Recently, my Windows XP corrupted and I lost a bunch of important files. Now, I am thinking of installing Linux. I know that a lot of you here use Linux as your primary Operating System and was hoping you guys would answer a bunch of questions I have. If you are going to critical about my lack of knowledge of Linux, please don’t bother posting, thanks:). Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
I fully support and acknowledge that you have to learn somewhere. But asking dumb questions that can be googled continuously will start to annoy me
1. What’s an easy to use Linux distribution? I was thinking Slackware, since a lot of you like it.
Slackware isn't easy; however, if you are comfortable with Slackware, you'll be comfortable with any distro. It's a great one to learn on.
2. Will I be able to do the things I want? Including, Surfing the web, typing of reports, listen to music, etc? No, I will not be playing BW, I know BW is not compatible with Linux.
Surfing the web = firefox
Typing reports = OpenOffice (which I
love, btw)
Listen to music = XMMS (clone of Winamp)
BW = Install VMWare (I can help you find it), install a virtual copy of Windows, and run it in that.
There are many games that run on Linux (check
www.happypenguin.org). Some of the more well known ones are Doom 3, Neverwinter Nights, and the Quake series.
3. Can someone give me a screenshot of Slackware, or if you think there’s a better distribution, that screenshot, please.
When you're using Linux, you aren't seeing the distribution, you're seeing the window manager that you chose. Linux works in the background, and the window manager (much like Window's Explorer) provides the look and feel. I go with a very lightweight one, which offers no functionality. Other people like fancier things.
If you want fancy, you can be like Ergot [using KDE]:
http://www.javaop.com/~ergot/screenshots/<edit> better yet:
http://www.javaop.com/~ergot/screenshots/desktopIf you want plain, you can be like me [using WindowMaker]:
http://www.javaop.com/~iago/dec13.pngIt's up to you.
4. How much space will the Linux Distribution take up?
Between 1.4mb and 3gb. Slackware's full install is 3gb, but I suggest having about 10gb so you can install stuff.
5. How does it boot up?
Good question. When you install Slackware, it installs a program called "Linux Loader", or LILO. Lilo writes itself to your Master Boot Record (MBR), which is the first place on your harddrive the BIOS looks to boot. LILO can load any operating system (Linux, Windows, etc) that you tell it to. You break your harddrive into "partitions", one partition can be Linux and another Windows. If you are only planning on installing Linux, then it's easy++. WARNING: If you install Linux, then install Windows, Windows will overwrite your MBR with itself without prompting, and you have to go back and fix Lilo. Very rude.
6. I’ve been told that for you to use Linux, you need to always type in code to do stuff. For example, if I needed to execute my browser. I would have to type in code. Is that correct?
False. I double-click on Firefox to run it. In fact, I press alt-f. But anyway, if you want to do something complicated, you can script it, but by no means do you need to know it. I recommend eventually learning Bash scripting, though, it can save you a lot of headaches.
7. And the most important question of all, how do I install it? I gave a decent idea of how to, but just incase, how?
That's a mouthful, and I'm only going to answer it quickly. Maybe some day I'll put together a guide
- Download Slackware CD1 and CD2, and burn them
- Boot off CD1
- Hit enter when it asks what to boot, and follow the steps until you log in as root
- Run cfdisk (type it and press enter). If you only plan to use Linux, make 2 partitions: one that takes up most of your harddrive, and one that takes up approximately double your RAM. Change the second one's type to Swap. Make note of the first one (like, if it's /dev/hda1, write that down) Write, and exit cfdisk
- Run setup. Press "add swap", and follow the steps. When it asks you where to install Linux, tell it the path to your Linux partition (/dev/hda1). For the rest, follow your common sense. When asked, choose "kde".
- When prompted about installing Lilo, say use "Advanced" mode. Press "begin", tell it to install to the MBR, when it asks where tell it your harddrive path without the number (probably /dev/hda). Then hit "Linux", follow the steps, tell it where to find Linux (probably /dev/hda1).
- Everything else should be common sense. Once it's done, eject the CD and reboot. Hopefully it'll start up Linux, and ask you for a username. Enter root, and the password that you chose.
- Once logged in as root, run "adduser".
- Once the user has been created, type "exit" and log in as the user account
- Run "startx", and play with KDE.