[mobo]

Hello everyone :
I'm currently a microsoftt user who is disgruntled to say the least.I wanted to upgrade and was planning on xp after playing with it for a few minutes on a family members pc.The whole idea of microsoft trying to dictate what you do with your product when you get it home sends me into a complete frenzy.I'm fed up to the eyeballs with gates and his ideas.
I seen some screen shots of linux systems and am very interested.I don't know of anyonepersonnally who runs linux so I will turn to you people for advice.

System : Intel celeron 1100 mhz
256 mb ram
30 g maxtor hard drive
lexmark printer
sony monitor
soundmax digital audio
etc.
seeing these specs does anyone see a problem running linux ?

If not please provide a link for thethe particular version of choice.

[marathonmann]

Depending on the particular models of the hardware you listed, everything should be compatable; but most of the drivers would be downloadable if not. I would suggest trying a release such as Mandrake Linux 9.1 or Redhat. Both are very user friendly, the installation process is graphical and self explanatory, and hardware compatability is fairly good with both. I personally use Mandrake and it does everything I need it to do. The software bundles for Mandrake give you a wide array of choices. There are quite a few graphical interfaces to choose from, most commonly used are KDE, Gnome, Windowmaker, enlightenment, etc. I'm glad to hear someone has decided to try Linux as a home OS. I think you'll find it is much more configurable and managable than any Windows OS.

hey mother....good luck ! let me know how you make out........

[codejockey]

OK, here's my dose of reality on Linux:

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread...threadid=72508

That said, the bottom line is still the same: Linux/Unix is a real operating system. Drivers wanted.

Hope this helps.

[mobo]

Thanks codejockey for your input. My plan is to dual boot with 98se to maintain the standard system and explore new avenues.
(If nothing changes then everything stays the same)

[codejockey]

You're welcome. Dual-booting is certainly a reasonable way to go, especially when you're experimenting. Good luck.

[brendandonhu]

To try out linux without partitioning and installing and everything, try knoppix.
You burn it to a CD, put the cd in, and reboot and it runs linux right off the CD. Its useful for playing with linux, and when I deleted a windows system file and couldn't boot windows, I used knoppix to restore the file.
Just make sure you download the english version, im not the only one that got the german by accident

http://knoppix.net/

[mobo]

Thanks Brendan I may give it a try.

[brendandonhu]