[Wolves] Need some help!

[Helen Randle]

> Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 19:42:59 +0100 (BST)
> From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Adam=20Sweet?= <drinky76@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Wolves] Need some help!
> To: wolves@mailman.lug.org.uk
> Reply-To: wolves@mailman.lug.org.uk
> 
> Hi Helen and welcome :)
Thank you
> 
> Well the chances are that most of the usual stuff
> people do on computers will be covered by pretty much
> every main Linux distribution. So office sotfware,
> email, web browsing, MP3 playback and cheesy games are
> all more than well catered for.
That's good to know, not that I play cheesy games!!
> 
> For ease of use I would suggest Mandrake, Red Hat or
> SuSE. Alternatively try Xandros which is said to be
> very easy to use. You can download of all them from
> from their respective websites, though I found SuSE a
> little difficult to download as a CD image. Basically
> download the CD isos and burn them to CD, or get
> someone to do it for you. You can of course buy the
> CDs pre-boxed accompanied by various manuals and
> stuff, or just buy the CDs from online CD vendors like
> http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk or
> http://www.cheeplinux.co.uk
I don't have broadband, so I think buying's my best bet.
> 
> If you can, I would just go download the isos and burn
> them yourself using any OS and burning software
> (everybody needs scaffolding at some point ;)
What's an isos?
> 
> My own suggestion would be Mandrake a it's very easy
> to install and holds your hand all the way. Mandrake
> also do some very good introductory online manuals,
> which are useful whatever distro you choose. They are
> at http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3 if you
> want to see what you're letting yourself in for and
> get some knowledge on board before you start as the
> learning curve can be steep if you don't have the
> foundation knowledge.
Everyone seems to be recomending Mandrake! I'll check out the site. 
And I'm ok with steep learning curves (well I've learnt to ditch 
windows!! :-)
> 
> Points to note:
> 
> Red Hat will struggle with less than 128MB of RAM (as
> people on this list will testify and I think many
> modern distributions will struggle with less than say,
> 96MB.
Ok. I've got plenty of RAM and am quite confident about adding more!
> 
> If you don't feel confident with disk partitioning 
I'm not
>and
> don't have another hard disk (assuming you will be
> running Windows on your exisiting disk), it might be
> easier to just get another hard disk to put Linux on.
> Mandrake's partitioning tools allows you to resize
> partitions non-destructively, though I am always wary
> of such things.
So with a second harddrive I could boot up which ever I wanted? 
(Presumably one would be the default?) And so I could continue 
running windows when I desperately needed it, but use the Linux drive 
most of the time?
> 
> You've heard that some internal modems don't work with
> Linux right? 
No I hadn't. But then I don't use an internal modem.
>If not, this is because part of the
> hardware of a modem is replaced by special drivers
> that allow it to replicate the functionality in
> software. Most vendors only create Windows drivers and
> won't release technical details.
Think I might be ok there.
> 
> If you download Mandrake it might be worth you holding
> fire a short while as version 9.2 is just around the
> corner.
I'm not in a rush. Any idea when?
> 
> In my opinion I would download Mandrake and burn it
> yourself if you have a burner and a fast internet
> connection, buy it from an online CD vendor, or come
> to a LUG meeting and ask nicely if someone will bring
> you the disks in exchange for blank CD-Rs (we are nice
> people after all). If you really want a box set, I'd
> say SuSE.
Ok
> 
> Welcome to the LUG and good luck :)
Do I need luck? 

Helen