Linux for dumm ... me

I want to put Linux on my desktop, but have no idea of where to begin. I have Windows XP which i'd like to stay intact. I have a 120GB drive currently split into:

2GB DOS Partition (with DOS on it)
109GB XP partition (NTFS)

The rest of the space seems to have vanished.

What would be the best way of setting Linux up while keeping the other two installed?

You could try LiveCD, installing to a memory stick, buying an extra hard drive and installing there... Any specific flavor of Linux are you interested in?

When you start deciding your Linux distro, try Ubuntu, its so much nicer than the rest.

If you are currently not 100% sure about linux, try This

Nick

A live disk is the way to go. My home PC crashed so I put in my old DSL (Damn Small Linux) works from the disk with no need to install. Onlt thing is it wont recognize my WiFi card.

Try knoppix. Then backup your stuff, format, and make a partition for Linux. You can dual boot.

Fedora would be a good first try.

Don't use vmware, its not the same as actually running the system. A pain as well.

If you have a computer nearby that you don't use, test Linux on that first.

I've used Knoppix over the past few weeks to get Jlime onto my HPC. I'd like something similar - any suggestions? Knoppix supports all my hardware (as in everything), so something as close as possible would be good.

I have no idea how i'd partition the hard-drive - will Linux do it? Without losing data?

Tried to attact this to the other post but it didnt work. Its my file system at the moment - its a trial version of Partition Magic, so cant apply changes.





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Pssh. Who needs partition magic.

I would just delete the ntfs partition, make a ntfs partition half the size for Windows, install Windows, then install Linux on the remaining space.

You can install knoppix onto the hard drive itself, but I would not recommend this. Most distributions these days recognize most (if not all) of your hardware during the install. I just hope that you have an nvidia video card, and not an ati.

Try Fedora. If that doesn't suit your needs, try SuSe. That doesn't work, try something else. You have a ridiculous amount of choices, something is bound to meet your needs.

That is if you have no useful data on the ntfs partn or you have a big enough external hdd or some means to store them while you reformat/repartn.

Partn Magic for the most part is good for managing/resizing existing partn with working configurations. Remember that reformatting for an existing machine prob means not just restoring the data, but also reinstalling apps and configurations, which IMO is the painful part.

Dvd burners cost what cd burners did just a little while back, same with dvd-r pricing.

That really is a great backup medium, you could even backup entire hard drives (even though we rarely have more than a gb in useful files...).

Now if I can just get cdrecord to burn one at more than .3x....

Try a live CD and take it from there. My vote would probably be with Ubuntu to start you off, too.

I've tried the Knoppix live CD. It works okay (the video card works, so im assuming a HDD install would work also.

I have nearly 20GB of stuff (programming, school, tv recordings, photos, website). That would take quite a lot of backing up.

I'll try to get a spare 40GB HDD and back up. Then i'll install Linux.

Hopefully it will work.