Like alot of you,
I am new to the Linux scene and arrived here because I find the raw power of Linux appealing and am getting tired of Microsoft Windows. Unfortunately I cannot spare my really good computer for pure full-time exploration of Linux so I am forced to try my experimentations on an old system. I bet a bunch of you are in the same boat. With most Distro's targeting newer faster systems, it is hard to get a good appreciation of what Linux can do when it is running bogged-down on an old slow computer Fortunatley, I have finally found a Distro that is still scaled back far enough to run great on an old beater. It is Yoper. I believe it is similar to Mandrake at the core of it. When I fire it up, there is no real lag and you can experiment away without setting around waiting for the apps to fire off. I found another distro that was fast, streamlined and optimized for audio/visual apps such as ripping movies and audio called Evil Entity. It is
a fresh change of scenery as far as the desktop is concerned and navigating in it is very easy. Both of these Distro's have been very fun for me.

Hello, tjones - we're glad you joined the board and are having fun with Linux.

this might sound stupid, but you said you were new so ill surgest it anyway (even thought your probably thought of it and decided againsed it)

why not dual booting off your good pc ?

thats what i did. install both windows and linux.
either by putting the hard disk from your older pc into the newer (if u have a spare ide space) or partitioning your windows drive.

that way you can experiment with linux, but re-boot into windows to do whatever you are not yet comfortable doing in linux.

thats what i did, and now i only ever boot windows to use my scanner (which linux 2.4 kernel does not support )

welcome.

Thanks guys.
I have thought about that. About twice a year, I do a fresh Windows install because of all of the crap I try out on it and considered doing the dual-boot during one of those processes. However, I run Windows XP Pro and seem to recall reading somewhere that another person had attempted doing the dual-boot and ran into serious issues with XP wanting to hog the front end on the disk or something along those lines. Does anyone know what I'm talking about or how to get around it?

It can be done, but carefully. Wait for next fresh install, it would be the best moment (because you'll need to repartition your drive).

Try running the Knoppix run Linux from CD on your "really good computer".
That should give you a good taste.

If you use a second hard drive (putting the hard disk from your crap pc into the good one)
then you will not need to worry. windows stays intact and un-partitoned and gets to hog the disk as much as it likes...

and linux is all safe on a disk of its own where it can be installed without even threateding windows.

Hi i'm a new linux user, so my experience is very very poor but i want to change from microsoft os to this

I just installed redhat 9.A on my laptop compaq nx9005

I boot linux with a boot-floppy but just at first boot the system freeze the machine at "Service pcmcia" and if i try to boot with the line command "linux 1" the keyboard don't work!!

I hope i can get answer from some members

Hi cl@ude

do laptops have pcmcia support ?

im dont know anything about laptops, (al all)
but try this.

dureing boot up, do you see the prompt saying "hit I to enter interactive boot-up" ???
Hit the i key.

it should ask a load of questions about wether or not to start certain services, if it asks if you want to start pcmcia, select NO.

see if this boot's ????

also, do you have anything plugged into your pcmcia slot ???