Redhat logon???

[BUGNUT]

I just installed Redhat Linux 7.2 from CD's I got a few years ago. The install went OK, well almost. After the PC reboots or is just turned on, I get a Welcome to localhost.localdomain box and it wants a log on and password. Nowhere in the install was a log on or password requested. Now I can't access the system. Whats going on? This is my first attempt at Linux.

Is there a simple Linux OS that can replace Win XP and function nearly same. I'm looking for a simple install. I really only need an OS with email and internet. I have a few PC's and have always purchased an OS for each one of them. Its cost me a fortune, Bill must really love me.

[Force Flow]

ubuntu is the big one right now for desktop use.

Red Hat / Fedora is geared towards server use.

[kilgoretrout]

Red Hat 7.2 was released in 2001. A lot has happened in open source in the last 8 years, particularly on the desktop. Open source evolves at a very rapid pace. First thing I would recommend would be download a recent linux distro; your hardware is more than capable of running any modern linux distro.

For your hardware and given your desire to have a winxp feel to things, I would recommend your try either mandriva or pclinuxos:

http://www.mandriva.com/en/download/free
http://www.pclinuxos.com/

They both include the proprietary drivers for your nvidia graphics card. Both feature the KDE desktop which many coming from windows seem to prefer. PCLinuxOS is probably the easier to use of the two as it comes with most of the browser plugins already installed and the software repositories with all your multimedia codecs already configured. Mandriva is more up to date, cutting edge type of distro but it is very user friendly and easy to setup.

The other major type of linux desktop is gnome which is featured in ubuntu and one of ubuntu's most popular derivatives, linux mint.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

The gnome desktop has a more of a Mac like feel to it if your into that sort of thing. Both are very popular but Mint is probably the best choice for some one new to linux. Neither come with your proprietary linux nvidia driver installed by default but both will boot to a graphical desktop using the open source driver and both have a menu entry for installing third party drivers which is pretty painless.

The best part is that all of these distros come in the form of a bootable livecd so you can see how they run on your hardware, what they look like, etc, before you install. You really can't go wrong with any of these distros so try them all and see which one you like the best.

[BUGNUT]

Thanks for the reply kilgoretrout. I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 desktop on my PC. It seems to work well, I just have to get to know it better. However I would still prefer a more WinXP feel to the desktop. I can't figure out how to put the icons on the desktop. I'm not in my comfort zone yet. I'll try the PCLinuxOS next to see how it looks and feels. Like I said earlier I'm a Linux newbie, day 2. The learning curve starts now. I was hoping to find a Linux clone of WinXP if possible. There are as many opinions as there are versions of Linux on which version to use.

[kilgoretrout]

For gnome, go in the Applications menu to the the application you want on your desktop, right click on the entry and select "Add this launcher to the desktop". That will create a launch icon on the desktop for you. With the kde desktop as implemented by pclinuxos, you can drag the menu entry to the desktop to create a launch icon.

Keep in mind that linux is not windows. You're learning a new operating system and there is a learning curve involved so be patient.

[BUGNUT]

I'm loading PCLinuxOS on my PC as I write this. I'll post comments when its done. Thanks.

[BUGNUT]

I've just finished loading PCLinuxOS 2009. It has a more Win XP look about it, IT seems more familiar using this OS. Its runs OK but when I'm on the internet and scroll down the page, it scrolls like I have dialup and not a high speed internet connection. It scroll down a few lines at a time. Also I can't seem to find the OS update tab anywhere. Any suggestions?

[kilgoretrout]

Look at the left hand side of your taskbar and you should see several icons. Click on the one that says "Package Manager" which I believe is directly to the left of the firefox icon. Type in your root password when prompted and that should bring up an application called Synaptic which is the main package management application in PCLinuxOS. In Synaptic, click on the Reload button; that will download all the information on new packages and updates available on the distro repositories. Once that process completes, click on the "Mark All Upgrades" button and then on the Apply button. You'll probably have a lot of updates to download and install so the process will take some time. When the process is complete, see if your firefox scrolling problems are better.