Im sick of winxp, but its needed for games and programs (they are maybe all covered in linux) and its stable if u know what ur doing, its all what Microsoft stands for that is the reason why I want to learn Linux and go over to the opensource. Its great that manny programs is Opensource in Win too. Now the reason why im replaying. I got someone to DL the suse 10 pro dvd Linux for me ("an expert") I Was looking forward to it, so I went home smiling

I was using the entire hd, so I defragmented - manny times - to make sure i didnt loose anything when installing suse, i used partiton magick, to make another partiton, and didnt loose anything I whent on -- putting the dvd in, and booted from the install dvd, and it all whent great. Made sure I had windows in the boot in grub. Made it overwrite MBR, as that was "safe". After a while i was inside The Linux and SuSE, I was happy. Messed around, DL uppdates, and had fun knowing I was a part of something great.

Now I wanted to visit WinXP, so i restarded, and choosed to boot Windows, but that was not that easy It wouldnt...Lazy as i am, I didnt have backups. Couldnt and didnt want to start messing around, trying to find a solution, im a newbie to Linux, so I was sure something went wrong with the inst. So I tryde one more time, and another etc... of all the post I read after, They all gave alott of suggestions, but didnt work for me, or I didnt understand. one said to inst WinXP on only 8gb, didnt try it, but maybe it works, who knows?

I gave up, got me a new, and much bigger hd. Downloaded Ubuntu 5.04 and used 40gb to inst it on a 200gb, the other one was 40gb.I put WinXP on the first partition, Ubuntu (Ubuntu for Gnome fans) went on a fresh partition where no other OS has ever been. The Install was great, very easy and fast, easyest untill now after the install, I was amazed, it has the freshest Gnome on it (Kubuntu for KDE fans), newest Kernel and every thing. The only prob was the The screen resoultion, it was to small and it never asked for Root password When I was Booting from Grub, into WinXP, didnt work same prob like the first time, I had read that SuSE had a prob with Dualboot, so i didnt think that would happen again, this time it was not funny, and I made up my minde not to use WinXP ever again. Lasted for 10 min... I put in the Install CD for WinXP, where going to make a new Install. As the time went I entered a screen telling me that there was a WInXP installed already and it asked me if I wanted to fix it, I entered yes and time went by... After that I can Boot form Ubuntu and WinXP

Its sad that its so hard for newbies like me to use Linux os with dualboot, its a prob, because some might give up and never try again. Dont know what happend when i told Xp fo fix itself, maybe the MBR but dont think so, but the prob is WInXP not Ubuntu 5.04 im sure Dont give up dudes...

Build another computer for Linux now that you have an extra hard disk.

Then network the two systems by wifi or ethernet using a Cat 5 crossover cable. Then you don't have to worry about the Master Boot Record from one install messing up the other.

(for explanations of the computer and networking terms I'm using please see the Linux Wiki from the Main Menu)

I have thought about that, and im gonna soon or later, but i work in a kindergarden, and we dont make that much cash

Abze - welcome to Linux and LQ

Thanx dude

One great thing about Linux is it can give new life to an old Pentium or even 386/486. You can attach your decent HDD to a relly cheap computer and make it a great web and file server, without GUI of course. The only limitation is HDD must be able to work with ATA33.

If i where going to use an old computer as server, wich distro would be best for an old computer? i think i could get a free one, as the city i live in maybe throws them in the "container". If not, they are so cheap i think I could afford to buy one. But i would need to use gui as im not that comfortable with the console yet.

Hmmm. In Linux world, anything is possible. Assuming you are able to set up the base system you could administer it remotely and leave the box headless (without monitor and keyboard). Many things can be set with Webmin, swat gives you interface for SAMBA, CUPS for printing and so on. For rest you can use ssh.
You could also set up X for GUI and run a lightweight window manager like Fluxbox, but this gives you bare GUI without graphical tools. KDE has all the tools but is too heavy for an old machine.
Info about distros can be found here:

http://distrowatch.com/

For instance Debian with 2.4 kernel can run with 16 MB of RAM... Most distros with GUI need 64 MB and at least 500 MHz CPU (still slow for KDE, I think).

I would go for Debian. Gentoo would give best performance, but it would take quite a while to install (compiles everything from sources). Gentoo install is quite hard, although the documentation is very good. Gentoo also need lots of diskspace (upto 3GB at /var, lots of swap) if you intend to compile large program suites, such as OpenOffice or KDE.

If you intend to run servers without touching the console, you should have at least a Pentium-class computer to spare. That way you can run some graphical browser and use "webmin". I suppose "webmin" will run on text-mode browsers like "elinks2" or "lynx"

Anyways, a 386 or 486 would not probably run Xwindows, which you need for a X11. I doubt if you'd be able to run any graphical www-browser either.