Linux questions

[Rifter]

This will be a long post I figured I would get them all out of the way at once. First off i would like to say i have little linux experiance, other than using a linux box at work for network diagnostics i know pretty much nothing about it. First off will it even support all my hardware???? Here is what i have:

Abit BM6
Celeron 366@550
288MB RAM
CL 5X DVD drive
CL 4224 Burner
CL SB Live Value!
Hollywood+ DVD Decoder card
Voodoo3 3000 AGP Video card
D-Link 530TX 10/100 Ethernet card

There you go, will everything work???? Now on to the software side of things, I will need to dual boot with my current win98SE install, how do i set that up? Second what version of Linux should i go with? I will mostly beusing it for Surfing the net, e-mail, ICQ, Newsgroups, a few games(if possible). Oh and DVD movies if possible, i can always boot up win98 for stuff i cant do with linux. First off can linux even read fat32 partitions? how would i go about installing it? i need the data on most of my drives, i can give it a partition to use(i have a few differnt partitions set up) but what format does it need to be? Also what other apps do i need to use linux, does it come with a browser? e-mail client? also i have her dof things like KDE and x-windows, what are they??? Webpages with info would be nice also As well as webpages with useful apps(firewalls, e-mail clients, newsgroup clients, ICQ clients etc.) Well i think thats it for now, so what version would you guys go with? and where can i download it(preferably from a FAST server). Thanks a budnle

 

[Louie1961]

OK, lets see here

1. Hardware..I know for a fact that your CPU, sound card and video card area ll supported. Not sure about the others, but you can check with the various distribution web sites for hardware compatability lists.

2. Dual boot..very easy. Use Lilo (comes free with all linux distro's), and install it on the master boot record, unless you use something like boot commander, in which case you don't need lilo.

Basically install win 98 first and use something like partition magic to create the necessary partition spaces for linux. Red hat (what I use..not necessarily the best) you need to create 3 partitions: a 128mb swap partition, a 16 mb boot partition, and a "/" root partition for the operating system itself (1-2Gb depending on how many options you install). I think linux can read fat 16 drives, not sure about fat 32. The native linux file system is called ext2. I don't think it is manadatory that you use it though.

Installation is a three step process: 1 prep you hard drive and partitions. 2 boot from the cd rom or floppy provided, and 3 install linux. It is pretty easy. Linux can format the partitions you set aside for it during installation without any fuss.

3. any good linux distro comes with all the software you will ever need, except maybe for small things like video drivers (you voodoo is very well supported..no worries). Not so good for GeForce owners. Anyway, the real beauty of Linux is that anything you don't have software wise, you can probably download for free off the net.
Red hat comes with netscape 4.7, you can download Linux versions of AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger, ICQ clients, etc, etc. Most linux distros come with web servers applications, web page applications, file server apps, etc, etc. It is know as a server OS, and virtually every type of server app/client is available with the distros or by download

4. X windows and the desktop environments, such as gnome, KDE, afterstep, etc. usually come with any linux distro.

5. Which linux flavor?? check out the recent threads on this page to answer that..Suse, Madrake, and Red Hat seem to be favorites

 

[Rifter]

Thanks you, but can anyone tell me if linux can read FAT 32??? it would be really helpful.

 

[urbantechie]

PhatLinux can. I think that is what it is called.

 

[Rifter]

do any other distros read it???? or just this phat thing?

 

[andri]

All newer distros (for example, RH5.2 or newer) can.

 

[Rifter]

does anyone know a fast download site for RH 7.0???????????

 

[Rifter]

ok no response, well all you guys who have RH 7.0 WHERE DID YOU DOWNLOAD FROM!!!!!!!!!?????????????

 

[Rifter]

nm, a friend told me a fast ftp for mandrake 7.1, am downloading it now thanks for all your help.