[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]OK I know I'm probably opening a hornets nest of possiblities but I'd like to play around with Linux again, it's been a few years since my last foray and I'm sketchy to say the least.

Since I'm on DSL DLing whatever I need is not a problem.

Where should I start? I'd like something that's as close to windows as possible in use and functionality initally but with the flexibility to move away when I feel like learning more. So any ideas?
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[Rictor]

First thing you need to do is format your harddrive. this can usually be done by way of the format.com command, located in the Windows directory.

Do that now. Then report back here for further instructions. :D

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Have you been banned recently?

Feel like it?
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[kasperl]

there is no need to eliminate your windows install. most distro's should include a good partitioning tool, and a boot loader.

i'd google for different distro's, and check all the sites. i am using RH myself, but i'm not very handy with it.

[an0n]

Pfff. If you're gonna double-boot you at least need Partition Magic so you don't completely **** things up.

And I'd suggest getting RedHat.

As for learning Linux, I strongly recommend the "four sheets to the wind" method. Basically just open every menu, change every value, delete and restore every file until you find out exactly what you need to do to bone your system. Then re-install linux and start using it.

I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of this method as I used it many, many years ago to learn Windows. That's why the blue-bar on my IE says "Microsoft Internet Explorer powered by Tony's Arrogance".

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Cheers an0n, one question though; why Redhat? Mandrake seems to be quite popular amoungst the masses, how about Knoppix?

I don't know much about the different distros.
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[pyro-manic]

Go for a distro with good support. I'm going to be using Mandrake on my new machine, but there are plenty of them about:
Mandrake
SUSE
Red Hat (being changed to a corporate OS, so the home version will be called Fedora soon)
Knoppix
Lindows
Gentoo
Debian

Those are some that I've heard of. The last 2 are meant to be rather evil to use if you're new to Linux, but someone else will know more than me.

[an0n]

For the simple reason that RedHat is the industry standard.

If you go for the easier options you'll have much flatter learning curve but...well, you won't learn as fast.

I'm not suggesting you jump in at the deep end (sure, you'd learn faster but you'd also get really annoyed with Linux in general), but jumping into the shallow-end is a lot better than paddling around in the Mandrake kiddy-pool.

[Kazan]

Originally posted by pyro-manic

Red Hat (being changed to a corporate OS, so the home version will be called Fedora soon)

you're rather out of date - Fedora Core 2 release is in a few weeks

[Martinus]

Originally posted by an0n
For the simple reason that RedHat is the industry standard.

[color=66ff00]That reason alone is good enough for me, the others are just good sense.

Thanks again an0n.
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[kasperl]

you don't need partition magic, i did my linux partitioning using parted before installing.

[an0n]

You don't need Partition Magic, just like you don't need a GUI.

It's just a damn good idea to do things the easy way.

[kasperl]

hell, if i can use parted, i'm pretty sure someone computer literate can.

[an0n]

Yeah, but Partition Magic is just pointy-clicky stuff.

The only possible way you can **** things up with it is if the computer stalls while it's trying to physically re-write the drive data.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Hmmm, the Redhat site effectively dubs fedora as a less stable, less secure OS than the enterprise version. Is this simply to make people buy the enterprise version?
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[an0n]

Probably.

It's like how everyone says Windows 98 is a pile of crap with no security that crashes all the time. If you keep it updated and take minimal measures to keep Windows happy, it works fine. But if you're using it to host 50000Tb of webspace you'd want to use 2000 or NT.

For the general purposes you'll be using it for, all Linux is essentially the same. You just want the one with the best interface, easiest commands and simplest installation of apps (which RedHat has in spades).

[mikhael]

Actually, for 50Pb of space, an0n, you'd have to use XP64, Win2k64 or a *nix. But that's pedantry.

For a beginner, Maeg, avoid RedHat. The RedHat package management is horrible, and they've done so many horrible things to the file system, that it would be hard to transfer your RedHat skills over to any other Linux based OS, let alone another Unix like OS.

I recommend Gentoo. Better yet, I recommend being utterly conservative and not using Linux at all: use FreeBSD. The hardware support is leading edge, not bleeding edge, so newer hardware may not be completely supported. But the hardware that is supported is supported very well. Further, the system as a whole is more stable, which means you spend less time trying to figure out if you broke something or if that thing was broken as designed. Package management and building from source go hand in hand, and installs are completely reversible. You don't get the same sort of thing with any of the Linux package managers (except maybe debian's apt or gentoos portage, which is just a rip of BSD's ports).  Finally, you don't have to worry about the screw Linux bootloaders. LILO and GRUB both (yes, I know there's more, but they're all arguably worse than LILO and GRUB) are fragile. On the other hand, FreeBSD is quite happy to use the Win2k/XP bootloader if you desire, or provide its own, sane and dynamic bootloader.

[an0n]

I hate FreeBSD.

Granted, my hatred stems from accidentally installing it without XFree, but still.........

[mikhael]

That, actually, is the best way to get to know any Unix.

Seriously, never EVER install FreeBSD with XFree86. Always always always install XFree86 afterwards. And don't use the configuration GUI. There's a commandline you can use to build a basic XF86Config file, which you can customize later. Its a hell of a lot safer.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Crap, I knew you guys would do this.

Hmmm, more possibilities. Good thing I haven't started downloading yet.
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