[Preston] Re: Linux on my Computers

[Caroline]

Hello and Welcome!

I'm pretty new to Linux myself, but I'm beginning to feel more at home with 
it now. I'm currently playing with Mandrake 9.1 - that detected the 
majority of my hardware with no problems. I've heard that the new Suse is 
good on this front, too. You might also like to look at Xandros. This is 
basically Debian, I think, with a fancy file manager. All these are pretty 
gentle to beginners, I'd say. Personally I'd go for Suse.

Have you looked at the Linux on Laptops web pages? - see if yours is there.

Have you considered using a live CD like Knoppix for a while?  This might 
give you a gentle idea or Linux, without the hassle of installing anything 
to your hard drive.

As far as installs go, providing you go for a sensible distro, and your 
hardware is supported (look at the disto's web site in the first instance), 
then you *should* be ok. The hardest part is configuring the hardware, 
especially if it hasn't been recognised. Modems and soundcards can be 
sticky, in my experience. Oh, how I long for broadband! The install itself 
generally isn't painful at all, just asks you a few simple questions then 
shows you some pretty pictures while you have a brew, or a pint, or 
whatever. The user interface holds your hand through it all, and providing 
you have a recent distro, it's fine. Just make sure you get something up to 
date.

It does help if you have some understanding of partitioning. If you're 
wiping a drive especially for it, then this wouldn't be a problem, and it's 
probably safe to just accept the defaults.

(Of course, I'm not going to be held responsible if it all goes horribly 
wrong and you lose all your data! Make sure you back up anything essential 
FIRST!! Stress is not good for your heart).

Happy Linuxing, Everyone!

Caroline.

PS I *might* see you on Wednesday.
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