Getting Started On Linux

[Shire Le Buff]

Any Linux geeks here?   I've been playing around with Redhat a little here at school and now find myself seriously thinking of making the switch on my PC.   I'm planning on start with an old family PC just for practice with the install and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good rescources or had any good tips.

[TemporalRift]

I had a very good experience with Ubuntu in install, day to day use, and community. I had a teensy bit of Linux experience prior, but it was years ago so I was pretty much going in cold. I found Ubuntu (Specifically the KDE variant, Kubuntu which is the same thing with a different window manager that's a bit more Windows) easy to install, and relatively painless to configure. I only had trouble with my video card, it took a great deal of work to get it to do hardware rendering.

But the community for Ubuntu was really spectacular. I was able to get help with any issue I was having really quickly by asking around the fourms if I couldn't find a poster with the same issue to latch onto, usually within a few hours. It was a really nice experience overall.

I would've stuck with it, but my machine was too crummy to play games through WINE. However I did find the experience so solid I took the time to build a live DVD with my hardware profile and settings so I can just switch back in a short time.

[GREGORIAN CHANT!!!]

I recommend dual-booting, which is what I currently do with Windows XP and (K)Ubuntu. Basically what you do is install windows on a portion of your hard-drive, then install Ubuntu on the other portion. It must be done in that order because Windows has some god-awful dominant bootloader and you won't be able to access your Linux install anymore. Installing Ubuntu is one of the easiest things around. Just follow the directions provided to you on the website and pay attention during the installation process. I hope it works out for you.

[Shire Le Buff]

I don't think I'll be doing multiple partitions or anything like that.   I'll probably just take the plunge and go all the way with Linux.   I'm going to test on my family's old pc first just to be sure though.

[TemporalRift]

Not dual booting when you start out is a pretty solid idea. These days, setting up a dual boot environment is pretty simple, and Ubuntu's installation would do it automatically, but any amount of simplification is helpful. You'll be able to get away with all the default settings that way.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the installation'll pick up that little piece of the Windows bootloader that's practically impossible to get rid of and end up giving you the dual boot option anyway. But that's good, it'll give you some experience in editing configurations, which is something you're gonna have to get comfortable with.

[Violent Unrest in Allentown]

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the installation'll pick up that little piece of the Windows bootloader that's practically impossible to get rid of and end up giving you the dual boot option anyway. But that's good, it'll give you some experience in editing configurations, which is something you're gonna have to get comfortable with.

This. There are also open source boot loaders you can toy around with.

I know switching to Linux is the hip thing to do, but really think about all the things you love to do on the computer and find out if you can do it on Linux without getting your Master's in Assembly code. I've always been really impressed with Linux, but really uncomfortable. To me, my OS is like my room. If it's not exactly how I like it, I throw up and carve pentagrams in my abdomen.