h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm thinking of installing Linux, as a sort of trial - I'm getting hacked off with Micro$oft - but before I try, I don't want to give up on windoze just yet.

What distribution do people recommend that I get (I want it to be easy to install and configure). And preferably, I'd like to download it if possible - at least, I don't want to pay for it. (Blimey, I want my cake and the chance to eat it!, but it's what open source is all about! )

I would suggest Red Hat as a good newbie distro. It has a pretty self-explanatory install and comes with some useful tools (eg a program called FIPS which can resize your windoze partition without losing all your data). All distributions can be downloaded for free (otherwise they would be breaking the GNU GPL), however most are quite large. RH is currently a two CD install. Several computer magazines have Linux on their cover CDs at some stage, so you might be better off looking out for one of them. In Australia there is a "Linux Pocketbook" which is quite informative and comes with Red Hat and Mandrake (which is very similar to RH).

Hi Ad & Trees,
What part of the world are you in? It was commented by some bloke that computer mags sometimes put Linux on cover disks. There are some magazines dedicated to linux with articles at all levels.
If you want to do a bit of general reading about linux and what you can do with it, check out the Linux Documentation Project. As for any particular distribution, most of the popular ones are easy to install and configure (RH, SuSE, Mandrake, Yellow Dog) so I'd say just go for one and try it. If you don't like it, try another one.

I'm in the UK - found a guy who will sell Mandrake Dist for £4 (including postage and packing!) unbelievable!

When I install, what precautions will I need to take? I've got two hard drives installed on this machine - 1 Gb (called C: which hosts Windows, and a 6 Gb drive partitioned up into 4 other drives - d:, e: and f: - will it be ok to install on one of the otehr partitions that windows isn't on? Will 2Gb be enough to hold it and other programs? And will it try to automatically partition, or will it realise that there's no need to?

Thanks again
Adam

Somewhere like the Linux Emporium. You'll get one or two cds but all the documentation should be there and you'll be able to read it before you start (good idea anyway).
2GB should be enough. My first install was in about 500Mb I think. It will ask you where you want to install to and if you need to partition then it should tell you.
As you're in the UK I should say also get yourself down to somewhere like WHSmiths (or other big newsagent) and pick up a copy of Linux Format as it's a UK dedicated magazine which has info targeted at all abilities.

Phil - op - BHB?

If you do use the linux emporium, don't forget to ask what FREE cd's he's got at the moment. he beleives that when it is no longer possible to sell certain cd's, it is better to give them away.

ps for magazines, you can get linux format, linux magazine, and a whole host of others, but those two are definately uk centered.

2G should be fine to hold it and some programs, however you WILL need to change the partitions. Linux uses a different file system to windoze (usually ext2, but ReiserFS is a new one you might be able to try). Also, you will need to create a swap partition. I suggest you use the last partition on your 6G drive, so that partition numbers won't get mucked around too much.

You will need to make most of it into a "Linux native" partition (probably what the partition manager will call it) and leave 100-200MB for a "Linux swap" partition. This will probably change the CD-ROM drive letter in windoze (Linux partitions are ignored by it), but you should be able to put that back in the properties dialog.

Thanks all for the advice - I've been on hols for the past week, but will soon get round to installing. You won't have heard the last of me - I'm afraid I always run in to trouble when trying new things.

Ad

I would recommend Mandrake for first time use, as Redhat seems to have problems with the installer (i.e. I have heard loads of reports and from personal experience that it can freeze up during the file copy process)

Anyway regardless I am thinking about writing a guide for people who want to use Linux but are scared/indimidated/don't know how, but more specifically for those without a programming background (I have to be honest when I say I know no C whatsoever and that all of my programming experience has come from using Linux). Anyone want to help?

Don't ask me. I'd be the kind of person who'd benefit from that.

Whoops, I thought you said *with* a programming background... well, I'd still benefit if it was good enough.

well, there are loads of good guides around, do a google linux search for newbie for example. However they are normally for those with experience generally with computers, and especially c programming. I was mroe thinking about something that would help maybe not a total computer novice but certainly someone who was interested but intimidated. Stuff to include: the dev directory and what the stuff in there means, fstab, general bash commands, users, X setup, config files, simple stuff and then move on to things like how to compile a programme, how to check and fix dependancy issues, how to check security all in an easy to use and plain english format. I've done some stuff but its not internet ready yet.

go for it, it would be a good inclusion to have on the guide

I'd say X setup is a complex issue and compilation is simple (since you usually only need "./configure;make;make install").

One more suggestion for inclusion: (re)compilation of the kernel, managing modules, etc..