Ok, well i would like to switch from windows to fedora core 5, or possibly dual boot. Initially though, i would like to have some sort of live cd, or bootable usb drive so that i can ease into it. I would also like to be able to save my settings/files. I already have fc5 on my desktop and setup mythtv, so i know a little about linux. I think that more exposure would be good. I have the following,
compal cl56
pentium m 1.8 dothan
ati radeon 9700 128mb
2 gigs 2700 ram
gigabyte wireless g card

I would like to be able to use the wireless, and since i am at school, i will need a vpn client,
thoughts, ideas? i will primarily use the laptop for email, browsing, papers, gimp...

If you like the liveCD idea I would suggest knoppix 5. It can also be installed to the hard drive it you like it. It has pretty good support for things like wireless. If you want encryption you may be able to use SSH for that need.

Or they may also be a vpn client program included with it, not too sure about that, I have't had the time to go through the whole dvd just yet.

correct me if i am wrong, but i am sure that someone has madea vpn client for linux that i could possibly use. the same goes for my wireless drivers.

what i really wanted to know was by booting off of a usb drive, could i save my system configs, files, etc; provided i have enough space? (would a gig work?) i am most interested in this kororaa distro and ideally would like the operating system installed to my pendrive. this would enable me to upgrade, customize, install drivers, all onto the usb drive. is this a feasible idea or alternative to a live cd?

Yes there are vpn clients that are made for linux, but there are security issues with using them. If you are at school I take it you are wanting to make a secure connection to your home, check this site out and it will explain the security concerns I'm taking about and why I recommended using ssh.

http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/pr...security.phtml

I recomended knoppix since you are talking about a live CD, knoppix has support for wireless in it, knoppix is famous for it's great support for different hardware.


Knoppix does allow you to save your confiration files to a hard drive, floppy or usb drive. If you are wanting to install an linux distro onto a 1 GB usb drive then you would need a small distro like DamSmallLinux or slax, people have made bootable usb drives with these distros so there will be information out there to help you achieve this.

There may be other small distros try this site it has a lot of information about linux distros.

http://distrowatch.com/

yes, i check that site daily. the linux distros that i know can be installed to a usb drive are dsl, and puppy. i initially didnt want to do a live cd because i would rather have one form of media to plug into my computer than two; if installing to a usb would enable me to save my settings, and run the distro off of that, that would be easier. i was more curious in something that would help me get more familiar with linux so i could eventually use it alone on my laptop. i thought that if something similar to fedora, could be installed onto a usb drive, then i could boot off that and practice with it, and thus get a better understanding of linux or fedora. in retrospect however, i suppose my question really becomes, would learning dsl give me a better understanding of linux than fc5 or another big distro?

for the vpn situation, i need that because i am at school and in order to connect to the schools wireless networks, i need to have a vpn client. for my home i would just use wpa or wep.

That would be hard to say, a lot of these cut down version are really great to use, there small and fast. The only thing is because of their size they have a lot of things taken out to be able to fit to a certain size. So by doing this is takes a of the functions out of the OS.

So it would depend on exactly what it is you want to learn about. With the bigger distros like FC5 and the like, they might be full of a lot of stuff that you might not use, but on the other hand they have everything there if you do need it.

The way I learnt how to use linux was to just install it and use it. And when a problem arose, google was my friend. There is no right or wrong way to learn linux, or any right or wrong distro. My first mandrake which I used for 2 years before switching to another, then another....etc...etc.

If I was to offer advice I would tend to lean towards a full distro like FC5, Mandriva (aka Mandrake) or SuSE. Though I do like the mini distro idea, having a usb stick with a full featured OS sitting in your pocket.

ok well. i will probably move to fc5 soon, but in the mean time, which distro would be best on a usb drive? say a 512mb one? puppy? dsl? others? this would be so i could save my work too on the same drive....

Well I haven't used Puppy before only an older version of DSL, so I would have to say DSL.