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Scared, but determined

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craigiew:
Hi, my name is Craig, and I'm an MSoholic. It all started back in '92 when my Dad bought his first PC. Since then I've become addicted to the easy self installing, drive guzzling, processor depleting apps that are MS.

I now have a nice (reasonably) powerful laptop and want to get away from the scurge that is BG, but I'm struggling on where to start. Will  I still be able to connect to the internet, who will be my ISP, will my Zip drive still work, who will I play Quake Arena now  :confused:  

The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be Linux, but where do I start? Should I FDISK the whol hard drive immediately, or partition it, will Linux work with my new USB Logitech mouse - oh the anguish!

I would welcome any comments about where to start, and I don't care about being flamed - I'm so depressed!

In anguish,

Craigster

Refalm:
Upgrading from Windows to anathor thing is never to be flamed at.

You can start your Linux experience with the free Linux distribution for Linux newbies at Lycoris where you can download the free ISO's to burn the Lycoris Desktop/LX operating system. I also recommend downloading the manual too, which can help you making a Linux partition.

I hope, after you've done installing this great Linux distribution, you share your experiences on this forum.

Quake 3 should be working too when you've installed WineX, a Windows compatibility layer for Linux which information can be found here. I recommend installing some OpenGL drivers for your video card though, because the Quake 3 engine can sometimes be buggy as hell in WineX.

And the internet works fine, the only thing you need to know if your ISP supports DHCP and if it doesn't, fill in your static IP number, Gateway, DNS and Netmask. (oh and you can keep whatever ISP your using  ;) )

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: Refalm ]

LorKorub:
Go and get a user friendly distro of Linux, such as Mandrake or SuSE. If you are starting out, it is probably better to go to the store and buy a copy of the distro instead of downloading it.  The documentation that you will get from buying it is well worth the money alone, not to mention that you are getting a superior operating system.

YOu probably won't need to use fdisk at all.  If you are running $hitblows 3.x, you can resize your FAT partition using YaST or Diskdrake during the initial installation.  With SuSE, you even have the option of creating a boot manager and saving it to a floppy disk.  If you get sick of Linux, you can then just go into fdisk, delete the "non-DOS" partition, and not have to worry about removing Grub, linload, or LILO, from your MBR.  SuSE 8.0 comes with Wine (windows emulator) so even if you have Linux running most of the time, you can still point Wine to your C:\Windows directory and run most of your apps.  

Logitech USB mouse??  I have one running on SuSE and it works just fine.  My Iomega zip disk had no problems either.  The only thing I am having a problem with is my printer.  

Give it a shot.  It is worth the $80, and even if it fails you, at least you can say that you tried it. Microsoft makes 90% of their money off of people that are unwilling to try, and unwilling to learn. By giving it a shot, you partially remove yourself from that categorey of people....and that is kind of fufilling in a small way.

pkd_lives:
Welcome, it's never too late. I am currently converting my system to a mandarke 8.2. I have some problematical hardware, and there is lots to learn. I re-iterate the above advice and dual booting is easy. If you have partion magic it will work a dream. Mandrake also has a good partioning tool in the installation. Just make sure windows is already on there. Buy a copy if you want, the manuals are good, and help get you off the ground. Don't be scared to tweak, you can do damage, but what's the occasional re-install I find myself doing that with windows for no reason than it decides it's bored.

Hardware concerns? see the link for mandrake hardware compatability http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/hardware.php3

If this is too hard at the moment, go get yourself some good windows browsers like Mozilla and opera. And try to get non M$ alternatives, you will thank yourself in the long run, and learn so much more about computers.

choasforages:
i would actually recomend redhat 7.3, and yes, quake3 arane is supported, under linux it performance beats window's, the usb mouse is support, i have a microsoft mouse    ;)   a great refrence is linux documentation project the howtos are great to teach you what you can do and howto (get it?) do it. i would recommend dual booting at first, but if find your self using the windows crutch too much remove windows (you learn very fast, i did), also for games that are not supported nativly you can check the guys at transgaming's WineX
but when your done, you will notice the difference in performance from windows to linux, its well worth the time required to learn all the new stuff

p.s.
that guy that posted before me, y the hell would someone want to run quake3 under winex when there is a native version . the zip disk should work, but i don't have one to test that fact. most people when they start using linux wonder most of the things you asked about.(i did)
this should be idsoftwares ftp site ftp://idsoftware.com
just go to the idstuff/quake3/linux section, i think o well, have fun with linux   :cool:

[ June 11, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

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