I’m going to buy a laptop of some sort in the next year or so.
I want to steer away from Windows…FAR AWAY!
That and there have been comments that there should be a linux thread 
So, I want to learn more about linux! I’m all ears. 
yeah, where’s Bruno…
hey, when you download Linux, do you get and installer on your windows desktop or something? I want to put linux on a computer without an internet connection.
And, this installer, does it like format the C drive, erase everything and install linux?
I have an old PC running windows 98… that would be okay wouldn’t it?
yeah, Linux looks good.
To answer your many questions Li10, yes and no.
What you do (from my understanding) is use your computer with internet to download the “linux installer” for what ever distribution you want. (Make sure your computer isn’t too old for that distribution!) then you have to burn it to a cd, but it has to be as a cd image (I think). Its usually not just a normal burn.
Then take the cd and turn on the other computer (The one you want to put linux on) and have it boot to CD. (You will most likely have to go through the bios setup when you first turn on the computer to set it to boot to cd first.)
From there, follow the directions it gives you…
Yes, It will reformat your hard drive. Unless you left an unpartitioned space (which isn’t very likely). If you only partition part of the drive, you can have both linux and Windows, and boot to each one seperately. So you will lose all your data unless you back it up somewhere off the computer. (External hard drive, thumb drive, cd’s…ect)
That answer your questions? I hope you understood that all. If not, I learned it all by spending an entire weekend surfing wikipedia 
It’s very helpful 
Really, Li10, it all depends on the distribution of Linux you get. Some of them can even run as a program under Windows.
First off, guys: get a Live CD. Live disks are Linux distros with a twist: they load from the CD, so you don’t need to install anything anywhere. You just put the CD in the computer, reboot, and next time you turn it on, instead of loading Windows, it will load Linux. You can use it without fear: it won’t touch your HD unless you allow it to. You then turn the computer off again, take the CD off, and next time it’ll load Windows again.
If you ask me to recommend a distro which is user friendly, well–automated and intelligent, I’ll tell you to have a look at Ubuntu. You can either download the disk image and burn a CD yourself, or ask them to ship you an Ubuntu set—free of charge! The shipped kit comes with a Live CD and an installation CD. You use the Live CD to get used with Linux, test it and see if that’s what you really want. Once you choose to make the migration, you use the installation CD to set up Ubuntu in your computer.
Alternatives include Debian (the distro in which Ubuntu is based), Slackware (for the odd hacker and person who is willing to enjoy the best of Linux at the cost of having to deal with a system which does not look or work like Windows 90% of the time) and Gentoo (I don’t like it, but many people love it).
If you choose to go for Ubuntu, keep in mind it is a Debian–based system. So if you have the option download an installer for Deb systems, it’ll usually be your best choice. (Anyways, Ubuntu comes with all the software a regular user will need—and a very powerful download centre, in case you need something else.)
So my recommendation is that: get a Live CD, and test it yourself. They don’t require installation, and will show you the system working quite well (although, of course, many times you don’t get to save files or configurations). If you have any doubts while using a Live CD, you post it here, I’ll see what I can do for you. 
thanks Bruno, I had been wondering what live cds were.
I have Ubuntu 7.04 on cd which I ordered, but I can’t even load it 
I’d love to have l;inux on here, it’s so much more organised, secure, etc than windows
Speaking of Linux, is there a version good at running games? I want the stability and security of Linux but don’t want to give up Counter-Strike: Source
I HATE everything made by Microsoft, but I have to use it if I wanna play games, sadly.
I wish their monopoly would stop, I’m sick and tired of their crap.
[color=red]edit: ignore this please: linux rocks.[/color]
Don’t go for Ubuntu. It kills your PC (I installed via wubi). Really,
- it didnt work, booting windows/ubuntu on 1 pc, error 17
- uninstalled
- crashed my pc so fast, that upon rebooting, I COULDN’T EVEN ACCESS MY BIOS.
Never heard of such a thing happening to anyone else.
Been using Slackware for some years now, It’s tailored towards the middle level of expertise, as in Kernels can be quickly loaded instead of the compiling procedure Gentoo distros are geared towards. If your a tweaker at heart then go for Gentoo as you’ll favour it, you’ll optimize
it FOR your system.
Slackware by default ‘now’ doesn’t come with Gnome which is unlike any interface Microsoft could want to achieve, it has many enviroments though, KDE being the primary one, it also does’nt come preinstalled with XGL, but thankfully beryl and compiz are compatible, the formar being the easier to install. Dropline Gnome can be downloaded to rival KDE if you wish anyway. I would avoid Ubuntu/RedHat if your a new comer to Linux as it’ll automate itself like XP does, you’ll grasp things alot quicker with Slackware without needing to disable the logon manager and disabling many startup services. Haven’t tried Ubuntu/RedHat in years so don’t shoot me.
I only have two partitions for Slackware, swap and resierfs (both primary). Some people have many partitions, formatted in different filesystems, like having a seperate boot partition. It’s like having a PF partition on a HD with a XP partition, can’t be good in the long wrong.
Having installed Slackware on my second HD I favoured installing Acronis OS Selector but if you install your Linux with your WinXP partition, install the bootloader on your root partion. So in my case, installed LILO first then installed OS Selector. Some people wipe their MBR unintentionally.
Cedega is your solution if you want to game on Linux, but you can’t beat
Windows for gaming 
Windows XP pro is a damn good OS though once secured. Slackware is brilliant for its native support for things like FLV playback, DVD playback, some of the best screensavers ever, tons of other hearty stuff. LOL sorry if all this seems painfully obvious. It’s all damn preferential.
I’ve got Ubuntu (6) working now, just installed it from the live cd. So far there’s only one thing that bothers me: the volume control of my headset, the lowest it can get is… pretty loud
wooo did you find out what was wrong with it?
Yeah the problem was installing through wubi, which from what I understand installs virtual disks for the linux on an ntfs(!) filesystem. My computer couldn’t handle that 
Now I’ve just installed it on ext3 and it works perfectly 
I don’t know whether you fixed the problem with the sound on your headphones or not Fadem but I had a similar problem with windows. I went into the sound mixer that has the volume controls for the different areas of the computer like wave, microphone, etc… and turned them all down. This meant the volume was reduced on my headphones. In Debian it is called the ALSAmixerGUI. So I’m guessing it might be the same in Ubuntu.
time this topic gets revived
Has anybody here experiences with the commercial linux distribution “Xandros” ?
I have never used it, but here are some things I found out about it: 1. It uses KDE primarily;
- It claims to be Debian based, but has proprietary packages and code;
- You’ve got to pay to use it.
So, quite honestly, it’s the kind of thing I’d discard from use without even trying. If I were you, I’d go with Ubuntu or, provided you have some previous experience with Unix-based systems, Debian.