Getting to know Linux

M

Mack

Big Geek
I was thinking of downloading Linux on my second hard drive. I have two
1) 20GB (Windows 2k AS)
2) 1GB (maybe Linux)
It is just to get acquainted with it. Now the following are my questions:
a) Can I install it with windows installed on the second hard drive. For e.g. I once had both win98 & 2k installed, so when the PC booted it gave me an option to choose which O.S to start.
b) Is there any specific version to download?
c) Now I saw the thread which said that there is DIRECT X 9.0 for linux, so it ultimately means that it suports games. Correct or not? does it have any effect on the efficiency of the game.
d) Any website regarding intro. to Linux.

regards
Mack
 
1.)Yes. Alternatively, there are a few distributions that are made to be burned to a bootable CD-ROM, from which the OS can run. This makes having to deal with the bootloader a non-issue, and you can just get up and go with it.
B.)For an installable version, Mandrake is recommended as it's one of the more user friendly distro's out there. Also, RedHat/Fedora is pretty nice too. Off the top of my head, I can't remember the name of it, but there are a few distro's, like I said, that you can burn to a CD and just run the OS off of that.
c.)Yes, but they need to be written to run under Linux. If not, you can use WineX or Cedega (see the thread you cited). From what Anti-Trend says, Cedega is a bit better than WineX, but it does cost a little bit of cash (like $15). WineX is free, but not quite as refined as Cedega in terms of speed.
d.)http://www.linux.org is a real good place to start.
 
A lot of people advocate a "Live" distro, which you simply boot to via CD-ROM; it runs and memory and doesn't install on your hard drive. However, as a Windows to Linux convert, I'd say it's worlds better to just install it and get it over with. A Linux system [of course] performs better from a HDD than from CD, and the sense of permanence in having it actually installed is incentive to tinker & learn. I'd go with the latest Mandrake to get your feet wet, as it'll let you focus less on getting your system up & working, and more on learning the ins & outs. You can download it for free via bittorrent from Mandrake.com, or via FTP from various mirrors. For literature, I'd strongly recommend Moving to Linux: Kissing the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! by Marcel Gagne. It's a straight-forward and enjoyable read, which gives more than a little Mandrake-specific info (which applies to all Linux distros). It will give you enough info to be confident enough to get the real learning done. Once you understand the concepts of Linux, you'll learn a lot faster once you're actually sitting in front of a 'nux box. Having read that, I highly recommend any book from O'Reilly. If you're anything like me, the more you learn about Linux, the more enjoyable it will become. Not only that, but you'll probably never deploy a server which runs Windows again... :p
 
curse my newbism again...

ookay I know roughly what Linux is, and reading here that you don't need to install it to try it, I might give it a go. So I get myself a CD off of the web, boot up and it should do what? Come up saying "Choose which OS to use?"

And after I do that, any thing I need to be wary of?

I don't really want to screw anything up, but I'd like to see what this is all about.

So if there aren't any reasons why I shouldn't install it, I'll try it out.

Thanks.
 
IIRC, you basically just set your BIOS to boot off the CD-ROM first, and it'll go from there.

Now, if you decide to use a distro that you install, you'll install it, and you should have your choice of bootloaders: Grub or LILO are the big ones, though there might be some others. Just know that some distro's have several additional CD's with extra programs on them. With you only having a 1GB hard drive you want to use, don't go on and get those because you won't be able to make use out of them right now...and it'll simplify the installation.
 
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