Help me..... please, jsut (trying to start a new os)

[Greatbignewbie]

Ime just starting on linux, or unix or something (suggestions would be great) ime pretty familliar with windows(ugh), is there anything i should be aware of before i do this, and, by partition , you mean like the windows kind??

(please forgive stupidity)

thanks

[Master of Reality]

I suggest Linux-Mandrake It is easy to install. If you want to have windows and linux on your computer, you will have to duel boot. When installing Linux, mandrake will come with a partitioning program  that runs in the install (its called DiskDrake). You have to have a swap partition, and another partion for the actual OS. Your Swap partition is the  same as virtual memory in windows, it should be about twice what your memory is (mine is 200MB, i have 80MB of RAM). Your second partition will have to be at least 2 GB (if your not planning on installing anything else) But i am using an 18GB partion for mine. For the Linux partion you can choose between a few different types, the main two are Ext.2 and Ext.3. I am using Ext.3, they are both pretty much the same except Ext.3  can recover data easier in the case of a power outage or sudden shutdown.
If you are duel booting with windows already installed, you will have to setup LILO (the bootloader) to load windows off whatever partition its on (Mandrake install should do this for you).

As for the GUI i recommend using KDE.
thats pretty much it for now. Anybody else want to share?

[untz]

greatbignewbie,

Good luck with your install!  I would start of with Linux.  The most popular distributions such as Redhat and Mandrake are adding a lot of GUIs to make it easier for a user to convert from windows and the installs are getting really easy.

You'll probably grow to hate things such as linuxconf (a GUI for configuring things like networking), but it does make it a lot easier when you are starting out.

Go to www.linuxdoc.org when you get your system up.  There is a lot of good information there.

[voidmain]

Personally, I have never liked linuxconf. Not that I use graphical configuration utilities but for those that do use them I believe webmin is the best thing that's come along since sliced bread. The nice thing about it is it supports more OSs than just Linux.  It's a nice administration tool that makes configuring most *NIX systems very easy and you configure things the same way no matter what the underlying OS is. See http://www.webmin.com

[Calum]

you don't actually have to know what yr doing to use red hat! i have red hat, turbolinux (and now trinux!) and red hat is by far the easiest install (although there is a bit of manual config file editing what with my scrappy SiS630 chipset required to get the x server to work, oh yes and the modem) but anyway, red hat is really easy, and apparently so is mandrake, although i've heard a few bad stories about it (too cutting edge maybe?)
but really if you know what you're doing. try BYOLinux.  

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
you don't actually have to know what yr doing to use red hat! i have red hat, turbolinux (and now trinux!) and red hat is by far the easiest install (although there is a bit of manual config file editing what with my scrappy SiS630 chipset required to get the x server to work, oh yes and the modem) but anyway, red hat is really easy, and apparently so is mandrake, although i've heard a few bad stories about it (too cutting edge maybe?)
but really if you know what you're doing. try BYOLinux.    

Red Hat is easy... I dont know what i'm doing and i just installed it as my internet server. I still havent got the internet working on my network though. I have been working on it all day, and i am extremly close, but i have been using just the console (which i know little about). Luckily i have one O'Reilly book with me (I wish it was on networking though).

[Master of Reality]

i got the IP masquerading down now....(thats how i'm posting this). YAY my server is running.
Soon, my proxy will be up.