i am a NEWBIE!!!!

[rbig]

Can linux be installed on a formatted 20gb disk? Is this all it takes?

I see SUSE and maybe one other which are sort of like Windows XP home. What is the other?

I just may load one of my pcs with it and give it a go. If it works good, I'll spread it around to my other pcs.

I have 4 pcs here at home. All run Windows XP home. Seems like somethings always happening to one or the other. Each time, the shop want something like $75 to reload windows. One I'm working on has no windows, so that would be a scratch loading of $250. This deathgrip Microsoft has on their products is getting Old. And, before you know it, windows xp will be obsolete. So---Linux is looking good to me. I will try it and see how it goes.

[GNU-Fan]

Can linux be installed on a formatted 20gb disk? Is this all it takes?

Yes.

I see SUSE and maybe one other which are sort of like Windows XP home. What is the other?

Ubuntu.
I wouldn't call either of them "Windows XP like" though. Windows is windows-like -- GNU/Linux is UNIX-like.

I just may load one of my pcs with it and give it a go. If it works good, I'll spread it around to my other pcs.

Yes. That's what I would recommend, too. Try whether it's your cup of tea as much as it's ours.

[devils casper]

Can linux be installed on a formatted 20gb disk? Is this all it takes?

I see SUSE and maybe one other which are sort of like Windows XP home. What is the other?

I just may load one of my pcs with it and give it a go. If it works good, I'll spread it around to my other pcs.

Hi and Welcome !

10-15GB space is enough for most of Linux distros. I would suggest you to try LiveCDs of different distros ( Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSe etc. ) and check which one suites you best.

[jmadero]

Welcome to the forums. I agree that you should try a few but I do have a bias in what order things should be tried. Another thing is that with a live distro (running from a cd and not installing on your HDD you'll have limitations, these can include:

no wireless or very difficult to get wireless up
visual effects limitations
graphics cards limitations
yada yada yada

so all in all installing them and trying them out is a better route if you really want to see what each has to offer. A few notes for you:

Some might argue with me on these points

1. There are two main Desktop interfaces in Linux (there are lots of other ones but most people use one of two)

KDE -- K Desktop Environment
Gnome Desktop Environment

KDE has more of the "Windows" feel I think personally. By this I mean it has a little start type button in the bottom left, maybe a few other similar aspects but it is still NOT windows and can proudly be held up as a nix

KDE has two different main releases right now that are VERY different.

There is 3.5 which is being abandoned but a huge portion of the community likes more than the newer version. It is more stable and will give you less headaches as a new user

4.* (currently 4.2) is the new age of KDE. It is pretty, I don't think may people disagree with that, its less stable, I've tried 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 and left each one because of bugs. But, it is the new era of the K environment and looks good. If you want to try it out just be warned that it does not represent how stable Linux is as it is new (about a year old). I think personally that it will be stable by 4.5 which is another year and a half, I'd still recommend checking it out though

Gnome-- I am a gnome user so I'm going to leave this one for someone else because I am really biased towards it


All programs that work on Gnome can work on KDE and vice a versa. It's really just the look of things, not how the system works -- although they have a very different look and feel.


So for Gnome I would recomment:
Ubuntu
Fedora Core

For KDE
Kubuntu
OpenSuse

Some have other suggestions such as Mint, Gentoo (advanced), etc...I have tried a lot of distros and I usually end up back with Ubuntu with something else dual booting -- currently Kubuntu with KDE 4.2, but it's glitched and I can't even log into it right now

Hope that helps.