hello,
My name is mike, and I have just converted to Linux from Windows XP.

Well ok, I am not a new convert, I tinkered with a Linux server about 3 years ago. But never did anything with it. I recently got a rather new computer, and decided to do a dual boot of Linux with KDE and Windows XP. So I currently have 2 Linux Web servers (running redhat 6.1) and a Linux desktop (running redhat 7.3).

So why am I going through all this trouble?
Linux has always interested me, and now that I have a computer that can run the Workstation I curious to see what it can do. I beleive that this OS is more powerful than Windows, based on what I have read, what I have been told, what I have seen, and from what my cousin tells me about his server.

What I have:
2 servers:
1) a 486 Gateway2000 4DX2-66V w/ Redhat 6.1 and about 1 meg free space left. It was a 500 meg hard drive. 16 meg ram.

2) a P60 Gateway2000 P5-60 w/ Redhat 6.1 on a 1 gig hard drive with a 20 gig slave drive. 40 meg ram. It runs a stripped down X Windows with Netscape.

1 worksation:
a Dell Dimension 4300 with 512 meg ram, a GeForce fx5200 (which I havent figured out how to configure driver wise. seems to be a common problem) a dual boot, Windows XP and Linux KDE.

Now what do I want to get out of all of this:
I don't know. I want to learn about Linux (and in effect UNIX) and I guess if I begin to understand what is going on and how to use the OS, then I guess I will remove Windows and install Linux on the rest of the Hard drive and the Master Boot Record.

Alright here's the thing, I have quite a few books on Linux (o'reilly books, one about Linux in general, one about network admins, and another one. Then the Redhat book for 5.2), and some previous knowledge, thats it. I have no idea what I am doing otherwise, and it has been quite a shock going from XP to KDE.

So what should I do next?

Let me rephrase that. I need to know how I can:

1. access my Windows Partition if possible (its NFTS)
2. how to download files from the internet (I dont know which file I download)
3. how to install said file
4. how to access my peripherals, such as my CD-ROM, my BURNER, my Floppy Drive.
5. how to access my other Linux machines on the Network.
6. where can I get info on this fabulous program called WINE? see if I can port my Windows Games to Linux, I have no need for Windows.
7. how do i access my CD-ROM in programs like XMMS?

Well I thank you for your time, I am sure I will have more questions that need answers as i start my journey with Linux.

Thank you,
Mike Miller

Thats a lot of big questions

Question 1 & 4
The first one, you need to mount the partition windows is on.

mkdir /mnt/windows
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows

replace hda1 with the actual partition, also it doesn't have to be /mnt/windows (But I'm stating the obvious again.)

for other devices change the -t option to the current one. details on your system would help.

Thats it.

Just a few points though ntfs support has to be built into the kernel or a module to work, also some distro's make it read-only.

BE VERY CAREFUL with ntfs as MS haven't released enough info for ntfs for the support to be complete so it can be dangerous to write to a ntfs partition as you could destroy its info.

To make things easier edit your /etc/fstab file and add the line

/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs user,noauto 0 0

so mounting simply becomes
mount /mnt/windows

this is similar for the other devices.

Question 2 & 3
For you the easiest files to download and install would be rpm files. Checkout a howto on rpm's.

To install on a console type
rpm -ivh theoneyoudownloaded.rpm

(I use debian so someone may correct me )

Question 6
Try http://www.winehq.com/

To run games you'll probably need wineX

Question 7
Simply point ot to the right device. probably /dev/cdrom at xmms will access the drive itself.

Thank you very much!