Please help a newbie as noone else will
tan...@globalnet.co.uk
really stupid
If I buy a computer with no OS on it at all, ie a blank HD how easy is it
to Install Linux on it
or do I need dos to start it, some help would be greatly appreciated, or
point me in the direction of a good site 'bout it!
Thanks in advance,
Tim Geach
Olaf Walkowiak
shouldn't be a problem,
but before you buy a computer,
have a look at www.linux.org
or wherever to see what distributuions
are available and what hardware is _really_
good for Linux.
I would recommend SuSE 5.3 (Much better
than 5.2) or RedHat for the start.
Have a look at
http://www.suse.com
or
http://www.redhat.com
for a list of recommended hardware.
Most harware should work, but it
is always better to make sure :-)
CU
Olaf
--
----------------------------------------------------
ACMEDIA Internet Service http://www.acmedia.de
Olaf Walkowiak olaf.wa...@acmedia.de
Tel.: +49-221-9725090
Bob Tennent
>If I buy a computer with no OS on it at all, ie a blank HD how easy is it
>to Install Linux on it
>or do I need dos to start it, some help would be greatly appreciated, or
>point me in the direction of a good site 'bout it!
>
It's easier: you won't have to steal space from the MS partition.
You'll need the installation floppies. Either download them or
copy them using another computer, or get a distribution that includes
them. Check out the on-line Redhat installation guide at
www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl/RHL-5.1-Installation-Guide/manual
Bob T.
Olgun Guvench
> I want to get into Linux, This is probably really simple and |I will sound
> really stupid
> If I buy a computer with no OS on it at all, ie a blank HD how easy is it
> to Install Linux on it
I would say it is pretty easy -- when I first did it, I went to the
bookstore and for ~$35 U.S. bought a book and Linux CD. I got my hard
drive partitioned (it already had a win95 install on it) so that I could
do a dual boot, got my CD-ROM working (it was IDE so a no-brainer really),
got X up and running at a decent resolution, and got my modem to set up a
ppp connection; this took about a day and a half including reading
through the book (it was "Linux Secrets" and came with Slackware - I
forget which version). Previously I had a very limited knowledge of Unix
and that was it. Since then, I've completely wiped win95 from my drive
and use Linux exclusively. My girlfriend does a lot of word processing
and she uses StarOffice which can read and write to MS Word 6.0 format and
she is happy with the results. Also, I recently got a Canon Bubblejet
printer (BJC 4300 I think is the model) and within an hour I was making
color print-outs directly from StarOffice. Oh yes, I forgot to mention
that I also have an Iomega Zip drive hooked up to the parallel port and
this works fine also.
One thing to do for sure before you do anything else -- check to make sure
whatever hardware you are about to buy is supported by Linux. Among other
places, you can find a hardware compatibility guide at the RedHat www sit
(www.redhat.com -- and do a site search for "hardware compatibility" or
just "hardware"). I am currently using RedHat 4.1 with a bunch of
upgrades, and it works beautifully. www.linux.org is also a good site with
a bunch of links (in fact you can find links to hardware vendors that
pre-install Linux so you could save yourself some trouble if you really
want to and go this route).
If you want suggestions for books on Linux, I would get "Running Linux"
published by O'Reilley (sp?). Then you can always search the www and
dejanews for more advanced topics or those that are not covered. If that
fails, ask here or in one of the other Linux groups.
> or do I need dos to start it,
No you don't need DOS.
> some help would be greatly appreciated, or
> point me in the direction of a good site 'bout it!
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Tim Geach
>
> tan...@globalnet.co.uk
Good luck and have fun!
-Olgun
mine
>From: Olgun Guvench <og...@columbia.edu>
>Subject: Re: Please help a newbie as noone else will
>Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 08:37:26 -0400
Thanks Olgun Guvench for posting this , it was a help to me too
Mine
Paul Sims
For me, the best distribution is SuSE (I have 5.2, may soon upgrade) since
the config tool YAST takes all pain out of hand-crafting the config files.
SuSE also modify software to their standards - eg the KDE desktop system is
tweaked to make it integrate wih their config system. Installation is a
matter of booting from the supplied floppy (assuming you buy the full
distribution at a frightening £27.50 from Define Linux Systems :)
http://definite.ukpost.com) otherwise there will be instructions on the CD
how to make a boot disk. Linux has it's own version of fdisk, so if you are
happy fdisk'ing under DOS, Linux will cause no pain.
If you want to experiment without spending wads of cash, try The Linux
Emporium (http://www.polo.demon.co.uk/emporium.htm) where you can order
basic distributions on CD for £2 each. I'd steer clear of Debian, though,
until you get some mileage under your belt.
Try http://www.linux.org for general info & pointers to FAQ's.
Good luck, embrace the Penguin !
tan...@globalnet.co.uk wrote in message
<01bde184$63edbf60$950893c3@geach->...
>I want to get into Linux, This is probably really simple and |I will sound
>really stupid
>If I buy a computer with no OS on it at all, ie a blank HD how easy is it
>to Install Linux on it
>or do I need dos to start it, some help would be greatly appreciated, or