hello, a linux newbie here, eager to learn about linux. Before I start crashing down my PC, I just want some simple advice. Don't worry, no I will not ask for "HOW TOs". I want to learn from experience and by trial and error. Lets cut to the chase.

My specs:
PIII 700Mhz
256 Ram
20Gb Physical HDD (partitioned for Win98/WinXP)
10Gb Physical HDD (for Linux)
Dual OS -Win98 and WinXP


I have Slackware Linux and wanted to install to my PC. I wanted some advice from you guys if it is ok or not on my current system to add Linux as a third OS, given the above specs of my PC and considering that I'm planning to install Linux on a separate HDD.


That's it!

Thnks.
Roy_linux
0% knowledge on actual/hands on Linux systems
25% knowledge on came reading only

It will work fine. It will be somewhat slow running X, but should work. You'll have to install a linux bootloader like grub or lilo to enable your booting into any of the three OSs. If you decide to give up on linux and stick with Windows you'll have to search for directions on how to put the Windows bootloader back into place. The default install of most distros looks for a Windows system to boot into, but I'm not sure if Slackware will pick up that you also have Win98 installed. If not, it's easy enough to fix after you're up and running.

Slackware is a great distro to learn from, but you have to be patient - it doesn't hold your hand the way Fedora Core, SuSe, or Mandrake will.

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. Yeah you're right Slackware is nice to learn with.
Any other side comments are welcome. Once again, thanks to you friend.

I think I'm quite ready now. Just wondering on configuring the bootloader later, anyways it's the problem i have to solve....by myself.

Most people seem to think that bootloader configuration is voodoo, but it's really not that complex or confusng once you delve into it. And no matter what you do, you can almost always fix it later without touching any of the rest of the install.

Installing Slack as part of a triple boot "Win98 / WinXP / Linux" system should work just fine. Just to play it safe, make copies of any important data before starting, but other than that I'd say fire it up. If you are already familiar with setting up a dual boot system, turning it into a triple boot isn't all that much different. Good luck with it and welcome to LQ -- J.W.

Thanks for the encouragment J.W., really appreciated it. I'll start installing Linux maybe after 2 days, just need some documentations to download and other essential stuffs for Linux. Wish me luck.

You're welcome. I suggest checking out this write-up and also the Slackware book for more info about what the Slack install process is like -- J.W.

Slow? A P3-700? Dude you must have too big a machine My main box is a p3-700 with 256 ram running mdk 10 with a 2.6.8.1 kernel (somewhat doctored) and KDE often with a dozen apps running. I don't find it that slow OKay, so I don't plan on running doom 3 on it, but quake 3 is fine even on top of KDE running a few apps. Slow compared to a 2600 AMD maybe, but not really slow, and I had mdk 10 on a p2-350's til a couple of weeks ago when I upgraded to p3-450 and p3-550's.

KDE on a covington with 64meg... Now that's slow....