Who can persuade me to Linux?

[Rigoletto]

Hello I have a second system knocking around.
It is P6SET-ML integrated motherboard which has Linux drivers for everything. I put a 3.2Gb HD on it.

I have several Linux distributions but really I am thinking of trying out the massive Linux SUSE 6.0.
I don't really know anything about linux. I would like to try out the stuff on SUSE, and don't mind wiping of Windows. As long as the windowing works straight away, I can't boot to the command line, you've gotta be kidding...
Could I really browse the web on linux for example?

 

[Rigoletto]

Oh yeah, it's running a PII300 as well.
Could I get this Linux to network with Windows at all?

 

[20_MuleTeam_Borax]

I'm posting this from Netscape in Linux. I have never installed SUSE, but I assume there is an option for installing X and having it start automatically. If not, installing it is not too much of a hassle. Yes, you can network w/ windows w/o too much effort.

 

[Rigoletto]

Yipee!
I have a book on Caldera Linux (Linux in 24 hours). Does one linux type's knowledge transfer much to the other?

 

[IamDavid]

The basics are the same.

 

[Damaged]

The basics are the same, but sometimes where config files are located and the tools available for configing certain things are a bit different (e.g. RPMs versus .deb packages).

Basically it will transfer fairly well.

 

[Danlz]

I can't even persuade myself to go back to Linux. Anyway, if you can, start with Mandrake 'cause it'll install itself. From my experience, Suse was a bear to install. You have to write down absolutly everything about your system for manual entry during the install process. I read that the later disties are easier, but be prepared. My biggest problem learning Linux was finding which pigeon hole my downloaded stuff was hiding, and when I could find it, I couldn't do anything with it! There's a ton of How-to's out there if you've got the time and patience to mine it. I doubt even the pros would want/need a full Suse installation.

 

[joshdoe]

Wow, my experience seems a bit different with Suse. I have tried to install Red Hat 6.1, Mandrake 7.1, Corel 1.2, and Slackware 7.1, meeting failure every time. It wasn't until I tried Suse 7.0 that I got it to work. It was a breeze to install. I did get a bit of trouble from LILO, but NUNI fixed it for me. Now I'm in the process of installing linux kernel 2.4.0-test12, and xfree86 4.02. I have been stuck in 640x480 since I installed linux on Saturday. That's the only rez I can seem to run in, probably because of the GF2MX. I'm starting to like it already.

 

[urbantechie]

Not I . NT is the way to go!!!

 

[cjhrph]

Don't be to freaked out by it, its not that bad. If I were you I'd probably be looking at the Mandrake distro. Its by far the easiest to install and a great place to start. The command line is your friend. At some point you'll want to learn at least the basics of the unix commands, it will help tremendously. Once you get a grasp of the fundamentals of the os, you'll realize that it really kicks ass.

Good Luck and Have Fun

 

[Damaged]

Thank you cjhrph! I really only know the command line and so many times people ask how do I configure such and such with such and such tool. I'm fscking lost!

Yes, learn the command line. Mostly because it's everything DOS wasn't and is truly useful in *NIX systems.