Windows to Linux

At the momment I am a full time windows user and have been most of my life. I would like to try linux. I've looked at some of the interface and like what i have seen and i want somehting new to mess with.

Before i start messing around i was just wondering what i should expect as far as diffuculty to install(it has to have gotten better form the last time i tried)and what type i should try using first(I'm guessing this is going to be redhat or mandrake although im partial to mandrake just for the name ill use whatever is recomended.

Would it be wise to try and make a partition and work bewtween linux and windows(has no idea how to do that) or just switch over altogether.

What advantages does linux have over windows and what will i be giving up when switching.

If it helps at all im running win 98

i'm making the transition myself (ok, i intalled a *nix, i haven't had a chance since then to sitdown play and get everything working). I actually installed mandrake b/c i thought having a easy interface would allow me to get a good feel for it before i went to something a little more difficult. I found instead that, though easy to use, i wasn't really learning *nix whatsover. I'm going to switch over to gentoo or redhat in the near future, whenever i have time. Definitely repartition and use a dual boot system. a) You won't pick it up 100% your first day and b) you probably use windows programs that aren't in nix yet. my nixnoob advice

I did this a couple of weeks ago, repartationed my drive to winXP/mandrake. As far as getting the files on your box and have it up is pretty simple, most novice windows users could do it. The hard part comes in with hardware. In my case, ive found that because my hardware is so new there isint much support(drivers) for it out there. What your gonna give up with windows is a lot of ease of use, Linux IS better hands down(1000s of times more stable,much faster), but its not quite as simple as going do a website and double clicking an icon. Often source has to be made and config files have to be edited by hand. Its not that its hard, just more of a pain in the ass. If i were to suggest a flavor.... I just finished a course and the prof taught us redhat(got an A ). I went home and decided to put linux on my system but got mandrake to see which one i liked better. Mandrake gets my vote. I would suggest that you buy a good book. If you really want to learn it then do as much as you can using the console, and find a book that focuses on that. Ive actually found,after some pratice with it, that for most things i prefer the console.

as a side note if you use this machine as any sort of server be very careful to make sure that its secure, our prof in the class actually taught us how to hack just to show us how insecure everything is. You might check into (if they make them for mandrake)logsentry, portsentery, IPtables, tiger, and tripwire.

Hope this helps feel free to ask any question you have

Alright i think i will do the repartition and dualboot system with mandrake.

How should i go about starting to do this. *has no idea of even the first step* This is going to take a while. Do i need to try installing mandrake first or do i need to do this repartition thing first.

how i did it ...
use fdisk(boot from win98 cd or setup disk)
delete all current partations
when installing windows only allocate x amount to the windows partition
install windows....
install mandrake
there is an option in setup to use empty or remaining disk space.
select this and complete the install.
after that you should be good to go.

you can avoid having to reinstall windows by using partition magic. if your drive is formatted fat32, there should be some other programs out there (google is your friend) to resize a partition (i.e. your windows one) without formatting anything... verynice. once done, insert mandrake CD, reboot computer, install mandrake to empty partition, and well, you have a nix box. it's ridiculously easy with mandrake (as long as your hardware isn't too new)

Forget my noobieness but i was under the impression that i could download linux directly from mandrakelinux.com.

It has a download section so i thought that it had a download installer. So where do i need to order the mandrake cd from?

for future reference how do i go about deleting all current partitions.

When you download Linux you download the ISO images for the installation CDs. You just burn the images to a CD and off you go, just like buying it retail. (well, sans the manuals). My favorite site for finding Linux ISOs is LinuxISO. To delete partitions you can just use fdisk or the partition manager on the Mandrake installation CD.

you cant download it from mandrake, but they have list to ftp sites, most often colleges so find the one that is closest to you and get the iso images 3 of them ... hope you have broad band

[Prometheus]

try lindows my mom has been using it (yes a linux machine inside of M$)

Free downloads /w purchase for a year


runs windows and linux progs