Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

New to Linux....

Sep 1, 2005 6:34AM PDT

I am fairly new to Linux. I want to partition my HD keeping XP in one partition and Linux in the other. I am doing this for a particular class I am taking. I am not sure what the most recent version is, so if you could provide me with this and a download site I would really appreciate that. I understand that I can download it for free. Not sure though; so correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Here's my favorite...
Sep 2, 2005 3:36AM PDT

My favorite distribution is Vector Linux. It's a no bloat version that recently scored a 9/10 by MadPenguin. You can find them at http://www.vectorlinux.com/ and the installer allows (as most do) allows for dual boot. And in the best part about this distro is that they have one of the most active user/developer forums I know of.

- Collapse -
If you have broadband,
Sep 2, 2005 10:18AM PDT
- Collapse -
Getting Linux
Sep 2, 2005 5:59PM PDT

Judging by your question, I am going to assume that you know nothing about Linux. If you already know this stuff you can just ignore this post; I do not mean to be insulting in any way. But, if you need the very basics to get started, read on.

You say you are new to Linux and want to know ?what the latest version is?. There is no one ?latest? version of the Linux operating system. Unlike Windows or OS X, there is no one company that releases Linux. Instead, there are many different companies/organizations that release their own ?Linux distributions?. These distributions are made up the Linux kernel, and additional open source and proprietary software. The end result contains all of the software you need to set up a fully functional computer system. Most of these distributions available for free.

I would suggest that you ask your professor what distribution you will be using in class, or what distribution he/she recommends. Otherwise, Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) (http://www.mandrivalinux.com) is a distribution that is often recommended for new users. It is considered very user friendly. Ubantu (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/) is another very popular distribution that is recommended for new users. A partial list of many popular Linux distributions can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions

If you have any more questions, just ask. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here who are happy to help. Let us know how it turns out, and good luck with Linux!

- Collapse -
Redhat ?
Sep 7, 2005 8:57PM PDT

I remember making punch cards and waiting a week for the math dept to tell me if my stuff ran ok. I also remember the agony of having days of work lost because someone got my cards out of order. I've done cpm,cobol,fortran,C,basic (not visual) and unix IV but that was many years ago and I'm afraid my mind has been irreversably corroded with Win*.
I was waiting for the money to finish my box and at the time redhat was touted as the "best for the brain-dead"
Now it's no longer free and since I have a home net setup I can't even find out it the workstation version will act as a server. I'm not well off so I for sure can't be buying multi license versions yet to my limited knowledge RH is the easiest to configure for different hardware components. Is this true ?
Thanks for your input.
T

- Collapse -
What many forget.
Sep 7, 2005 9:37PM PDT

Is that Linux is not going to support every possible combination of hardware. There are a few that will bristle at this but it's best to know the truth.

Try Suse, Knoppix and Mandrake (now a new name) and see what you like.

Bob

- Collapse -
KDE+GNOME
Sep 8, 2005 12:16AM PDT

Hi Bob, hope all is well. I dumped Fedora and got a copy of SuSE 9.3 but before I do the install I was trying to find out if KDE and GNOME can both be installed so I can try out both. Docs don't cover it.
Tim

- Collapse -
Try this.
Sep 8, 2005 12:56AM PDT

Look at the pictures and see which you like. From memory you can install both, but I just take the default and use it. There are those that must tinker forever with the look of the desktop. I'm not one of those. I just want it to work.

Currently it's been whatever KDE they offer by default.

Bob

- Collapse -
KDE&Gnome
Sep 8, 2005 4:18AM PDT

I have Suse 9.3 with KDE & Gnome along with Windows ME loaded on 20gb harddrive

Cramped for space on 20gb but does work.

I prefer KDE but each individual opinion different

HTH
Ray

- Collapse -
KDE and Gnome can both be loaded
Sep 9, 2005 3:21AM PDT

I have always loaded Gnome and KDE (sometimes Iceworm, also) in Red Hat, Fedora, and 3 versions of Mandrake with no problems. I prefer Gnome, but use parts of KDE (K3B is
great). The only problem I have ever had that couldn't be fixed was Gnome CDPlayer. There seems to be a bug in the later versions that hasn't been fixed. Other than that, use both in good faith. chuck