again ... the debate goes on.

I can get turbolinux in a magazine ... or download something from the net ... RedHat or Mandrake ... hmmm Debian is also interesting.

What's the preference and can I split a 10gig drive to run a windows version ... 98 or 2000 on a partion and linux on the other?

saw something about LILO but ... have no clue yet to how and install etc ...

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

I wouldn't recommend it on a 10 gig drive, but if you have to that's OK. Storage is so cheap you'd be crazy not to buy another drive at the moment.

Create the biggest partition for Windows because it's more resource hungry.

Now, ask yourself a few questions. What do you want to do with your linux box? Is this for home use, office use, server usage? If you're after a server where you can install Apache, MySQL, Sendmail and all other similar services I'd suggest dropping Linux and going for FreeBSD. This is a good solid alternative if you're setting up your box to be a server.

As for Linux flavors. Do you want to pay for discs? Do you want to pay for a distribution and maybe some level of support? If so, then you'd probably be better off with Redhat. It's the most simplest one for beginners (or at least the latest version is).

Mandrake has always been touted as the user-friendly one too, and they do have the tendances to push the very latest technologies onto their dists. It also comes with the latest version of KDE built onto it, which is a nice alternative to Windows.

Just coming back to one point; LILO. Lilo is a Boot loader for Linux/x86 and other PC operating systems. Lilo is responsible for loading your Linux kernel from either a floppy or a hard drive and giving it control of the system. It can also be used to boot many other operating systems, including the BSD variants, DOS, and OS/2. So it's not really a Linux system :-)

Anyway, I could ramble on all day. Just download a few, install a few, have a laugh. See what goes. You might develop your own preference. You will probably want to reference the [url=http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/index.html]Linux Documentation Project[/url] at some stage. This is very useful, and you might want to read through and print off some pages before you start.

Cheers

- wil

If you're new to Linux, you should probably try Mandrake or RedHat, they are both quite easy to install. Debian is nice too, but you are probably going to spend more time installing it.

Yes, you can split the drive (i.e. make several partitions). Be sure to keep Windows in the first partition. The way to proceed is:
a) defragment your windows drive
b) backup!!
c) repartition your drive (using e.g fips)
d) install linux

As simple as that (well...., depends). By the way, both RedHat and Mandrake have got detailed installation instructions, read them before you install.

LILO is the LInux bootLOader, a tool which gives you the options to boot several OS (and/or Linux kernels).


Ivan
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Iyengar Yoga Resources / GT Plugins

With only 10GB of space, and sharing it with Windows, I'd advise against Mandrake since it pretty much installs everything you can think of. I must admit its got a nice installer though. FreeBSD? I don't know if that's such a great one to be choosing if you don't have much *nix knowledge. Debian might be a good choice as its got a very nice packaging system, and I'm sure you wouldn't really care about the outdated software that comes with it . I'd also recommend Slackware if you like to get your hands dirty (might be too big of a jump though).

I think a good split, might be 6GB for Windows (maybe 7GB if you intend to install quite a bit of applications), and the rest for Linux.


Adrian

But once Debian releases a stable version of potato.. things will start to get interesting :-)

- wil

Thanks all!

I'm gonna download a distro off the net hopefully. I live in Japan and even if I did buy one I'd be getting a Japanese manual.

7gigs for windows dang ... that's a bit. Can't you run software off a partition or another drive? (windows question)

I'm just thinking of home/web page design testing use only. I "ahemm" use "bsd" everyday in the form of OSX but the covering layer is so nice and so friendly you don't really notice it at all. Which sort of has me going for Mandrake ... they got lots of cool screen shots I was actually running enlightenment a while back on OS X through Xwindows. Pointless but I wanted to see how long GIMP would actually take to compile.

10 gigs is cause I'm trying to keep this a budget box. I'm already over my goal of $150 ... I'm at about $220 right now ... Besides I just bought a Seagate 40 gig for my G4 the 10 giger is the orginal that came with my Mac.

Thanks for the installation tips, that just saved me lots of time to figure it out on my own.

Next step is how or what file(s) to download. I've seen lots about RPMs and such but ... have no clue.

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

But once the system is installed, you should download a sexy interface like KDE.

Cheers

- wil

KDE is really big in Japan too.

hmmm ... which skins do you recommend?

OSX is pretty stingy on skinning the system... Apple has it that they don't want to be confused with other distros possibly. It can be done but ??? is the point, aqua is pretty nice and the buttons ... well give a few years and will be outdated, but by then Apple will have already created the next fad.

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BTW, install Linux FIRST. Otherwise if you ever uninstall Windows then you'll also lose your Linux partition. Funny thing is that Linux Mandrake has no problem reading from a Fat32 partition, but Windows can't read a Linux partition. I'd recommend just buying a new drive and puting windows on one and Linux on the other.

I used to have Mandrake 7.1 and Win2k installed on my C drive. I had Win98 installed on my backup (D) drive with all my weekly backups, just to save myself the headache of installing an OS if something ever happened. Now I keep all my backups on CD-R's and CD-RW's... Got remnants of win95 and winME floating around my backup drive somewhere.

--Philip
Links 2.0 moderator

help!

OK, I finally downloaded 5 images ... 2 for redhat and 3 for Mandrake. I screwed up on burning ... downloaded to my OS X machine and tried to burn a disk to work on wintel ...

I ran out of disks but figured out the procedure ... I installed redhat ... errr ... the last burns worked but I ran out of disks (gotta go tot he store).

Now, this is what I'm trying to figure out ... I've got a w98 working on a 1.2 really old hardrive and want to use my 10gig drive for w98 / w2000 / redhat ... errr maybe later Mandrake ... reinstall but ... redhat seems a little easier to begin with.

So how do I go about partioning ....
1 gig w98 (need only explorer)
4 gigs w2000 ... err the above advice suggest lots of space for M$
4 gigs for redhat ... or later Mandrake (errr ... goal is to play with a server later, although I've got that already -- OSX)
remaining space :: boot and swap ... possible usr / tmp directories

disk druid is interesting but I'm worried if I partion that I won't be able to install windoze. Boot problems errr ... boot disk is ok.

also, disk druid so far as I figured out lets you partion and such ... steps /w98 then /w2000 => / => /boot (the boot drive jumps around in the druid partioning screen ... so does swap ....

what's I'mma doingga wronga?

any help would be appreciated!

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

ahhh ... second re-install of Mandrake 8.1 ... I decided to go with this since it seemed to have lots and lots of software to install and try out all at once ... makes hacking into that box much easier too I assume ... well at least it'll be a good way to learn how to shut down the holes ... (I doubt it'll be online much since I do have my G4 to use)

second time came about because when I installed the second crappy cd drive I must've nudged the floppy ide cable ... couldn't make a boot disk ... hehe I thought it was cause I was using my 3-4 year floppies from when Macs still had floppies ... spent the day searching for the problem through w98 ... just gives errors ... fun.


SO Wil what's a cool theme?

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...

here I am !!!

using Konqueror to boot ...

hmmm .... nice, much betterthan the last diwbkiaded Linux I used way back ... LinuxPPC ... KDE really has come a long way I must say...

now I just have to figure out what to do with all the software I installed. ANd where the monitor resolution control panel is located.

hmmm ....finallyfound something to do with $300 / PIII / and case and some parts. That is build a machine strictly to use Linux and erase M$ from the OS building business that they are in. M$ does make some decent software but their system creation abilities ranks way far behind the opensource that is now available.

PS ...GT still looks better on a mac!

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openoffice + gimp + sketch ...