A Little Help Making My Decision Please

[bmf2000uk]

Hi, All I'm Very New Here And Have Been Tempted To Try Xubuntu On An Older Laptop I Have, Specs Are As Follows... Celeron 700 mhz 192mb Ram. 10 Gig HD
I'm Currently Running XP And I'm Tierd Of It Being So Slow All The Time.
All I Use The Laptop For Is Downloading Music, And Browsing The Web..Will Xubuntu Be A Better Choice Than Xp For This?
I'm Hoping Someone Can Direct Me As I Have Never Used Linux Before..
Will My Wireless Card Be Compatible It A D-link Air Plus Extreme (DWL-G650)
Will I Need Anti virus Software And If So What One Would You Recommend..
And If All Else Fails And It's Not Right For Me How Easy Is It To Go Back To Windows Xp... The Floppy Drive Doesn't Work On The Laptop..

Hopefully Someone Can Help Me Make A Choice, As I Said I'm Completely New At This.. Any Help Is Appreciated Thanks In Advance.

[Kieren]

Give the Xubuntu live CD a go.

It won't install to your hard drive but will run from the CD. Once finished eject the CD and reboot and your laptop will boot back into Windows.

You can use this to decide if you like Xubuntu and if it will work with your hardware. If you do like it there is an icon on the desktop called 'Install' Click it and Xubuntu will install to your hard drive.

Note it will run slower from the CD than it would from your hard drive

[techieMoe]

First of all, welcome to the forum. I suggest you take a look at our New User thread directed at answering some of the more common questions about Linux:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ead-first.html

All I Use The Laptop For Is Downloading Music, And Browsing The Web..Will Xubuntu Be A Better Choice Than Xp For This?

"Better" is relative to you. We can't tell you what's "better." I can however tell you that Xubuntu will work just fine for web browsing and downloading music. If the music in question is MP3s you'll need to update your codecs in order to play them.

I'm not sure if this feature is available in XUbuntu, but in regular Ubuntu the first time you try to play an MP3, it will prompt you to download the proper codecs. After that they should just work.

Will My Wireless Card Be Compatible It A D-link Air Plus Extreme (DWL-G650)

I can't say if that particular model will work out of the box. Some wireless cards require a program called ndiswrapper, which basically translates your Microsoft Windows drivers for the card to work with Linux.

Will I Need Anti virus Software And If So What One Would You Recommend..

Not really, but if you're just interested in having it there are several to choose from. The one I use most often (in MS Windows) is ClamAV. There is a Linux version available.

And If All Else Fails And It's Not Right For Me How Easy Is It To Go Back To Windows Xp... The Floppy Drive Doesn't Work On The Laptop..

To uninstall Linux from a harddrive (if you've installed both operating systems on the same drive) you can boot into XP and delete the Linux partition and then boot from your XP install disc, enter the "Recovery Console" and type FIXMBR. This should bring you back to where you were before.

[bmf2000uk]

Hi, thanks for your quick responses... i have tried the live cd.. but how can i tell if my wirelss card will work with it i couldn't find the internet browser or anything... there was a few icons on main screen ... one was example had a few vids ,pics and things ... am i doing something wrong? like i said im completly new to linux i have no idea how anything works.. again any help is appreciated thanks.

if i were to install from thedesktop install icon when i run from live cd.. will that remove xp or will both be left on my hd?

how would i go about having both so i can dual boot.. do i need to create a new partition from xp first?

thankyou much.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

No, the installer shouldn't overwrite Windows unless you direct it to do so.

The installer should give you an opportunity to choose dual-boot during the installation process. The entire installation process is pretty much automated, so just follow the screen prompts.

[bmf2000uk]

hi, ok so far im trying to install but when it wants me to prepare disk what do i choose i tried guided use whole disk but it says it'll format so i'll lose windows no?
it hasnt said anything about dual boot yet ..


lol am i stupid or should i just stick to xp or both lolol

[techieMoe]

hi, ok so far im trying to install but when it wants me to prepare disk what do i choose i tried guided use whole disk but it says it'll format so i'll lose windows no?
it hasnt said anything about dual boot yet ..

DO NOT choose "use entire disk" if you want to keep XP. There should be another option for "Shrink partition /dev/hda" (or something similar).

[oz]

...and the dual-boot option comes later in the installation.

[bmf2000uk]

Ok ! Got It Sorted Thanks To everyone who helped...

And I gotta say ... this is probably the quickest and friendliest forum communtiy I've ever come across.


thanks for your help... it was very much appreciated.

[oz]

Glad you are up and running!

Don't hesitate to post new threads with any new questions.