Linux

[Burnout]

I recently discovered Linux was free while browsing GTP, and now I'm a little intrested.

I have an old 512mb HD sitting in my computer. I'm slaving it for mp3's right now, but I believe I've decided to partition off some of my main HD and store them there.

I was thinking that installing Linux on my old HD would be fun, and now that you know that here is the question.

What version of Linux and why?

Redhat? Because I have no clue. I've heard Linux is really customizable, but I don't think I'd feel like messing around with it so much. I don't mind having a version of linux that is already pre-tailored, I believe I'd actually preferp it.

Thanks.

 

[Flerbizky]

512Mb is not enough... But you should be able to pick up a HDD > 20Gigs for next to nothing...

For a desktop OS I'd go with RedHat 9. Very nice installerer and overall 'feeling'... And their update service works pretty well too 👍
I prefer an Industrial Strength OS so I'm running SuSE Linux Enterpriser Server

Edit: Btw.. Should you come to enjoy Linux, please do not buy one of those silly I hate M$ t-shirts.. They do more damage to the community than a million BSOD

 

[Viper_Maniac]

I wouldnt choose Redhat. I've been hearing that they are no longer going to support their free Linux thats out now. They'd rather go after people who run servers rather than home users. I'd prolly choose Mandrake since I've heard its pretty user friendly. I would use Linux but I havent gotten around to rearranging the stuff of my hard drives to make room for it. Also I dont think Linux will fit on a 512Mb hard drive. Theres a distro of Linux called Knoppix. It runs entirely off of a cd.

 

[skip0110]

Yes, Red Hat is no longer supporting red hat 9 as free software. However, there is a continuation of the free RH project called Fedora (see this link). This is what I am running now, and I am confident to say that it is even easier to use than windows. The installler is even graphical, for gods sake! It sucessfully detected everything in my comp, even my ATI Radeon Mobility video card that RH9 did not recognize.
If you have any specific question on how to install, I would be happy to field them.

 

[Viper_Maniac]

Isnt Fedora suppose to be a pay OS after awhile?

 

[the_cobbinator]

Mandrake is cool, so is FreeBSD. I'd research it a bit more to find out what suits you best.

 

[skip0110]

Originally posted by Viper_Maniac
Isnt Fedora suppose to be a pay OS after awhile?

Nope. Fom the RH site:

The Fedora Project is a Red-Hat-sponsored and community-supported open source project. It is also a proving ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red Hat products. It is not a supported product of Red Hat, Inc.

 

[Viper_Maniac]

Really? I heard it was gonna be a pay OS after awhile. Guess I was wrong.

 

[emad]

i prefer a fully-functional, custom-built OS with zero bloatware so i use Gentoo. Just be careful because the installation isn't very newbie friendly (i'm talking from experience)

 

[Pako]

Hum...Gentoo looks pretty cool. It would be fun to "mess" with for sure.

 

[Burnout]

Where can I find this "Gentoo"?

 

[emad]

actually, the installation will teach you more about linux than you could ever want to know...just be very very careful. If you get screwed partly through, post in their forum or on irc, you will get a response soon after. It's a wonderful community they have

www.gentoo.org



And as a side note for anybody looking to learn linux but can't risk data loss from partitioning/formatting, this might be an excellent solution

these are bootable linux cds. you pop the cd in, fire up the computer, and you will have a fully operational linux distro to play with

 

[skip0110]

It was my understanding that the point of a Gentoo install is to compile everything from scratch, starting at the kernel and working up. I heard that this process can take more than a week on slower CPUs, maybe 3 days on a fast P4. This is a definite disadvantage, no?

 

[emad]

Originally posted by skip0110
It was my understanding that the point of a Gentoo install is to compile everything from scratch, starting at the kernel and working up. I heard that this process can take more than a week on slower CPUs, maybe 3 days on a fast P4. This is a definite disadvantage, no?

3 days taking your time

Disadvantage only to the impatient. Once it's done though, you get this feeling of immense satisfaction. It's generally perfect for the machine afterwords and unlike with other os'es, you will never really need to reformat afterwords.

Gentoo also has the option of starting from pre-built kernels that are optimized for the general chip you have...only prob is that it's not optimised for your particular one. This reduces compiling time significantly. In fact, just about every feature is offered uncompiled and pre-compiled so it can take just a matter of hours...but not optimised

 

[Spock]

i personaly prefer Aklinux ( www.aklinux.org/index2.php ) but its still in the alpha stages (version 9 alpha currently) and doesnt support most dial up modems or some sbLive! sound cards, but i still leik it for another os when winblows is being a dumbass

 

[TurboSmoke]

is it okay to use a dual boot system with Linux on one partition and Windows on another....

i need to get linux and i have mandrake on another machine but it sucks....i cant get any software for it...


is the dual boot thing feasable?

 

[emad]

dual boot will require you to either partition your drive manually or to run partition magic (i hear that mandrake also has it's own partition utility that works well). One partition for windows. Then Linux requires 3 partitions of it's own. 1 for the operating system, one for swap space, 1 for holding something else (i think the kernel)

 

[TurboSmoke]

Originally posted by emad
dual boot will require you to either partition your drive manually or to run partition magic (i hear that mandrake also has it's own partition utility that works well). One partition for windows. Then Linux requires 3 partitions of it's own. 1 for the operating system, one for swap space, 1 for holding something else (i think the kernel)

yep, i like to use partition magic...or the utility on the windows boot disk...

the reason i am asking is that i have tried this once before, windows2000 on my primary partition and mandrake on the extended partition drive d:

when the systems was started i wasnt presented by an OS option...it always booted to linux....i couldnt use the windows partition at all...infact i think it hid that partition all together...

 

[emad]

hmm...in my pc, when you hit f11, u automatically get the boot menu for os'es. There should be something to default that screen to show up or to make windows the default OS. I've seen it before but it's been ages since i've done that. It hid that windows partition because it was never mounted...

what was the command line for that again?
/mnt/hda2 /something?

 

[TurboSmoke]

Originally posted by emad
It hid that windows partition because it was never mounted...

what was the command line for that again?
/mnt/hda2 /something?

you lost me man....

i dont know that much about it..

 

[skip0110]

mount /dev/hda6 is the command, but somehow i dont think thats the problem. At install, make sure you select the Grub boot loader. That should autodetect everything.

 

[emad]

partitions have to be mounted sorta like...you have to make them recognized. It's been ages since i played with linux but dig through Gentoo's Install guide. There's a whole thing on the partitions and drive mounting that was very detailed

on second thought, go by what he said, that's probably the better idea

 

[Race Idiot]

Originally posted by skip0110
mount /dev/hda6 is the command, but somehow i dont think thats the problem. At install, make sure you select the Grub boot loader. That should autodetect everything.

I had the grub bootloader installed for dualboot. It kinda pissed me off after a while because I had to do an fdisk /mbr to remove the bloody thing. I just use a boot loader on a floppy to boot to linux. I have Fedora, but that gentoo looks interesting.