[BlueDenimQuilte]

I bought copy of Mandrake linux 6.5 (older - but bought it at a discount bookseller - it has all the manuals, unlike the most recent mandrake that I could buy at cheapbytes) and have been wanting to play with Linux. I only have one computer - a Compaq celeron 466, 128 mb ram, a 40 gig primary HD, and a 30 gig second hd, cd-rom, cd-rw (creative 12-10-32), win modem, canon printer.

I can not afford to screw up my computer with a bad linux install - I have been studying linux and have heard horror stories of such - but really want to play with linux and get to the point of working with the source code etc -

I have plenty of room on primary HD (while 2nd HD is partioned into 4 - 7.5Gig parts, primary is 2 parts , c=30 and D=10), so it would go in the 30gig C: drive.

I realize that I probably will not be able to find a driver for the win modem and don't know if for the printer or cd-re? Any ideas.

Do linux install go smoothly , with few exceptions? Or should I wait a while longer? Any comments are appreciated.

[rugrat]

I have only done few Linux installs on an old box I use to play with but, during the installs you are given the option of using free space on a windows drive to install on. You can choose the amount of free space to use. However, once this is done the linux boot loader (LILO) will come up at every boot to ask which OS you want to run. Next, once Linux is on the drive, it is a B**** to get off.
Go here http://www.linuxiso.org/
for a little research.

SeeYa

PS, Winmodems generally will not work.

[codejockey]

In my experience, most Linux installs go smoothly -- and Mandrake is one of the better distributions for ease-of-installation. However, a lot has to do with how exotic you want your configuration to be. Since you want to dual-boot Windoze 98, you should probably think about how you plan to do this; if, for example, Windoze and Linux will be sharing the same physical drive, you should install Windoze first, then Linux, because Windoze will over-write the Linux boot loader when it installs. You may also have a choice of boot loaders (LILO or grub), and you might want to collect a few opinions before making your selection.

You can also boot Linux from Windoze using the loadlin utility. IMHO, this is a good thing to have even if you rarely use it, since you'll be able to boot to Linux on that dark day when you can't find your Linux boot floppy and your CD goes south.

Your printer and CD-RW are likely to be supported (although I'm not sure how old Mandrake 6.5 is, so there could be some problems there).

Hope this helps.