want to learn linux.

[rasczak]

ok so i am trying to install the os, set cd to boot first, but everytime i restart my pc my dual boot options for windows pops up and it won't run directly from the cd i downloaded from the site.

any suggestions?

 

[Cal166]

Use MS Virtual PC or VMWare if you want to learn.

 

[Soffty]

Originally posted by: nweaver
as a suggestion...don't just "I want to learn linux" and install it. Set reasonable goals for what you want to do, such as "Install application A to do B" "move service C off of windows box and have the same functionality" such as DHCP, DNS, Filesharing, etc.

I am the kind of person who doesn't just "learn" stuff. I have to have a reason. I want to learn perl, but sitting down with the book and hacking out the example scripts doesn't really get me far. I need to say "I want a perl script to telnet into my cisco device and configure the interface for blah". Then I do that much. That is just me, but having tasks that you need to acomplish will get you more knowldege, and you will not just sit there and think "wow, I heard it was the roxxors, but it's not really". Above all, dual boot or use a second box, and give Linux time. As you learn, start moving daily tasks, such as email, web browsing to it. Give it 6 months of decent usage. If you give it six months, learn some stuff, and then come back and post that you didn't like it, and that you are going back to windows full time, you won't get the grief some folks do.

Good advice man.

I tried a live cd of Ubuntu it seems great (i'm a linux noob) but running it off the CD is definately so much slower.

 

[imported_moeru]

Chiming in with the Ubuntu crowd. I installed it a month ago and instantly fell in love. I play games so it became a hassle to keep up and moved back to XP but my laptop and any other PC I own will definitely be moving to it. Easy to use, installing packages is a snap and I learned a lot too

 

[Cerb]

Knoppix: handy, and works well.
MEPIS: Like Knoppix, but polished as a desktop.
Slackware: just don't. At least not now.
Ubuntu/Kubuntu: Easy to use, good hardware support, and it's Debian, so getting extra stuff installed and working will only be touch harder than with Redhat. Once you get the hang of things, easier than Redhat (RH is just easy initially because of easy googling). Also, it will perform well for a slow PC.
Xandros OC: easiest to use, but slightly older apps and hardware support. Currently, I'd have to give Ubuntu an edge.

If you go with any of the above except for Slackware (Hail, "Bob!" Is "Bob" behind the name? edit: yes, googling has shown he is), learn to use apt and/or (S/K)ynaptic.

Finally, if it is a single-OS machine, don't have critical data on it. That way, when you screw it up, you can just blow it away and install anew.

 

[bluegreenturtle]

what about SuSE? Isn't it sort of a middle of the road package? (I don't know).

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: jpbelauskas
ok so i am trying to install the os, set cd to boot first, but everytime i restart my pc my dual boot options for windows pops up and it won't run directly from the cd i downloaded from the site.

any suggestions?

Did you properly burn the CD? It's an ISO, not a regular data file. If the BIOS is set to boot the CD and the CD isn't booting, there are really only two possiblities - 1) your CD-ROM drive is hosed or 2) the CD you're using isn't bootable (because it wasn't burned properly).

 

[daniel49]

if any of you ordered your free ubunbtu cd's how long did they take supposed to be 6-8 weeks?

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle

Originally posted by: jpbelauskas
ok so i am trying to install the os, set cd to boot first, but everytime i restart my pc my dual boot options for windows pops up and it won't run directly from the cd i downloaded from the site.

any suggestions?

Did you properly burn the CD? It's an ISO, not a regular data file. If the BIOS is set to boot the CD and the CD isn't booting, there are really only two possiblities - 1) your CD-ROM drive is hosed or 2) the CD you're using isn't bootable (because it wasn't burned properly).

i uesd nero to burn the cd. if this is wrong could you point me in the right direction?
also, should i be installing the os to a clean partition or will i be able to format and install like you can in windows?

 

[nweaver]

I ordered Ubuntu disks maybe a month, maybe month and a half. Haven't seen mine yet. I ordered 4 extra sets, and they are already claimed by folks at my work.

 

[rasczak]

bump, prev quest. anyone?

 

[ncage]

Yep. It depends if you want to just run a linux machine and don't want to mess with it a lot then one of the easier distributions will work like SUSE (Recommended for easier distributions) and Fedora 3. This takes into account that you will get frustrated easily and quit messing with linux because it just takes to dang long.

If you don't mind messing with the system and gradually get things working with it and are pretty computer literate and know the inner workings of computers (what is a file system, what is an mbr, ect ect) i would recommend one of two distros. Debian is a very stable distributions that you can really learn a lot from. The only problem with it is its packages are just so darn old sometimes if your trying to get lots of apps running you run into problems. Now say if you know the only thing you want to run is a mysql db server than that isn't a problem since it will forsure work on debian but if your trying to get lots of apps you might have some problems with old packages.

If you want to learn linux and what to highly customize it for performance and what you want on the system i definitly recommend gentoo. There are lots of things like "use flags" that you can use to highly optimize the system. It lets you put what you want on the system and only want you want. Its not bloated like (fedora/suse) with a lot of extra crap that you don't need. It compiles everything from source so it is highly optimized for your machine. I really like gentoo but it does take time.

So it all depends on what you want to do here. Do you want to just get linux up and running and not have to mess much with its inner workings then get SUSE/Fedora. Do you want a stable server like say an apache web server, samba server, or DB server...get Debian. Do you want to really learn the inner workings of linux and highly optimize for what you need....get Gentoo.

 

[TGS]

Assuming the CD image was an ISO, you can download ISObuster and see if the CD is bootable. I typically burn ISOs through Nero as such.

Right Click Iso > Open with > Nero

*click burn button*

I've had issues, where I opened the ISO image within nero and it burns the flat files. Which will not give you the bootable properties. I may just be ignorant of the correct way within Nero on burning a bootable CD ISO.

 

[rasczak]

i'll try it out. thx!

 

[Alex]

mandrake (now mandriva) is the easiest to install and start using immediately