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Scared, but determined

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Calum:
As you can see craig, many people have rallied round, ignore the comments from XP User and you will get on fine.

I suggest getting mandrake 8.2 or possibly Red Hat 7.3, there are a lot of other good versions though...

Much of what you need to know will become obvious when you install linux. Basically everything that windows does is done properly by linux, connecting to the internet and so on and so on. Plus it has a nice helpful community of users and there's a huge variety of fully functional software available for free.

Partition first i'd recommend, but if you really want to get away, and you plan to wipe windows anyway, just do that right now. I still dual boot because my laptop is full of buggy chinese hardware and a couple of the bits don't setup by default and i'm too  lazy to fix them. You might want to check your hardware is supported. The easiest way to do that is to just install linux and see if it all works actually.

Good luck, go for it, and welcome to the forums!  :D

craigiew:
Thank's very much folks, I really appreciate all your help and support. I will keep you posted of the on-going changeover through a pseudo-non-tech post, and will keep a note of details for providing other people with the sort of help you have offered me.

Cheers

Craigster.  

Interscope:
I haven't tried Quake in windows/linux but I did try UT on this comp.

Linux:
It works, A slow framerate in SP, but I mostly do MP anyway.
Windows:
The installation program crashed. Didn't dare to try
install it again.

Master of Reality:

quote:Originally posted by 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
--- End quote ---

Getting your internet to work (with any ISP) is just as easy as in windows(it was easier than windows for me). Your ZIP drive will work, most of the hardware in thats works in windows will work in Linux. There is Quake for Linux. The USB mouse will work easily in Linux, it  already has the drivers for the Logitech USB mouse.

You can partition your hard drive using the Linux installer. Its partition program is much nicer than Fdisk. I suggest using Mandrake, its excellant for beginners. You can run a dual boot and have Linux and windows on your computer, but if you do that you will have to partition your hard drive, then install windows, then install Linux.

websites:
www.linuxquestions.org
www.linuxdoc.org
www.mandrake.com
www.linuxiso.org
[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

sporkme:
yes very important, if you plan to continue using it, that you install windows before your choice of linux because it overwrites all your beautiful linux boot info with ugly windows gobbledygook

edit:
----
oh and welcome to the brave new world, you have a bunch of friends out there now!  nevermind the little boys that feel obligated to talk smack.

[ June 12, 2002: Message edited by: sporkme ]

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