Linux questions from a Noob, that you've all probably heard before...

[Noneoftheabove]

Guys for starters, I'm sorry, I know in all probability you've already answered these questions before. I just really don't know where to begin and there's so much to contemplate I'm having installers block. I'm verging on not bothering and bowing down the the awesome power of bill gates.

That in mind I'm going to ask some really quick questions, well, questions with answers that hopefully don't take long to write, thanks in advance for your patience....

I am assuming it's possible to have both operating systems (XP and Linux) on the same computer?

For a "Fairly competent" XP user is there a preferable version of Linux to install bearing in mind I know nothing about linux. I keep hearing something called "Suzie" mentioned I assume my spelling is wrong - sorry, am I right in thinking you have to buy that version?

How much space do I need to install it? can it be on the same drive as my XP boot drive on a separate partition? I've got a partition free on my primary drive which is 1.25 gig, I'm hoping I can use that.

I heard drivers can be a right arse to get for linux am I wrong? Is there any kind of SLI compatability?

Is there any possibility I can damage my current operating system, files stored on any HD's or even the pc itself by clicking OK at the wrong moment? (I'm assuming linux applies the age old technique of having "OK" buttons? )

Finally.... Is there any point? My PC is fairly quick quad core etc and is mainly for multimedia and internet. I do have a penchant for games tho but I am assuming I'd have to use xp for them, hence wanting to install both os's. Being a bit of a PC geek I'm just curious what Linux is like and would use it for media stuff if I could, just so I could give bill gates the finger. Is it worth it? I dont really want to have to pay for anything and don't really want serious hassle if it is hassle.

As I said before I cringe writing this as I'm sure these are very lame questions and in all probability have been answered before on numerous occasions, but a few simple yes's or no's from you guys will decide whether its worth me committing to this and spending serious time with this. So as I said I'm sorry but I'll do my best to pay it forward....

Thanks guys......

[smolloy]

I am assuming it's possible to have both operating systems (XP and Linux) on the same computer?

Yeah, that's possible, and quite easy. It's called dual-booting, and most linux distros will set that up for you during installation.

For a "Fairly competent" XP user is there a preferable version of Linux to install bearing in mind I know nothing about linux. I keep hearing something called "Suzie" mentioned I assume my spelling is wrong - sorry, am I right in thinking you have to buy that version?

Most regulars here will cringe when they read "fairly competent XP user", as this can mean trouble! Try to keep in mind that linux is very different to windows, and that a lot of things will come as quite a culture shock. Trust me when I say you'll get used to them, but that can take a surprisingly long time. If you're open-minded about it, you'll do just fine.

Yes, "SUSE" is a popular, quality distribution, and you can actually get it for free. I'd recommend downloading it and trying it out -- along with a few others. Have a look at Fedora, & Ubuntu, as well. A lot of linux'es can be downloaded as a "liveCD" that you can boot from, and therefore try Linux without touching your harddrive at all!

I'm relatively experienced at Linux (not as much as some of the experts here though), and I've tried, and keep trying, lots of different distros. You'll eventually find one you love!

How much space do I need to install it? can it be on the same drive as my XP boot drive on a separate partition? I've got a partition free on my primary drive which is 1.25 gig, I'm hoping I can use that.

It must be on a separate partition. 1.25 gig seems a little small -- I wouldn't try installing SUSE on anything smaller than 5 gig (and even that's risky). Can you juggle space around a little, or are you stuck with 1.25?

I heard drivers can be a right arse to get for linux am I wrong? Is there any kind of SLI compatability?

They can be, but you'll never know til you try. Things have got a lot better in the last few years, so have a go and see what happens. Remember, Linux is free, so all you waste is a CD-R!

Is there any possibility I can damage my current operating system, files stored on any HD's or even the pc itself by clicking OK at the wrong moment? (I'm assuming linux applies the age old technique of having "OK" buttons? )

Yes. You can screw up all your data if, for example, you tell the partitioner to format your windows partition. Things can and will go wrong!! Keep backups before installing any OS.

Finally.... Is there any point? My PC is fairly quick quad core etc and is mainly for multimedia and internet. I do have a penchant for games tho but I am assuming I'd have to use xp for them, hence wanting to install both os's. Being a bit of a PC geek I'm just curious what Linux is like and would use it for media stuff if I could, just so I could give bill gates the finger. Is it worth it? I dont really want to have to pay for anything and don't really want serious hassle if it is hassle.

I think it's worth it, but that's only my opinion. It's probably the same opinion as most other people on this forum, but we do come across people who hate their linux experience. Either because of their own impatience when it comes to learning something new, or just because linux isn't right for them.

My advice? Linux is free, so, besides your time, it costs you nothing to try it. Give it a go, try to figure out how things work, and then *you* can tell *us* if you think it was worth it!

Welcome to the forum -- hope you have fun!

[SagaciousKJB]

Guys for starters, I'm sorry, I know in all probability you've already answered these questions before. I just really don't know where to begin and there's so much to contemplate I'm having installers block. I'm verging on not bothering and bowing down the the awesome power of bill gates.

That in mind I'm going to ask some really quick questions, well, questions with answers that hopefully don't take long to write, thanks in advance for your patience....

I am assuming it's possible to have both operating systems (XP and Linux) on the same computer?

For a "Fairly competent" XP user is there a preferable version of Linux to install bearing in mind I know nothing about linux. I keep hearing something called "Suzie" mentioned I assume my spelling is wrong - sorry, am I right in thinking you have to buy that version?

How much space do I need to install it? can it be on the same drive as my XP boot drive on a separate partition? I've got a partition free on my primary drive which is 1.25 gig, I'm hoping I can use that.

I heard drivers can be a right arse to get for linux am I wrong? Is there any kind of SLI compatability?

Is there any possibility I can damage my current operating system, files stored on any HD's or even the pc itself by clicking OK at the wrong moment? (I'm assuming linux applies the age old technique of having "OK" buttons? )

Finally.... Is there any point? My PC is fairly quick quad core etc and is mainly for multimedia and internet. I do have a penchant for games tho but I am assuming I'd have to use xp for them, hence wanting to install both os's. Being a bit of a PC geek I'm just curious what Linux is like and would use it for media stuff if I could, just so I could give bill gates the finger. Is it worth it? I dont really want to have to pay for anything and don't really want serious hassle if it is hassle.

As I said before I cringe writing this as I'm sure these are very lame questions and in all probability have been answered before on numerous occasions, but a few simple yes's or no's from you guys will decide whether its worth me committing to this and spending serious time with this. So as I said I'm sorry but I'll do my best to pay it forward....

Thanks guys......

Well, I think Suse is too big for 1.25 gigs. I think a default insallation I used for OpenSUSE 10.2 was around 6 gigs needed.\

There are a lot of distributions that are made to be more "intuitive" for Windows users. Frankly, and I know a lot of GNOME users will hate me for saying it, KDE is probably the desktop-manager you want to use. It's a lot more similar to Windows than GNOME is, and it should be pretty simple for you to figure out how to do basic things on it as opposed to with GNOME. It was for me when I started out, though, but GNOME is really nice if you learn how to use the command line; it's nice and sleek, and it seems to use less resources.

As for the actually distributions you could just out, Xandros is apparently supposed to be a lot like Windows in terms of the GUI, but I would recommend Kubuntu because it uses the Ubuntu distribution, which is pretty nice for a new user, and because it uses KDE which I think is more Windows-switch-friendly, like I stated before.

Though, since you're saying you really are just curious, I would recommend installing one in some virtualization software. I used VMWare to figure out which distribution I really liked, but I think there might be other virtualization programs available for Windows. The nice thing about this, is that it allows it to use the hardware of your computer extremely quickly, and actually mimics the full install of the OS instead of just a LiveCD version, which tend to be slow.

Since you're just curious I'd reccomend those options, but the only real thing you have to worry about Linux over-writing once you're sure you have right partition selected to install on, is the MBR. That's rather easy to fix with GRUB or LILO, though, but basically a lot of Linux distributions are a little rude, and wile installing GRUB or LILO, don't detect Windows installations and put them in the menu automatically. So then when a user boots up for the first time, they think that their Windows install is gone.

[Noneoftheabove]

I appreciate the response Smolloy I'm sure karma has something nice planned for you just round the corner

Looks like I will give it a go, I'm not stuck with that 1.25 gig partition it just would have been handy for me not to have to re partition everything. I probably am due a rebuild soon anyway and all my media is on a separate drive so that's not too much hassle

As for my comment about being a competent XP user, I did wonder whether I'd be shot down for it, not that you did. Originally it was going to put XP savvy which sounded even more arrogant, I know linux is totally different to xp, but im hoping the whole xp,nt,95,3.11 and dos experience will count for something.I'm assuming it can't be that different.

Again, thanks Smolloy - you ever want to know anything about conspiracy theories look me up, that's a subject I know a lot about other than that I'm probably no help to you

[Noneoftheabove]

SagaciousKJB - karma has something nice planned for you too dude.

Virtualization sounds like a good idea......

Thanks

[Jonathan183]

Try looking here and follow the which distro link. SUSE, Ubuntu and Mint are all fairly good for new users.

I have dual boot machines ... but the main reason for trying Linux was poor Windows security for web access.

If you are just trying things out I would use live CDs but Ubuntu at version 8.04 also offers a wubi install which basically means you can install and uninstall it as a Windows application.

As smolley has already said the previous experience will help but don't expect good working knowledge of one OS to translate directly into even basic knowledge in another OS. I'd used MD-DOS and various versions of Windows before using Linux, sometimes it helped ... but sometimes it caused confusion and frustration.

If you do decide to experiment with Linux installation then there are two CDs I'd recommend you get a copy of ...
1. SuperGrub - this will help you fix boot problems if an install does not go to plan.
2. PartedMagic - this makes changing partition setup easy ... I don't trust Partition Magic after it let me down badly on a couple of partition resize operations.

Installing to less than about 5GB of disk space is possible but can cause problems ... so free up disk space if you can ... to install everything in SUSE I think uses about 10 to 15GB of disk space.

[i92guboj]

Most of your questions have already been answered correctly.

How much space do I need to install it? can it be on the same drive as my XP boot drive on a separate partition? I've got a partition free on my primary drive which is 1.25 gig, I'm hoping I can use that.

All the answers about this question are to be taken with a grain or two of salt. This entirely depends on what do you install. It's possible to install linux on 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000 mb. It just depends on the distribution that you use and the package set that you install.

Being that said, I'd say that 5gb is a good starting point for a modern desktop distro.

I heard drivers can be a right arse to get for linux am I wrong? Is there any kind of SLI compatability?

Boot a linux livdcd. and when it has booted, open a terminal, type "lspci". It should output a list with all the hardware attached to your motherboard directly. That's a good starting point to see if your hardware will be compatible.

The support for network cards is usually good. Nvidia video cards are probably the best supported ones for 3d.

Most sound cards and chipsets are supported in one way or another, but it depends on the concrete case.

Is there any possibility I can damage my current operating system, files stored on any HD's or even the pc itself by clicking OK at the wrong moment? (I'm assuming linux applies the age old technique of having "OK" buttons? )

You can completely destroy your current Os with a simple click. But you can do the same on partition magic under windows if you don't bother to read the instructions. <--- Implicit message there

Finally.... Is there any point?

If you have to ask, then probably there's no point.

If you need linux for a concrete task, you usually know what that task is, and you don't have to ask. If you use linux because you like the concept of you just want to learn something new, then there isn't either a reason to ask if you should try it. Hence my response above.

Definitively, if you don't want to bother learning lots of new things (and I really mean new things, not new locations for the buttons) I wouldn't advice you to use linux.

Cheers.

[smolloy]

All the answers about this question are to be taken with a grain or two of salt. This entirely depends on what do you install. It's possible to install linux on 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000 mb. It just depends on the distribution that you use and the package set that you install

True. If you wanted you could probably install LFS in under 5 MB, but I'm not gonna recommend that for a newbie!!!

For any distro I'd recommend to someone new to Linux, especially someone who explicitly said they want multimedia support, I think they should aim to install it on a 10 GB partition.

By the way, the idea of installing on a virtual machine is a great idea if you don't have the space. If you can find a spare partition, there's nothing like just getting stuck in!

[techieMoe]

Looks like I will give it a go, I'm not stuck with that 1.25 gig partition it just would have been handy for me not to have to re partition everything. I probably am due a rebuild soon anyway and all my media is on a separate drive so that's not too much hassle

Some modern Linuxes (such as Ubuntu and Fedora) will give you the option of letting them resize your existing XP partition and use the free space for their installs.

Actually, there's a new feature in Ubuntu 8.04 called Wubi that doesn't require any partitioning at all. It will install a several-gigabyted file on your Windows partition and let you boot to it from that. Uninstall is done through Add/Remove programs. It's a nice halfway point between using the LiveCD (no risk but slow) and setting up a dual boot (fast but risky).

You could also just pop in a spare drive and install Linux alone on that. You have several options there.

As for my comment about being a competent XP user, I did wonder whether I'd be shot down for it, not that you did. Originally it was going to put XP savvy which sounded even more arrogant, I know linux is totally different to xp, but im hoping the whole xp,nt,95,3.11 and dos experience will count for something.I'm assuming it can't be that different.

Basic GUI tasks are going to be the same. If you know your way around Windows Explorer then manipulating files isn't that hard on a desktop like GNOME or KDE.

One thing you'll have to get used to in Linux is the idea of permissions. In a Windows environment you basically have carte blanche to move, remove, and add whatever files wherever you want, even if it borks your OS.

Linux doesn't allow that kind of autonomy to regular users, so by default you'll only have full read/write/delete access to your home directory.

If you've used DOS the Linux command-line will be familiar but not exactly the same. It's actually quite a bit more robust than MS-DOS, with significantly enhanced scripting and automation abilities.

At any step of the way if you're feeling overwhelmed, drop in here and we'll do our best to help you through it. There are quite a few folks on here who are bilingual so to speak; they know XP and Linux (and in some cases Mac OS X as well).

[Noneoftheabove]

Guy's thanks for all the help.

I am going to bite the bullet, I need to rebuild my xp anyway I've been procrastinating on it for sometime so this gives me an incentive.

Being a bit of a conspiracy nut I have had a problem using windows for sometime as I don't really agree with microsoft and their actions so the logical step for me is to try to minimise my cooperation with a big corporation.

I thought about virtualisation but I'm just going to commit to this as I'm sure there is a version of linux out there to suit my needs.

I'm-re partitioning my primary, giving linux its own...I don't know, 20 gig partition, is that enough? Space isnt really an issue, and get rolling. I'm considering getting SUSE 10.1 which is available on P2P, its free right so im not breaking the law?

I have quite a lot of HD movie files on my pc going upto 12 gig, some even make my pc moan a bit due to size, you think SUSE can cope with large avi files? Should I just use VLC with normal codecs or are programs, and codecs like that unavaiable in linux, is there an equivalent?

That's it, no more questions,

Thanks again guys, wish me luck