Hi everyone I am new to this forum, I might sound a bit ignorant but I have a lot of interest in linux, and I am ready to learn. I guess my question and problem is that I have just build a peer to peer home network between ( Dell Dimension 8250 and HP pavilion a465c). By the way I still on dial up b'cos I don't have high speed in my area. My HP computer is more like a game machine, everything is fine at this moment. both of my operating systems on my machines are Window XP home edition. I want to put Linux on my best machine(HP). I also remembered reading that you can put Linux operating system on your computer and use it has a client or a server NOS. I am not sure if that possible? If it is possible how do I get started

Not quite sure what you're getting at here, could you please explain more? What is 'NOS'? Not sure what you're wanting to do...

Ok, first of all thanks for replying. To my understanding Linux is a operating system that can run on PC and servers, but the PC have far fewer network service. I have put together a peer-to-peer ethernet home network. The maximum number of computers on my network is 2. Both machines are running Window XP home edition. I want put a different operating system on one of the computer which is the HP pavilion a465c with 160 HD, 512 RAM, PIIII with hyper threading, and 3GHZ speed. My question is that is it possible to run Linux on my HP, and still have a peer-to-peer network.

thanks I hope this much clearer

Ok, well 'Server' in this context is a loaded term. Client/server is more properly a distinction between the computers purpose, rather than hardware. Linux will run just fine on a PIII. Also, not sure if you know but you can boot XP and Linux on the same computer... just boot up whatever OS you feel like running at the time.

I am also unsure of your meaning of P2P. Do you simply mean your two boxes are connected with a crossover cable? If so the problem here isn't hardware but software. M$ doesn't like playing well with other OSs, but you can use SAMBA to serve files from the linux box to the XP box. To get files from XP to Linux...not too sure on this, as I have never used SAMBA, but if you can pull files one way, you should be able to push them the other way...

Having a home/peer to peer network is possible with just about any os. I think what bulliver is geting to is what services, features do you need, e.g. file/printer sharing, internet sharing, etc.?
good luck.

my p2P networking is basically for print, file, and internet sharing. i just want to be exposed to, and learn how to use a different type of operating system beside windows. since linux is open source this is the best for this process. i don't mean to disturb use, but if this is possible how do i get through this process. interms of installing linux on my hp.

thanks

To install Linux is the same as installing any other OS.
Get Linux here http://www.linuxiso.org
What distribution you try or use is a matter of opinion, ease of use, speed, purpose ect.
You will need a free HD, or a free partition on a drive to install it to.
If you install it on a drive by itself then use the lilo or grub boot loader that comes with the Linux distribution, It'll be part of the installation routine.
If you install it on a drive with windows then make sure that windows is on a primary partition or it will not boot. Linux can go on any partition. You can use lilo or grub (Linux), or windows ntloader (windows) to choose which OS to boot up when you turn on the machine.
Do some reading first or you will likely destroy your windows install.
http://www.hk8.org/old_web/linux/lnut/
http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/
http://www.linuxprinting.org/
http://tldp.org/
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/
This forum is one of the best places to learn Linux. Stop by every day and read the posts.

thanks for the reply, but one problem the website for download had quite a few distributions. i know this is a hard question but can you recommend any particulaur type. and also how do you get a a disk to install linux, if you do not want to download it on the web. also my file system is NTFS , it also supports FAT 32. do I have to repartition my hard drive before installing linux because I have windows os , and i want keep it there. the only process i know is to use MS-DOS type CHKDSK and DEGRAG, then when the installation process gets to the boot loader configuration I will have to choose the boot by default for windows, because window will have to be my primary partition, or is the other way around

thanks a bunch for your help

If you have windows installed on the entire dirve and you want to keep the installation, you will have to free up some space for Linux.
You can do that with apps like Partition magic or the ultimate boot disk or however you choose.

In short you will have to shrink the windows partition and get space to make a second partition on that drive. You will need at least 2 more partitions actually. 1 for / and 1 for swap. Some add more like /home /usr ect.

As for which distro to use...............Mandrake is full featured but a little bloated. Fedora works well but is missing support for somethings like mp3. You can dload and install it after the install. Slackware is slick, fast and stable. But is not novice friendly. Debian comes with more software packages than you could use in a lifetime but is horrible to try and install. There are many distro's. You'll have to try 1 or 2 and see what you think.

I would install Linux to a ext3 or reiser FS

If you are completely new to linux I would not install it on a working windows box. Get yourself an old PII or something for nothing and install a distro. Then when you mess it all up trying to get it to work you won't be mad because you killed your windows box. You can just re-install or reconfigure for weeks trying to understand how it works. Linux will take time for you to get to know.

Download a distro's .iso's and burn them t o CD. Don't copy the .iso file to CD. Burn the .iso image to CD. if you don't want to download them go to the ditro's site and pay a few $ for them to send you a set.. Do you have broadband? Download them overnight.

Get yourself a vacant machine and dive in.

good advice, will find myself and old PII, I think the best is to pay $ a few for them I have dail up I don't is wealthy the headache.