Need some advice before I begin
 

Hello everyone,

I have been wanting to start using Linux for a couple of years now, and I finally have time to put this desire into reality. I have spent the last couple of weeks reading as much as I can and trying to make some decisions. Also, I have been working on preparing a machine for the installation.

Unfortunately, I have to make the machine dual bootable with Windows XP. My wife objects to having just Linux on the machine, and her reason is understandable. She thinks that she will like it so much better than Windoze that everytime she has to use Windoze at worked she will get pissed off . :)

Anyway, the system I have set up is this. I have a AMD Athlon 1.0 ghz chip with 512 ram. I have two hard drives, and it has XP installed on the primary hd. (I can wipe that clean if need be since I have backed everything up to CDs and basically Windows, Openoffice, and Adobe Reader are the only programs installed). The first hd (40gb) is already partitioned into 4 equal partitions. This is the one with XP installed. The 2nd hd (20gb) is divided into 2 10gb partitions. There is presently nothing on this hd. All partiitons are FAT32 formatted.

I have never installed Linux before although I have watched a friend install Fedora on his own machine. So, I wanted some advice (besides my friend's who tends to have one and only one way of doing things). I have downloaded the following Linux distros: Fedora; Mandrake; Debian; Gentoo, and Suse and have been trying to read up on them to decide which one I should try first. However, the amount of information is almost overwhelming (one thing I like about the Linux community is the motivation to document everything), and I am having difficulty making up my mind. So, I would like some advice on which one I should start with.

I am also a little confused about the hd partitioning. Are the partitions ok the way I have them set up? Should I change them before installing Linux? Can I fix this after the installation? Any information would be helpful and welcomed.

I want to thank in advance to whoever replies to this message. I know that I will probably screw it up the first time or two, but that is half the fun, and I have been trying to prepare for that almost certainty.

Take care, and have fun everyone.

Geoff :newbie:

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Distributions and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

SuSE, Mandrake and Fedora are all very new user friendly. I would personally install to your second hard drive - and let the installer delete and create the partitions.

well, for starters, madrake, suse and fedora will have an easier learning curve than gentoo and debian. as for the hd's i would install to the second drive and delete the partitions, the installer can do this as well as format them for you. one nice thing to remember to do is make a separate partition for your /home directory. this way, if you reinstall or change distro's you can keep all your files. welcome to the linux community.

hope this helps.

i recommend starting with mandrake, it's the most newbie friendly thing i've ever tried. fedora is a good distro once your familiar with a little bit of linux. suse is almost as easy as mandrake, and it has an awesome configuration tool, yast. i'm not too good with hds tho, i usually do the full hd install because i never do anything important on my comp. good luck with the install anyway, and make sure your wife doesnt get too pissy ;) just my 2 cents

Thanks for all the advice. I have just installed Mandrake and am rebooting as I type this. I will let you all know how it goes and if I have any other questions.

The Mandrake installation has gone off without a hitch. Now comes the fun part; I have to figure out how to use this. :study: :study: :study: :study: :study:

Well. that's why we're here. Look through the LinuxAnswers section, search the boards and ask if anything is unclear.

Thanks for the offer of support. Since I am also a Newbie to this board, I made the mistake of asking a question that had been asked only about a million times before. I got two answers that gently reprimanded me for now searching first :)

Anyway, it turns out I was making the solution to the problem harder than it acutally was. The question was about mounting drives. I thought I would have to do this manually to read the other partitions on the Windows drive (they are FAT32). However, Mandrake did this for me which I found out by finally locating and reviewing the fstab file. The problem with this is that I don't think I learned as much as I could have.

Oh well, I finally figured out that I need to create a new device on my desktop to directly access these drives. The one thing I will have to get used to is the new vocabulary that Linux uses.

Thanks for your support an encouragement, andI am sure I will be back with more stupid questions. :)

Geoff