Thread: Recommendations for a learner to Linux

Originally Posted by p38arover

I want to learn Linux.

There's a damn lot about it on the 'Net but some suggestions of a good implementation for a beginner would be greatly appreciated.

I was looking at Knoppix and PCLinuxOS.

If I try Knoppix from a bootable CD, can I try it with my Win XP PC or do I need to use it on clean system?

Should I partition the HDD and put Linux on one partition?

I'm trying to think of questions.

Ron

It will all end in tears

They tell me Linux is pretty hard to break

Ron,

A Knoppix live cd will boot on your XP system - as long as you have the bios set to boot from Harddrive.

If you are just testing the water and learning - you can run a few different linux Live environments straight from the CD ( Knoppix being one of them) Keep in mind though that if you are running from an OS on a CD... rather than the hard drive - each time you boot you will get the default configuration ( ie any system changes you want to make will not stay after reboot..)

Definitely go for it though..... no hurt in having a play.... and unless you try and install it on your XP machine you really can't do any real damage.... in fact it is not all that hard to get many newer Linux Distros dual booting with Linux if you have some unpartitioned space on your drive.. ( or a second blank drive.)

You might find this helpful...

http://apcmag.com/6101/dualboot_windows_xp_and_ubuntu

Cheers, Mark

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

They tell me Linux is pretty hard to break

Wanna bet!

I bought a 2GHz video/audio transmitter recently.

I've been having problems with intermittent bursts of noise on the link. I've finally worked out the unit is faulty - it's not interference.

Ron

Thanks Mark, I'll check the APC link out.

I've been thinking about Linux for years but I've never got my finger out to try it.

Ron

Originally Posted by ladas

It will all end in tears

I like an optimist!

Ron

Originally Posted by Bytemrk

Ron,

A Knoppix live cd will boot on your XP system - as long as you have the bios set to boot from Harddrive.

........

Your system needs to be set to boot from the CD BEFORE trying the hard drive, otherwise it will never boot from a CD - it will boot from the hadrd drive before looking at the CD. You may need to change the bios settings to do this.

Knoppix is a reasonable system to try, not so sure about PCLinuxOS. Apart from Knoppix, other live CD distributions you should try are Ubuntu (or Kubuntu), Mandriva and Suse. Running any of these from CD (or DVD) will do nothing permanent to your XP system unless you select the option to install it on the hard drive, or write to any of the files you have on the hard disc - the Linux systems will read/write to the XP files although it may take you a while to find where they appear and what the Windows drives are called (the file and directory names will stay the same) - look under "mount" or "media" for a start, and change the "view" to show hidden files if necessary. Depending on the installation you are using, you may need to note a username and password to do much, and you may or may not need to have a root password to mess with the OS.
If you do take the option of installing on your hard drive, all these distributions, I think, have the option of resizing and creating partitions from the live version, and in doing so and installing the bootloader run the risk of damaging your Windows installation, although a lot of people have done this without tears. But before doing this, make sure everything you really want is backed up and that the Windows installation is clean.
When looking at a system running from a CD, you have to remember as Bytemrk points out, that any system options you choose won't stay there next time you boot, but also, depending on how much memory and spare disc you have, you will find that the operating system is a lot slower than it would be running from the hard disc; when you load a program it has to be read off the CD, decompressed, and written to memory and/or hard disc before the program can run.
But, with these caveats in mind, this is an excellent way to assess how you would like running Linux. Note that all Linux distributions come with a large amount of software, varying from everything you normally would need (Ubuntu) to everything anyone could possibly need (Knoppix), but many do not have proprietary software included - this will usually be drivers for hardware manufactured by secretive companies and software for reading/writing music CDs and videos. In general the missing bits can be downloaded and installed later, but you need to look at http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html or www.linux.org/hardware/ to see whether you can run your hardware without problems on Linux.

Hope this helps,
John

What, the Apple Mac notebook wasn't enough? Your a brave man Ron