[The DOS Machine]

Hello all,

I, like many I suppose, am sick of Microsoft/Windows and would just like to get away from them for at least some of my computer use. I, like many I suppose (), have very little cash. I can and want to buy a Linux distro, but I cannot buy a new computer.

The donor computer is the one I am currently using: A three-year-old Dell 800Mhz PIII Coppermine-EB with 128 MB of PC 800 RDRAM, an original NVIDIA GeForce video card, a 25GB HD, an HP CDWriter 8100 CD-RW drive, a Samsung SD-608 DVD-ROM drive, a Create Labs Sound Blaster Live! sound card, a Create Labs Modem Blaster PCI modem (DI5630-4), and integrated USB.

There is more hardware, but that is all I care to get working under Linux if possible. I mentioned USB because I would like to eventually get a broadband connection again after I move. I have heard of PPPoE applications for Linux, but the computer would have to recognize the external "modem" first. Anyway, I will only have dial-up for the foreseeable future.

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Now I would like to buy SuSE Linux for this computer and install it on the HD along with Windows. Don't worry I have the means and knowledge to create two partitions and choose between the two, but I have absolutely NO experience with Linux. That is my problem. I have been a DOS and then Windows power user for all my life, but I will be such a newbe to Linux that it will reach AOLoser proportions! This is a horrible thought to a person like me. I wish there was a book that would teach DOS users (at heart) like myself all about Linux.

Anyway, my biggest concerns are how I am to know if Linux will work with the hardware I listed and whether I should get the Home or Professional versions of SuSE Linux. Any other advice you can give me to keep me from being the Linux equivalent of a granny using MSN would be great!

-DOSMAN

[bassetman]

Here are some resources I have found:

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/1266/1/
http://www.tldp.org/tldp-redirect.ph...nel-HOWTO.html
http://www.justlinux.com/

[The DOS Machine]

Thank you for pointing the way, bassetman; those links are a good place to start.

[Akito]

I don't know if you want to spend any money, but here's the book my college has us using to learn linux. So far seems pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...099640-9386242

[greengeek]

I've got SuSE8.0 Pro running on a Compaq Celeron 633 and a PII400 and had no problems with it. Just don't expect to learn it all overnight. The install is the easiest part.