I'm about to Load SlackWare on it. To me this will be a great undertaking because I only know a little Unix/Linux [Doing this to improve that] The computer is a p133 with a 2 gig drive [thinking of moving an old 6 gig drive I have in there . ] OK Questions: Will have to worry/look around for alot of drivers? Right now The only things that will be connected are Mouse, Keyboard and a Modem [Eventually, I want to hook my Cable Modem up to it and network the two computers. Internet Server or something] My biggest reason for doing this is to see what is the big deal with linux .. . everything I read about it excites me. . .so I wanna see if a. I can do it b. If it is worth doing Rocket River Linux Newbie ------------------
Do you know if your modem is a "winmodem"? If so, it may not be recognized by Linux. A "winmodem" is basically a modem that is driven more by software than hardware. As long as the mouse and keyboard are not USB connected (and based on your system specs, I doubt they are), they should be easily recognized. Your 2GB hard drive should be O.K. by default. I don't know if it is still true, but earlier Linux versions needed to be "told" about bigger hard drives. ------------------
I'll leave this discussion to those that actually know the OS (unlike me. hehe.), but isn't Slackware one of the worst choices for newbies; in terms of complexity? I thought it used to be anyway. I always heard packages such as Debian, Storm, SuSE, Caldera, etc. were much more user-friendly. Educate me, too, guys. ------------------ NBA Draft Lottery is May 20th. Start praying now.
An easy Linux product to use (if it's still out there), is Corel's version. It allows you to create the Linux image without having to ceate Linux partitions on your HD. You basically execute Linux under Windows. This saves a lot of potential partitioning issues, especially for those who are uncomfortable doing that. If Corel is no longer producing it, there are probably other vendors who have a similar Linux scheme. ------------------
Yeah, Slack is not the best one for you right now. I suggest RedHat because it's the most well-known and expected distro. SuSE is very popular among my LUG friends. Corel is easy for newbies, but I don't like it at all. It really didn't work all that well, IMO. If you want a user-friendly solution, go with Caldera. It's the best for newbies, bar-none. For a PC that old, you won't need to worry about drivers for the most part. NIC cards are usually not a problem. Modems are fine unless they're winmodems, but I'd doubt it in a P133. Printer drivers suck too. Linux is a totally different animal. The first time I installed it was Debian (the HARDEST for newbies), and I totally screwed it up royally. Then when I had it installed, it was kindof like "oh, so this is all -- this isn't so fun". And truth be told, if you're looking for some bright flash of revelation that makes your whole computing experience more fun, forget it. Linux multimedia is really terrible, and you'll be kindof confused by everything at first. I suggest purchasing "Learning Red Hat Linux" by O'Reilly. It is very useful, and goes perfectly with RedHat. It will give you a springboard to more fun things. Something to also keep in mind -- Linux is a long-term deal. You'll be excited at first, then a bit let down, but STICK WITH IT. You'll be happy you did. I LOVE running Linux, and it's wonderful for most of what I do. It sucks for games, but that's why you have a windows box too ------------------ "Up and down, inside out, outside in, some you lose some you win" -- DMB -> "Sweet Up and Down"
The reason I was doing slakware is that It came with a book I was reading on linux a while ago. A friend of mine was semi teaching me somethings about Linux and he was using slackware [he is very knowledgable] So I said HEY . . be a command line commando and jump in with both feet. Thank for all ya'lls help Rocket River it will be one hell of a weekend ------------------
Oh, and let me save dbc and Jeff the trouble: Get a Mac! (OS X is a Unix (BSD) derivative with a command line!) ------------------ NBA Draft Lottery is May 20th. Start praying now.
you got some money you can give to buy a mac? i wish iwas rich enough to own one of those bad boys. also can you find good games that a compatible with macs too ------------------
