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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
 Posted - 12/22/2003 : 00:27:54
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Hey,
Does anyone on this forum run Linux (of any kind) on their computer? I was thinking of setting up a dual OS on mine, one with XP and one with Linux (probably Mandrake) but I don't know if it would be worth it...I've heard good things about Linux OS's, but I am not a computer tech whiz, so I don't know if that's a good enough reason to install it on my PC. Mostly it's just curiosity to see why it is so raved about.
If anyone has some advice for me, how exactly do I go about installing it from online? Are there some issues about running a dual-boot computer that I should know about? I would rather just have another computer to be able to play with as far as installing different OS's but the one I use now is the only one I got. ANy help would be appreciated.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2003 : 08:22:08
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If you want to learn about Linux, I would recommend checking out Knoppix. You can boot to it from a CD without disturbing your existing installation(s).
http://www.knoppix.org/
 "Join the Cult of Steve-o / And enjoy the best brownies"  |
Edited by - BLT on 12/22/2003 08:23:02 |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2003 : 19:04:20
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I'm no Linux guru by any means, but I can give you my info. My first experience with Linux was several years ago with Slackware 3 or so...quite a ways back. Let's just say it took me a good 5 days or so to get the computer online with my dialup connection.
My latest experience with Linux was Mandrake 9.1 (I recommend Mandrake for any and all new Linux users) and I was blown away at how easy it was to install and get it running. It pretty much installs and configures without ever having to see a command line. The partitioning works great, where you can resize an NTFS (!) partition and create a new one for Linux. There's a great deal of free software available right at the install point, to replace all the stuff you had to pay for with Windows...from there, Mandrake has a nice "automatic updates" system where you can install all the latest updates without having to dig through hundreds of sites for each individual fix.
Linux is great because it's a free alternative to Windows. It's like a rebellion...we're not forced to use Microsoft's buggy clunky shit, you know? Linux has come a long way. Most of it is based around the X11 GUI system, which is the way it should be. Seriously, as hardcore as some Linux users are, why should we, in the 21st century, be running a command-line based OS? That's just rediculous...but you *have that option*. There's tons upon tons of programs available for Linux *at no cost*...mostly anything you'll need is available for free. That's the beauty of it: power to the people.
I personally feel that the biggest hurdle for Linux is game compatibility. The way I see it is, most PC gamers, hardcore or not, are pretty much computer nerds. And what's Linux's biggest market now? Computer nerds. You get the support going for the gaming scene, and I think you'll have a floodgate of users flocking over to Linux. I personally would run Linux 24/7 if I could easily and flawlessly run all of my favorite games on it. It will take a while maybe, but I think more and more PC users will be moving towards Linux. Casual users, probably never, but for people who are comfortable with their PCs and want a change, that's where things are headed.
 "I joined the Cult of Clops / If I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open." |
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2003 : 19:14:45
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Definitely do some reading first. Linux is wonderful, for the medium-to-heavy technophile, as a home system. If you don't want to get in under the hood, it *could* get weird. Recent developments have aided in the user-friendliness of system setup and administration, but there are still parts where one has to wander through the occasional config file. The good news is that a) every piece of this system is extremely well documented relative to the other OSes, and b) there are a lot of friendly people who would love to help get you started just for the love of the penguin.
I personally prefer redhat (http://www.redhat.com or get the files at ftp://ftp.redhat.com), but a lot of oher folks prefer SUSE (http://suse.de), Mandrake (as you mentioned at http://www.mandrake.org) or Debian (http://debian.org) - you can download the full installer ISOs from any of them, burn to cd and go. You can run Linux on an extremely low end machine, or on a seperate drive or partition on your Windows system. A single-drive install on a dedicated machine is definitely the easiest, since you then have another system to go to the internet for help if things go really wrong.
Overall, I'd say get in, and get involved. You might discover you are a computer tech whiz after all...
 I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank the LaBrea Tar Pits! |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 12/22/2003 : 22:22:41
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I decided to go with Debian...am downloading the files to burn to CD right now. When you say "a low end machine" exactly how low do you mean? I had an older computer with Windows 95 on it...it's basically spare parts now. I don't recall the size of the hard drive, but I know it was in the MB's somewhere...nowhere near even a single GB. Is that too low end?
If so, then I'll probably just do a dual-boot with Windows XP and Linux partitioned separately.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2003 : 04:45:26
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I still have Redhat 7.2 running on a Pentium 120 MHz system with 96 MB RAM and a couple of old drives. Granted the desktop is not as snappy as it could be, but the system served as my home firewall and router for about 4 years prior to the advent of low cost all-in-one broadband routers.
I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank the LaBrea Tar Pits! |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2003 : 14:59:13
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I ran Linux on a 486...took forever to compile the kernel. It's very possible, though.
"I joined the Cult of Clops / If I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open." |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 12/23/2003 : 21:54:28
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Okay, I've downloaded the files to run Debian GNU Linux. But I do have a question about something first. The older hard drive (from the computer I had with Windows 95) mentioned before is 2.43 GB, more than I originally thought. So it should run Linux. I figure I'll go ahead and install the Debian OS there. But, whenever I run BIOS for my computer, and try to tell it to boot to one of the Linux CD's, it won't UNLESS I disable everything except for the CD-R drive. But if I do that, when the Linux installation process starts, it says that it can't detect a hard drive at all, neither the one with Windows XP installed nor the old one that's been reformatted and is now essentially empty disk space, and I can't continue. I always thought that, when running a PC, if you hit "F12" when the computer starts, you should reach a menu of bootable devices. Then, ideally you should be able to boot to CD-R from there, without having to disable any of your other drives, but if I try to do that it just says it failed and gives me the option to either F1 - Retry or F4 - Go back to BIOS. (It says something different for the latter, I can't recall right now; it amounts to the same thing though.) By the way, I did try the following: in BIOS, under the Boot Menu, I made "Boot to CD-R" the first and primary boot device. It still won't work.
I feel stupid for downloading Linux if I can't even solve a problem that should be simple for a Windows user, but it doesn't make sense to me. Any of youse guys care to help a feller out?
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 12/24/2003 : 13:41:36
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Take a look at your jumper configuration on the hard drives - I have seen this happen if the master/slave relationship on the cable chain is not properly mapped out. Each controller should have only one master. The jumper settings should have a legend on a sticker on the drive, and most are available online as well. Otherwise, I would look for BIOS upgrades. Setting the option to boot from CD-ROM first should work. As far as the F12 thing goes, it depends on your BIOS as well. Check the net for documentation. Also, 2+GB should be fine, but don't get freaked out if your BIOS does not accurately report the size. Older systems will only see 2GB, no more - not to worry, though, since Linux will be able to see and utilize all of it anyway due to the direct access drivers. I had my system set up on an 850MB drive, then I started getting curious about software and desktop mods so I added a 10GB drive.
IMHO, BIOS issues are rarely easy problems to get around, so don't kick yourself too hard. What you did *should* have worked.
I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank the LaBrea Tar Pits! |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2004 : 23:08:56
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| Can anyone tell me if Linux Mandrake i586 is the version for PC's? I dwnloaded the PPC files and now it seems they're for Apple and Macintosh computers. |
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Adnan_le_Terrible
* Dog in the Sand *
France
1973 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2004 : 02:10:54
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I'm your LINUX, I'm your fire, joy, desire !
Have some wine, please, don't run away. |
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cvanepps
= Cult of Ray =
USA
442 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2004 : 05:08:12
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Linux was my favorite. He was always the smartest of all of the gang...the way he could play Beethoven on his little piano and all his sage-like commentary. The only thing that ruined it for me was that damn security blanket. But I guess that was a reminder that he was a child after all.
-= It's not easy to kidnap a fat man =-
http://christophervanepps.iuma.com |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2004 : 13:29:21
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i586 is for PC, yeah. PPC == PowerPC, Apple/Mac.
 "Join the Cult of Brit / And let your oral hygiene go out the window." |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2004 : 14:09:55
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Stupidly I thought "PPC -- oh, PC," and "i586 -- oh, must be Mac 'cause of the iMac and such..."
Thanks El Barto! |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2004 : 23:38:14
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quote:
Originally posted by cvanepps
Linux was my favorite. He was always the smartest of all of the gang...the way he could play Beethoven on his little piano and all his sage-like commentary. The only thing that ruined it for me was that damn security blanket. But I guess that was a reminder that he was a child after all.
-= It's not easy to kidnap a fat man =-
http://christophervanepps.iuma.com
That wasn't Linus, was it? I can't remember that kid's name, that used to play piano. I didn't think it was Linus.
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2004 : 07:58:36
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Schroeder played the tiny piano.
 "Join the Cult of Will Hung / And have no regrets" |
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remig
* Dog in the Sand *
France
1734 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 05:19:42
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quote:
Originally posted by BLT
Schroeder played the tiny piano.
"Join the Cult of Will Hung / And have no regrets"
Barbet schroeder?
or the evil in Ninja turtle? |
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fudd
= Cult of Ray =
664 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 05:32:22
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quote:
Originally posted by cvanepps
[The only thing that ruined it for me was that damn security blanket.
You must have missed the one where they teased him about it and he asked someone to toss a nickel in the air, snapped the blanket like a whip and hit the nickel dead on, then stuck his thumb back in his mouth. Nobody gave him any shit again after that.
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pfeffa
= Cult of Ray =
Aruba
367 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 10:17:57
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Yeah! Linux!!!
I totally agree that Knoppix is a good start. Burn a CD and boot up with it...get comfortable with Linux and have fun. I've been using Red Hat for a number of years, but all of the popular distros are really nice and have the Windows/Mac GUI look.
If anyone can tell me how to do a dual boot on my Thinkpad T41 without totally having to blow away XP, I'll pay. It sounds like a complete hassle.
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 07/26/2004 : 11:18:58
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You should just be able to use Partition Magic to repartition the hard drive and make way for a Linux partition...and actually, I think the partitioning utility that the Mandrake install uses will allow you to resize an NTFS partition as well. Just as a precaution, backup any important data. I never had a problem with resizing partitions myself, but YMMV.
I guess I just wasn't made for these times. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2004 : 21:37:13
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Has anyone who has ever used Linux before had a problem with any sort of removable media (such as CD's, or DVD's?) Right now, I have Mandrake 10.0 alongside my windows xp installation. I usually prefer Fedora, but Mandrake has a really cool feature where you can mount your windows partition from inside Linux. (Supposedly there is a way to do this using the command-line in other distros, but I have tried it and it never worked for me.) Anyway, I can access music files already existing on my XP installation from the Linux OS and play files in Totem Media Player, but whenever I attempt to play an actual CD or DVD it always has problems. It says basically that it has the right plug-ins installed (for a music CD) but it can't read the disc. With a DVD it says that it can't find the NAV Packet.
On a more general note, I wish that more software companies would make their programs UNIX-compatible. I can't tell you the difference in stability between Linux and Windows: Linux wins by far. I could see myself using Linux exclusively if it weren't for the fact that I can't get so many programs I use alot to run in Linux. (Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D..the list goes on...) I have downloaded Wine, but it has limited usability even as user-friendly as it has gotten. (I've been able to create a very unstable installation of Photoshop in Linux using Wine, but that's about it...) So for now I'm stuck with the Windows/Linux dual-boot, at least for the forseeable future.
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s_wrenn
* Dog in the Sand *
Ireland
1851 Posts |
Posted - 01/03/2007 : 13:34:20
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Okay, so i'm taking my first step into the world of Linux. I've heard that Ubuntu is good for a starter, so that's what i'm downloading right now.
I see above that Mandrake comes highly recommended, should i go with that instead of Ubuntu to begin with?
Also, is Linux laptop friendly? I keep find the word "desktop" everywhere i read about Linux
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Edited by - s_wrenn on 01/03/2007 13:34:52 |
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whoreatthedoor
> Teenager of the Year <
Spain
2873 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2007 : 01:13:17
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Did Ubuntu exist back in 2003? I know two Linux hardcore fans that are running Ubuntu on their brand new laptops, so I guess that's the one to use.
Got it for almost half a year at home, then had to move back to Windows due to an urge need. It's super-easy to install and it has a huge repository to get almost any app you need.
It's nice to see how Linux has become a real alternative to Windows in corporations and government institutions, thanks to OpenOffice.org in my opinion. Even for close-minded people like politicians or corporate directives is stupid to waste money on licenses when the majority of workers will only work with Excel, Word and use the e-mail to share slideshows of babies in cabbages. We don't use it at work because nobody's got the will to do it, but there's really no need to use Windows anymore.
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world |
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s_wrenn
* Dog in the Sand *
Ireland
1851 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2007 : 10:56:23
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I was surprised to see a good variety of Linux magazines when i was around town today (all coming with different versions attached, mainly SUSE) One magazine had 4 or 5 dvds with SUSE Knoppix, and Open Mabis (Is that right?) as well as a HUGE list of applications on another disk.
I may go with SUSE after all, but i'll try ubuntu first.
WATD, is it easy to remove or uninstall a version of linux to make way for another one?
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Edited by - s_wrenn on 01/04/2007 11:33:28 |
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s_wrenn
* Dog in the Sand *
Ireland
1851 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2010 : 14:40:55
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I'm interested to see who (if anyone) is using linux now?
I've set up one of my old laptops with ubuntu (10.10 beta) and to be honest, if it wasn't for the lack of good video editing software, i'd never use windows again. And even i'm surprised to say that!
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Linux
