Hello Everyone!!!

I am currently using windows xp and thinking to migrate to linux. The distro which i will use will be fedora core 5.

Please let me know about this choice and one thing more that can i install following softwares in fedora core 5. If not then what are alternatives to these softwares.

1. Winrar
2. Getright
3. Firefox
4. UltraEdit


Also how can i run mp3 files and please whether i keep one operating system or both ie windows and linux.

Thanks in Advance.

Fedora core 5 is a decent choice. It all depends on your preferences and it is supported well enough that you should be able to get it installed no problem. As for finding alternatives you should search sourceforge.net for most of those applications. I am not sure about the others but i can tell you right now that firefox will run on linux so that wont be a problem. The others just use sourceforge.

for mp3's i would suggest something like xmms.

if you are just starting out you should probably keep windows for a while until you have gotten used to linux. You can do this by dualbooting. There are many posts on dual booting so i am not going to go into detail on the subject.

for installing softwares there are different methos:
1. from source
http://www.gnulinuxclub.org/index.ph...=146&Itemid=31

2. using some utilities like yum, apt-get etc
http://www.gnulinuxclub.org/index.ph...=287&Itemid=31

3. through rpm's

may be some inbuilt players will be there in FC 5 to run mp3. If not, then you can download xmms/kaboodle for it.

ya, you can keep more than one o/s on your machine. Its knows as dual boot system.

regards

Thank you all for providing me help.

I've already read the tutorial on Linux and have learned most of the commands and I've a video tutorial. Therefore I've decided to completely remove windowsxp.

One confusion more that I've a 40 GB harddisk and i've made 2 partitions 20 GB each. One one partition winxp is installed and on the other my important data is there, so is it possible that Fedora Core 5 install only on that partition which has currently winxp on it.

Both partitions are NTFS. I don't bother if my winxp partition becomes ext2 but i want the other to remain NTFS as it is having my really important data.

Please suggest a way in which in which I can access that partition after installing Fedora Core 5.

Thanks again.

hi,
since you have 2 partitions, so you can install FC 5 on the first one...leaving the second one intact.

But since its NTFS, so you won't get the "write" access to that drive from linux. And in your case this could be a big problem.
I don't know whether FC 5 gives you even "read" permission. If it doesn't, then you will have to recompile the kernel to support "read" for NTFS partition.
...So lots of work for you.

There could be an easy way out.
Since both of your partitions are 20 Gb each.....hence move the data of 2nd partion to the primary (i.e in which you have win XP and where you would like to put linux). Then format the 2nd partition as FAT/FAT32 type.
move the data to FAT32 drive and then install linux in the first drive.
after that accessing the FAT32 partition will just be a command distant from you.

regards

Thank you very much for your help.