Linux for Xmas??
-
Ok I'm thinking that if I can find some spare time over xmas I might sneak over to the dark side and install Linux. Now I've never seen Linux in the flesh, so this is all new to me. I was in a local newsagent here in Oz yesterday and too my amazement they had a box of Redhat V8's. So I figure that's the quickest and easiest way to get a set of distribution CD's. Downloading 4+ x 650M ISO images and burning them sounds like no fun, even with Cable which I have. So is Redhat 8 a good Linux distribution to go for? What else will I need, if anything? Does anyone know if this will install itself as a dual boot besides WinXP? Do I have to create a partition for it and finally how do I create the dual boot stuff, just in XP or ??? Looking for some answers from all you Linux experts who we all know lurk around CP. Thanks. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
I always use Virtual PC (http://connectix.com/products/vpc5w.html[^]) when playing around with Linux. That way I don't do anything stupid with my partions :-) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
-
Thanks for that. I just want to dip my big toe in the water, for now at least. The PC I'm going to use (a Dell Notebook) has 3 NTFS partitions, with XP installed on drive C. Can I use one of the other 2 partitions to "install Linux" or should I create an empty 4th partition? I guess NTFS will be a problem? Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
Neville, I bought the same bundle from the local newsagent for $34.95 and hope to install it RSN. I haven't installed any Linux for quite some time but from the reading I have done I believe the following to be true. Red Hat 8 will install side by with Windows without needing a seperate partition (I personally don't like the sound of that or in it's own partition. If you go with a seperate partition (good) it will format it to EXT2 (I think that is right) which is Linux's natural habitat. Hopefully someone with more current and thorough understanding will come along soon and help you. Michael Martin Australia mjm68@tpg.com.au "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
-
Ok I'm thinking that if I can find some spare time over xmas I might sneak over to the dark side and install Linux. Now I've never seen Linux in the flesh, so this is all new to me. I was in a local newsagent here in Oz yesterday and too my amazement they had a box of Redhat V8's. So I figure that's the quickest and easiest way to get a set of distribution CD's. Downloading 4+ x 650M ISO images and burning them sounds like no fun, even with Cable which I have. So is Redhat 8 a good Linux distribution to go for? What else will I need, if anything? Does anyone know if this will install itself as a dual boot besides WinXP? Do I have to create a partition for it and finally how do I create the dual boot stuff, just in XP or ??? Looking for some answers from all you Linux experts who we all know lurk around CP. Thanks. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
I have recently installed RedHad 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0 at one point or the other, and was able to successfully dual-boot with a Windows 98 machine. I know that NT/2000/XP are a little different, so proceed with caution, but you should be all right. If you can create partitions for both of them before doing any install, you're in good shape. You may also want to set aside a swap partition too that Linux can use for virtual memory. RedHat comes with a partition manager type program that lets you muck with partitions right before you install. It can format a partition to the right format (I think it's ext2.) You might want to be ready to re-install any other OSes and back up any important data - just in case. But I've never had any problems as severe as wiping out my Windows partition. They may not like each other, but they respect each other's right to exist. :-D Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
-
Ok I'm thinking that if I can find some spare time over xmas I might sneak over to the dark side and install Linux. Now I've never seen Linux in the flesh, so this is all new to me. I was in a local newsagent here in Oz yesterday and too my amazement they had a box of Redhat V8's. So I figure that's the quickest and easiest way to get a set of distribution CD's. Downloading 4+ x 650M ISO images and burning them sounds like no fun, even with Cable which I have. So is Redhat 8 a good Linux distribution to go for? What else will I need, if anything? Does anyone know if this will install itself as a dual boot besides WinXP? Do I have to create a partition for it and finally how do I create the dual boot stuff, just in XP or ??? Looking for some answers from all you Linux experts who we all know lurk around CP. Thanks. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
Neville Franks wrote: So is Redhat 8 a good Linux distribution to go for? It's good enough [^] for Santa. Even the North Pole gets /.'ed :-)
he he he. I like it in the kitchen! - Marc Clifton (on taking the heat when being flamed) Awasu v0.4a[^]: A free RSS reader with support for Code Project.
-
Ok I'm thinking that if I can find some spare time over xmas I might sneak over to the dark side and install Linux. Now I've never seen Linux in the flesh, so this is all new to me. I was in a local newsagent here in Oz yesterday and too my amazement they had a box of Redhat V8's. So I figure that's the quickest and easiest way to get a set of distribution CD's. Downloading 4+ x 650M ISO images and burning them sounds like no fun, even with Cable which I have. So is Redhat 8 a good Linux distribution to go for? What else will I need, if anything? Does anyone know if this will install itself as a dual boot besides WinXP? Do I have to create a partition for it and finally how do I create the dual boot stuff, just in XP or ??? Looking for some answers from all you Linux experts who we all know lurk around CP. Thanks. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
I did the same thing right after RH 8.0 was released. I worked almost exclusively with Solaris in school and nothing but Windows after that. I just wanted to see what Linux was like so I installed 8.0 I did a fresh install of XP, using the XP installer to set up a 100 GB partition, leaving a 60 GB partition for Linux. I downloaded the ISO's (got them from ftp.sunet.se which is VERY fast, almost 2 Mbit sustained on my cable connection), burned the disks, and booted to the first CD in the set. I was very pleased to see that the first thing the installation allowed me to do was verify each ISO I had downloaded and burned (I had used MD5SUM to verify, but I still appreciated the extra effort on Red Hat's part). I installed the typical package plus all development tools and KDE. The Grub boot loader is very nice and makes the whole dual-boot issue a peice of cake. Updates through Red-Hat are as simple as a Window's Update on XP. I have noticed that whenever I update the kernel, a new line is added to the boot loader startup screen allowing me to always go back to the previous kernel if I choose. I have enjoyed it quite a bit and consider it a welcome distraction from time to time. I especially like the KDevelop IDE. If you are like me and you just want to see what it is capable of, then I would highly recommend that you go ahead and install it. It's a very nice package indeed.
-
I did the same thing right after RH 8.0 was released. I worked almost exclusively with Solaris in school and nothing but Windows after that. I just wanted to see what Linux was like so I installed 8.0 I did a fresh install of XP, using the XP installer to set up a 100 GB partition, leaving a 60 GB partition for Linux. I downloaded the ISO's (got them from ftp.sunet.se which is VERY fast, almost 2 Mbit sustained on my cable connection), burned the disks, and booted to the first CD in the set. I was very pleased to see that the first thing the installation allowed me to do was verify each ISO I had downloaded and burned (I had used MD5SUM to verify, but I still appreciated the extra effort on Red Hat's part). I installed the typical package plus all development tools and KDE. The Grub boot loader is very nice and makes the whole dual-boot issue a peice of cake. Updates through Red-Hat are as simple as a Window's Update on XP. I have noticed that whenever I update the kernel, a new line is added to the boot loader startup screen allowing me to always go back to the previous kernel if I choose. I have enjoyed it quite a bit and consider it a welcome distraction from time to time. I especially like the KDevelop IDE. If you are like me and you just want to see what it is capable of, then I would highly recommend that you go ahead and install it. It's a very nice package indeed.
I'm running mandrake just now, easy to install after you've partitioned your harddrive. You can't have it installed on an NTFS partition, so you need to make a bit of free space and let the installer or whatever partition it to the right format. Linux is pretty fun though, I'm trying to convert all of my windows programs over to it as a challenge to myself :)
-
I always use Virtual PC (http://connectix.com/products/vpc5w.html[^]) when playing around with Linux. That way I don't do anything stupid with my partions :-) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
Hi Anders, Yes I've heard good things about Virtual PC and VMMware. Any reason you went for VP instead of VMWare? I notice it is a bit cheaper. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
-
I have recently installed RedHad 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0 at one point or the other, and was able to successfully dual-boot with a Windows 98 machine. I know that NT/2000/XP are a little different, so proceed with caution, but you should be all right. If you can create partitions for both of them before doing any install, you're in good shape. You may also want to set aside a swap partition too that Linux can use for virtual memory. RedHat comes with a partition manager type program that lets you muck with partitions right before you install. It can format a partition to the right format (I think it's ext2.) You might want to be ready to re-install any other OSes and back up any important data - just in case. But I've never had any problems as severe as wiping out my Windows partition. They may not like each other, but they respect each other's right to exist. :-D Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Hi Navin, Thanks for the advice. I've got Partition Magic so I can do whatever is needed with partitions. I've also just had the hard disk replaced on my Dell, so it is in a fairly bare/clean state right now and I'm not overly concerned if something goes wrong, which I'm sure it won't. Thanks to everyone for the advice. Sounds like it should be relatively painless. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
-
Neville, I bought the same bundle from the local newsagent for $34.95 and hope to install it RSN. I haven't installed any Linux for quite some time but from the reading I have done I believe the following to be true. Red Hat 8 will install side by with Windows without needing a seperate partition (I personally don't like the sound of that or in it's own partition. If you go with a seperate partition (good) it will format it to EXT2 (I think that is right) which is Linux's natural habitat. Hopefully someone with more current and thorough understanding will come along soon and help you. Michael Martin Australia mjm68@tpg.com.au "I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end." - Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
-
Hi Anders, Yes I've heard good things about Virtual PC and VMMware. Any reason you went for VP instead of VMWare? I notice it is a bit cheaper. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
Neville Franks wrote: Any reason you went for VP instead of VMWare? Yea, a few. I worked a place where we used VMWare, and it worked fine except for a few things. Sometimes we had to stop the VMWare services to get the network to work, and when we stopped those services Win2k placed 2 "Network Cable Unplugged" icons in the tray, because VMWare installed 2 virtual NIC's. Those icons really bugged me ;) Later I started my own business and needed VMWare, but at the same time I heard about Virtual PC, so I decided to give it a try :) Virtual PC is faster, and it dont install any services nor any virtual NIC's. (Only a driver that get bound to the existing NIC) Virtual PC is a program, not a service, so you have to start it manually, but when you close it, it's closed. I like that :-D Oh, I almost forgot, Virtual PC is about 25 - 30% faster :-D - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
-
Hi Anders, Yes I've heard good things about Virtual PC and VMMware. Any reason you went for VP instead of VMWare? I notice it is a bit cheaper. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
Woops, I almost forgot. Virtual PC can mount an ISO Image instead of the CD Drive :) So when I installed Redhat, my Virtual PC booted from an ISO image on my harddisk :) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
-
Woops, I almost forgot. Virtual PC can mount an ISO Image instead of the CD Drive :) So when I installed Redhat, my Virtual PC booted from an ISO image on my harddisk :) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
Thanks for all of the good information. I read a post on the VPC Forum where someone said Linux ran faster on VMWare than VPC and the VPC CIO? said that so far they'd focused on optimizing it for Windows clients, but are planning to add optimizations for Linux in the new year. Not that this concerns me greatly. I've download the free trial and look forward to putting it through its paces. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
-
Thanks for all of the good information. I read a post on the VPC Forum where someone said Linux ran faster on VMWare than VPC and the VPC CIO? said that so far they'd focused on optimizing it for Windows clients, but are planning to add optimizations for Linux in the new year. Not that this concerns me greatly. I've download the free trial and look forward to putting it through its paces. Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows. www.getsoft.com Make money with our new Affilate program
Neville Franks wrote: Linux ran faster on VMWare than VPC That might be true, I have never tried Linux on VMWare ;) I use VPC with Windows for testing and debugging on other Windows versions, the Linux-stuff is just for fun... - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"