Techies - a question

[KitchenWitch]

I am thinking of creating a Linux partition on one of my windows machines...

I am totally clueless about Linux, and which version I should get. But I do want to wean myself of the Micro$oft habit and do not want to buy new hardware.

Please hand me the cluebox!

[Guy Fawkes]

Try it first... without installing anything!

download knoppix (www.knoppix.de) and burn it to a CD. the 700mb distro of linux is a "live cd" version, which means you just put the cd of it into your computer and tell it to boot from the drive.

Also, a lot of linux distros have a problem with NTFS drives, so you may not be able to read/write your current windows drive(s). Fat32 should work fine.

[KitchenWitch]

4. Thank you

I am afraid the machine I would install Linux on is formatted NTFS...grrr

[billyskank]

7. AFAIK ntfs read/write works ok these days

You shouldn't have any problem. Most people only need read access to their Windows partition when in Linux anyway.

[KitchenWitch]

8. Very good to know!

:hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Clueboxeth thyself here

This is a flavor of Linux you can taste even without installing anything on your hard drive: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[billyskank]

3. This is good advice

Knoppix is a "livecd", it boots up from the CD and leaves your partitions untouched.

[billyskank]

2. Now you will get a hundred people all telling you to get different distros

My recommendation: Mandriva is good for a newbie. That's what I started with.

Ubuntu is highly regarded, but I have no experience of that myself.

SuSE is also probably as good as Mandriva for a newbie.

All of the above can either be bought, if you want to, or downloaded for free if you don't want to pay. If you buy the SuSE box set you will get a nice set of manuals though - something you don't usually see with Linux.

Good luck, and I'm always happy to answer any questions!

[KitchenWitch]

5. billy, you are a prince among men!

:hi:

[no name no slogan]

6. UNIXUX-- the BEST "unix-like" OS

Try it here

"Linux is only free if your time is worthless" ;)

[billyskank]

9. I did find one good quote in the Unix Hater's Handbook

"Two things are famous for having come out of Berkeley: Unix and LSD. That can't be a coincidence."
:bounce:

[no name no slogan]

10. ....

:spray:

I love that quote! And I'm a FreeBSD fan. go figure!

[Crazy Guggenheim]

13. You're not kidding! I could say so many things about Linsux.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

11. KW. I would put it on a second hard drive if I were you. Go buy

a used HD and install it on there to see how you like it. Also read the Linux installation manual *very carefully* as there have been many problems of users overwriting the Windows startup. One of the other posters mentioned something about a Live CD and I would go with that first.

You can always PM me.

[Az]

12. But always remember that he is crazy

Guggenheim.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

14. Byte me ........

:popcorn: