Help me with Linux

[Jassi]

My first (stupid) question is: Why Linux? What can I do with Linux? This is not a rhetorical question, I am really struggling to justify it to myself. I want to learn how to use Linux but I need something to work towards. I am not a CS major or an aspiring developer but a lowly EE grad about to start looking for my first real job.

Second: I want to dual boot Windows XP + 1 Distro of Linux on my laptop; I haven't decided if it'll be (U or K)buntu, SUSE or Fedora. Any ideas on other Distros? I have a A64 chip, are there any benefits to installing 64 bit versions of Linux distros?

I have a license for VMware Workstation that I have used to try some Linux Vmachines (Ubuntu, PC-BSD and about to try Kubuntu) so I know a little bit about what I am getting into.

Third: Where can I get sound advice about setting up a dual booting system? Is there a guide I can follow? I know Windows gets installed first (advice from someone), I need 2(?) more partitions for Linux and a third for my data. EDIT - I am also planning on creating a data partition to store music (etc.), can I use NTFS or does it have to be FAT-32?

And lastly, I need drivers for my laptop. The model is over a year old so I am hoping it won't be hard but where can I start looking?

Thanks a lot. I am starting this project tonight and I will update as I keep finding more info (I will looking hard myself as well, not asking for people to do work for me, but looking for advice from people who have transitioned from Windows to Linux).

 

[wpshooter]

Jassi:

Unless you have a great deal of experience with the command line/terminal functioning of linux O/S, then you may find that you are in for a fairly stiff learning curve.

IMO, it is going to be maybe 2 to 3 years before the GUI functions of Ubuntu have been developed to a stage that will make it a viable alternative for the average/casual computer user. I have been using Ubuntu about 4 months now and there are still a number of things which I have found just too difficult and time comsuming to get accomplished in Ubuntu. If you are interested I would be glad to give you a short listing.

Having said the above, I believe Ubuntu is by far the best of the Linux distributions that I personally took a look at.

Give it a whirl and see what you think.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Jassi
My first (stupid) question is: Why Linux? What can I do with Linux?

There have been extensive threads on this question here and in the Software forum, some in the last week or two. Search.

Second: I want to dual boot Windows XP + 1 Distro of Linux on my laptop; I haven't decided if it'll be (U or K)buntu, SUSE or Fedora. Any ideas on other Distros?

Wow - to think it's been, like, three days since I've seen a "which distro?" question. Search.

I have a A64 chip, are there any benefits to installing 64 bit versions of Linux distros?

If you don't need the support for >4G of memory, it's probably easiest to use a 32-bit version. There are still a couple of hangups with 64-bit that are annoying, especially if you don't already know what you're doing.

Third: Where can I get sound advice about setting up a dual booting system?

There's not much to say. Leave free space on the drive for Linux when you install Windows, then let the Linux installer do its thing. It's mostly automatic. Just do the Linux installation before you spend a lot of time setting up Windows so you can easily start over if you break something.

I am also planning on creating a data partition to store music (etc.), can I use NTFS or does it have to be FAT-32?

Possible to use NTFS, easier to use FAT32.

And lastly, I need drivers for my laptop. The model is over a year old so I am hoping it won't be hard but where can I start looking?

99% of drivers, apart from nVidia/ATI video drivers, are included with the distro.

 

[Jassi]

Originally posted by: wpshooter
Jassi:

Unless you have a great deal of experience with the command line/terminal functioning of linux O/S, then you may find that you are in for a fairly stiff learning curve.

IMO, it is going to be maybe 2 to 3 years before the GUI functions of Ubuntu have been developed to a stage that will make it a viable alternative for the average/casual computer user. I have been using Ubuntu about 4 months now and there are still a number of things which I have found just too difficult and time comsuming to get accomplished in Ubuntu. If you are interested I would be glad to give you a short listing.

Having said the above, I believe Ubuntu is by far the best of the Linux distributions that I personally took a look at.

Give it a whirl and see what you think.

Thanks, I'd appreciate anything you can throw my way. I have used DOS and I managed to memorize some specific commands that I need for school work. I am still willing to give it a shot. The strategy is to use Linux untill I hit a wall in my day to day use so I will keep Windows handy.

Cleverhandle - Thank you. I realize that the same questions time and again can start to be irritating and I appreciate your patience. However, I have 2 more:

How much space do you recommend that I leave aside for a full install of the OS and some room to play with aps?

Can Partition Magic 8 (using from Windows) be used to resize Linux partitions if I need more space in the future?

Thanks!

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Jassi
How much space do you recommend that I leave aside for a full install of the OS and some room to play with aps?

You can get a pretty decent installation in a couple of gigabytes. Much like Windows, it depends on how much stuff you install. If you have 5 or 10 gigs, use it. I don't think you need more than that just for the OS and apps.

Can Partition Magic 8 (using from Windows) be used to resize Linux partitions if I need more space in the future?

Don't know - you'd want to check to see if it supports ext2 or ext3 filesystems. But there are other ways to accomplish this without using PM.

 

[silverpig]

Yes you can use partition magic to resize linux partitions. I've done it before and it works.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Jassi
My first (stupid) question is: Why Linux? What can I do with Linux? This is not a rhetorical question, I am really struggling to justify it to myself. I want to learn how to use Linux but I need something to work towards. I am not a CS major or an aspiring developer but a lowly EE grad about to start looking for my first real job.

I don't know. What do you use a computer for? Surfing, email, playing games?

Would you like to make some music or something?

Your a electrical engineer now right?

I find that python is very usefull programming language for doing calculations. It's very easy to pick up and as long as you take into account the oddities/limitations of programming languages (like 10.0 may not equal a 10. A float vs a integer type thing. Not to difficult to understand) then it's quite powerfull. Works well in Windows, too. Maybe think of it like a graphic calculator, just a thousand times more powerfull and flexible. There are numerous modules (add-ons) for displaying data in 2d graphs or 3d images and that sort of thing in a fairly simple manner.

There are mathmatical modules and scientific-related modules and stuff like that. Like to investigate solid body mechanics?

I do a google for it and found several interesting references.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=python+electrical+engineer&btnG=Search

There are numerious stuff for grabing information from data aquisition devices.

Comedi supports lots of stuff.

But maybe Bitscope? Supports Windows and Linux a digital occilloscope
http://www.bitscope.com/

I donno, just a idea. Hopefully it will give you a idea.


Maybe digital circuit simulation?
http://www.geda.seul.org/
http://www.brorson.com/gEDA/SPICE/intro.html


There are numerioius other CAD things around. Some circuit design and layout stuff. I am not sure. I am not no EE.

Wanna help design a CPU chip?
http://www.opencores.org/

Or maybe a video card with 3d acceleration?
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics

I donno.

Second: I want to dual boot Windows XP + 1 Distro of Linux on my laptop; I haven't decided if it'll be (U or K)buntu, SUSE or Fedora. Any ideas on other Distros? I have a A64 chip, are there any benefits to installing 64 bit versions of Linux distros?

There are benifits to running 64bit, but I don't think they are very compelling right now. You don't need over 3-4s of RAM, right?

Just go with the 32bit. If you'd like you can setup a seperate /home partition so you can format and reinstall a 64bit version of Linux if you feel like it later without loosing your home user files and program preferences.

Third: Where can I get sound advice about setting up a dual booting system? Is there a guide I can follow? I know Windows gets installed first (advice from someone), I need 2(?) more partitions for Linux and a third for my data. EDIT - I am also planning on creating a data partition to store music (etc.), can I use NTFS or does it have to be FAT-32?

Ya. Install Windows first, Linux second.

Linux requires minimally 2 partitions. One for root, one for swap. Swap only needs to be a gig or so. Or about 1.5x the size of ram if you want to try to get suspend to disk working. Anything else is optional and you can mount partitions anywere on your directory tree. No C drives or anything like that.

Fat32 is a good choice for sharing music.

And lastly, I need drivers for my laptop. The model is over a year old so I am hoping it won't be hard but where can I start looking?

Depends on the hardware. Technically Linux provides all the drivers you need by default. Anything missing may require 3rd party modules.

Don't look at the manufacturer's website. If they do have Linux drivers they are probably out of date.
Look in your distro's package management system first. A Distro will provide commonly used hardware drivers that aren't aviable by defualt.

Otherwise google around for stuff.

A laptop a year old should be mostly supported. If you give specifics on your hardware I may be more helpfull.


If your using partition magic back everything up first.

It works, _usually_.

 

[Jassi]

drag - I bow to your superior intellect. Thank you very much. I will try to have everything up and running by this weekend and let you know how it goes

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Jassi
drag - I bow to your superior intellect. Thank you very much. I will try to have everything up and running by this weekend and let you know how it goes

I'm not smart. I just spend to much time on the computer!

 

[Nothinman]

I'm not smart. I just spend to much time on the computer!

And I'm glad you do, I got tired of typing out those long responses a while ago. =)

 

[skyking]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I'm not smart. I just spend to much time on the computer!

And I'm glad you do, I got tired of typing out those long responses a while ago. =)

He does those so naturally, I suspect he is some sort of uber-bot =)

 

[nweaver]

as an fyi, the ubuntu installer has qparted (sic?) which is a free tool to do the same thing as PM, only I actually trust it, I've only ever had grief with pm

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: nweaver
as an fyi, the ubuntu installer has qparted (sic?) which is a free tool to do the same thing as PM, only I actually trust it, I've only ever had grief with pm

also fyi, you can get gparted on its own liveCD. I've also never had an issue with gparted, as opposed to PM.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: skyking

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I'm not smart. I just spend to much time on the computer!

And I'm glad you do, I got tired of typing out those long responses a while ago. =)

He does those so naturally, I suspect he is some sort of uber-bot =)

Must be written in perl. With emacs. In csh. On Solaris. Running on Fujitsu boxes. In 2U form factor. Without rails.

Damn, I can't think of any other holy wars I can fit into this one post...