I Think I'm Ready...

[bigandy]

Well, I think I'm ready to try out Linux. I have absolutely zero experience with any of the distros, but I am curious, and would like to see what it's all about.

I was thinking about going with Knoppix or Mandrake. But I also saw "College Linux" at LinuxISO and the description there made it sound like a good starter distro. If anybody has any info on this one, please let me know what you think of it. And let me know if either Knoppix or Mandrake would be a good starter.

Also, seeing as how I really only plan to experiment, and see if Linux is for me, do you think that installing it on a 20GB partition would be enough space?

[kilgoretrout]

Download the knoppix cd iso and try that first. It runs entirely off the cd and will be a little slow loading stuff but it will give you a good idea what linux is like. It also has very good hardware detection and will let you know how compatible your hardware is with linux w/o doing an install.

Your graphics card may be a problem. ATI has linux drivers available and you may need them to get to a gui in linux. I'm not sure whether the standard graphics drivers that come with most linux distros can handle your card. Running knoppix will let you know if you have a problem here.

As far as disk space needed, 10GB is more than enough.

[bigandy]

Thanks Kilgoretrout. I'll put on Knoppix for download and give it a try.

Also, are there any others that are fairly easy to use (I just picked Knoppix because I read something in PC World (or maybe it was PC Mag.) that said it was a good starter. And I've heard the same about Mandrake. But I've heard Debian is good, and Fedora isn't half bad either. What do you guys think of those?

[Karnevil9]

Mandrake and Fedora are probably among the top of the user friendly Linuxs systems. Fedora is really Redhat under a new name for home use. Though knoppix is user friendly for running from the CD, installing on the hardrive, I've heard, takes a bit more work, but there is plenty of info out there to help. Knoppix is a Debian based OS. Debian itself can be a bear to install as I am finding out right now. Libranet is another Debian based commercial Linux that has a trimed down free version available from their website. It is very easy to install and to use, but you have to know the partitions on your hardrive where it is going. Once installed it is every bit as good or better than Mandrake or Fedora. Debian OS's are suppose to be more stable than either mandrake or Fedora. For ease of installation Mandrake and Fedora are about the best. For hardware recognition, I think Mandrake, Fedora, Knoppix, or Libranet are the best.

[bigandy]

Thanks. Well, I've got Knoppix downloaded, and I'll burn it and try it out when I get home from school this afternoon. If all goes well, I think I'll try Mandrake next . Thanks for the input Karnevil.

EDIT: Speaking of Mandrake, at LinuxISO, they have three discs, one is the install, which I obviously need, the second is called "Extras" and the third is "Internationalization". I assume that I really only need the first disc, and the second just has some goodies like extra programs.

[kilgoretrout]

You definitely need all three. You can get a bare bones system running with just the first cd but I wouldn't recommend it for someone new to linux. Unless your familiar with the various linux packages, your likely to have a hard time getting a decent system together afterwards by adding packages.

[Dangermouse1]

I have just installed Mandrake 9.2 and it asked for all three discs during the install.
I just came acoss this
which should help if you want to install Mandrake.

[Karnevil9]

Here are a couple of links to help you get started.

http://jetblackz.nabaza.org/InstallingKnoppix33.html

www.knoppix.net

[bigandy]

Good thing I asked.

Thanks for the links guys .

[bigandy]

Okay, so I'm trying to burn Knoppix using Nero 5. When I select "Burn Image" then select the Knoppix ISO file, I get a message that says "The entered block size does not correspond to the image length. The block size may be wrong. Do you want to change the value or correct the problem?". So I click the Correct button, and I have to choices for block size: 2048 or 2352. The other option is to ignore this message and just procede to burning.

Anybody have any suggestions?

EDIT: Nevermind. I unzipped the archive and tried to burn it that way. Dumb me .

[bigandy]

Well, I'm pretty proud of myself. I am posting this in Knoppix, and it's going well so far . I know this may seem like a small accomoplishment to many of you more experience Linux users, but to me its a big thing.

Thanks for your help guys !

Just a question, how much difference is there from Knoppix to Mandrake?

[Karnevil9]

Not too much. The install is different since Mandrake goes direct to the Harddrive, so it takes you through a series of questions about what monitor you using, what mouse, what keyboard etc. It is fairly straight forward and usually it has your peripherals listed correctly. Mandrake uses a gnome desktop I think by default, and Knoppix uses KDE. You can change these though, and there is not much difference between the two. Most of the difference comes when you are ready to update packages. Mandrake uses an RPM system, that many people complain about, Knoppix I believe uses apt-get I believe, because it is Debian based. Most reviews I've read say that apt-get is a much superior package manager than RPM. I haven't had to use them as yet though, so this is not first hand knowledge on my part.

[bigandy]

Thanks Karnevil. I'll try out Mandrake over the next couple of days and see how I like it.

[kilgoretrout]

Once you get mandrake installed, you'll want to try and install your ATI drivers to get optimal performance for your graphics card. When you get to that point, you might want to start a new thread as it's a little complicated.

[kilgoretrout]

Sorry for the double post; they won't let me edit my previous post.

Just a couple things. mandrake's default is kde, just like knoppix but the start menu will be less confusing. Rh is gnome based and is not a debian distro by any means.

If you have questions on mandrake they have a great user forum you should check out:

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php

[Karnevil9]

It's been awhile since I had Mandrake on my system and wasn't sure if it used Gnome or KDE. Thanks for setting that staright Kilgoretrout.

[bigandy]

Thanks Karnevil and Kilgoretrout, you've both been a big help.

I think I'll install Mandrake this weekend and start to use it then so that I have more time (Darn homework ).

[LocoCoyote]

I would say to try SuSE. They have a "Live Eval" CD that does the same thing as Koppix..ie runs from the CD. It is very user friendly and well supported.

[Karnevil9]

Yes, But I think the difference is, SuSE only gives you the chance to evaluate the CD, then if you like the system you have to buy it, or download load an older version from an FTP site.. Knoppix , lets you install it to the hard drive giving you a complete OS if you want it.

[pwm24]

give me on a scale from 1-10 being 10 the hardest and 1 the lease hardest. Setting up windows xp.
and linux

[Karnevil9]

Well it still depends on which distro you choose. If we assume for the sake of argument that windows is 1, then SuSE live CD and Knoppix running off the CD would be a one also. Just pop the CD in and it does the rest. Mandrake 9X and redhat 9 would be about 2. The install is easy but it does ask you questions that you have to accept or not accept so you have to sit with it. There is a learning curve for those systems since the lanuage is not the same as windows, so you have to relearn things. An example is using a mount and unmount command for using your CD player. You have to choose mount CD to play something, It does not do it on it's own. Then you have to unmount in order to eject the CD. If your hardware is not recognized you may have to increase the number to a 5 or higher, though the systems I mentioned have very good hardware recognition. Raise Knoppix a buit higher to install to the hardrive. You would probably only get into the 10 range if you are a newbie and were installing Debian, Slackware, or Linux From Scratch, with no previous Linux experience.