Miscellaneous > Programming & Networking

seeking wisdom regarding an os

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bha:
well, basically...
i'm new to other operating systems, but am highly interested in a good one. here is what i'd like to accomplish.

1. use partition magic on either my current xp or me laptop to partition my drive.

2. download a great os and install it without causing any horrible errors to my current os.

i'd like to get some ideas from someone on a cool os, as i do not know much about this subject. any help or info will be highly appreciated and smiled upon.

thanks...

Master of Reality:
you can try Mandrake Linux or Lycoris if you want user friendlyness. Redhat if you want to learn a lot about alinux but not give up user friendlyness. Slackware if you want to dive into the deep end.

Do you want to have a dual boot with WinXP and Linux(or whatever)? If so, I'm not sure how easy it would be to do that without having to reinstall winxp.

We will all be glad to help you though.

Pantso:
First of all welcome to the boards   !

The choices on an alternative OS in your case are numerous. Given the fact though, that you are a newbie (to be), I'd definitely recommend Linux as the number one alternative to Windoze. However there are many Linux distros out there for you to choose, some of them harder to install and configure (Slackware, Debian) and others much easier (SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake, Lycoris etc). I believe that Mandrake (current stable version being 8.2) and Lycoris are the most newbie friendly (more info about distros can be found at http://www.distrowatch.com)

After you decide on your distro, make sure that your hardware is fully supported (keep in mind that cheap and proprietary hardware are not supported in Linux), by visiting the respective website and the supported hardware database.

I wouldn't suggest installing Linux alongside Windoze though if the latter uses the NT and not the FAT32 file system like Win95, 98 and ME because it would be tricky especially for a noob like you  ;) . Oh, and about your laptop, you can find some useful links at the  linux on laptops page, under the make and model of your laptop!

bha:
i am really not concerned with a dual boot, and for the meantime, i would prefer to keep my current os primary, as i know nothing of the other.

so, whichever way i can install another os and do this would be my preferred method.

as for the os, i guess i want some user friendliness to start with, so by the sounds of it, slackware will have to hold off. i'll have to pick one of the others.

i would prefer not having to re-install winme

also, are there any tricks to partition magic that i should know about before its installation. i want the process to go as smooth as possible.

thanks for the reply.

bha:
thanks for the welcome too.

i believe i will be installing the new os on my me edition of windoze (as you call it). will this work effectively versus the xp?

oh, and thank you for the helpful links.

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