All,

We'll just get this out...I'm a newbie. <whew> there, I said it...and man do I feel great!! just kidding...

I have just three questions that I hope you all can help me with.
One, I plan on installing a linux OS, but I'll still need my windows OS to use the school network (I'm not sure my 3com ethernet card is supported by most Linux OS's). Do most distro's of Linux have an option where, upon startup, you can choose which OS you actually want to boot?

Two, does Linux have something like a DOS prompt in Windows? The reason is, I want to learn how to make a Linux user friendly with "pretty" GUI's like KDE (that's a GUI, right? ), but I also have a strong desire to learn the UNIX code behind Linux. I want to learn to manipulate Linux as well from the console as I can Windows from the GUI. Is that possible with a GUI install?

Three, I don't think I'll ask something as generic as "which Linux OS is the coooooooolest?" But, does anyone know where there is a decent/useable list of Linux distro's with there strengths/weaknesses, etc.? I don't plan on doing any serving or anything (I have a semi-POS machine anyways), but I do want to actually learn something, not just be the weird kid in the dorm with the funny lookin computer. So, if anyone knows a site, or if anyone actually has a few minutes to spare on AIM or writing an e-mail and has some specific advice to lend, My AIM handle is SpeshulK1583, and my e-mail is kjsymoniak@stthomas.edu. Try not to flame me though, although by doing that i suppose I deserve it .

Thanks again,

G011um

1) yes, there's lilo or sometimes grub, all the popular distros use both.

2) hehe, yes, there's one, it's kinda important as opposed to windows' pretend one. Most linux users use console as a matter of course (i'm typing this in a test based console web browser).

3)... forgotten wht you asked... oh yeah ... no.... oh yeah you wanted to start a flame war... hehe. there's plenty of comparisons about things like that on here, use them. in short, use mandrake, or redhat. NB: NO NEED FOR ANOTHER DISCUSSION PEEPS!

4) no you don't want kde, welldone for suggesting it's bloated and annoying. why yes, Gnome is a much better option, or better still a simple window manager like blackbox. good point!!

5) No, i don't know what the hell POS means and yes i'm confused having read in it three seperate posts in teh last 20 minutes. yes, i would like to know what it means

POS = Piece Of S---

Yes, most modern distro's allow you to dual boot painlessly.

The "DOS prompt" you refer to is called a terminal or console in Linux. You will probably have an icon on your task bar (sometimes called the Panel) that starts one up for you. A lot of Linux users rely on that for much of the work they do setting up and configuring things. BTW, KDE is called a window manager in Linux-lingo I highly recommend it.

In the past, Linux wasn't very newbie friendly, especially during the install. Things have gotten a whole lot better though. I would have to say, in my biased opinion, that Mandrake is the easiest to get up and running. http://www.linux-mandrake.com You can even download an ISO image of the install CD's, then just boot off the first CD and it's self explainatory from there.

Good luck.

no kde is a desktop environment. blackbox/xfce/fvwm are window managers

Gnome is a better DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT in some regards, but I found it lacking in it's selection of apps. Kinda like a gimped version of KDE.

One more question...what's the difference between something like Gnome (a desktop environment) and Blackbox (a windows manager). I guess my main question is this: Why is a something like Blackbox better? And can I run both, so I can choose btw Blackbox, GNOME, or console-based? Thanks for dealing with the n00b questions. You all are my saviors.

G011um

Of course you can have both and many installed on your system, and you'll be able to choose whatever desktop environment or window manager to use, Mandy comes with such goods like KDE, GNOME, Sawfish, WM, Xfce, and others. And it is a good distro to start with.
To draw the difference between GNOME and window manager such as bb lets say that window managers are light on resources, so if you don't have a P III or higher PC, window managers tend to run much smoother on the system.