Gdoxl]

as a newbie myself I suggest red hat for learing a dn then branch out and try others and base it on preferance. The reason I suggest red hat is I find there is more books/docs on it. Most of the books (aimed at newbies) I see are all based on a version of red hat usually 6 or 7

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[kuber]

IMO Mandrake really bites. Go Redhat and go to the errata page after installation. DL the necessary updates in rpm format and install them. RH blows away mandrake in my experience.