So, I got a hold of a DELL Inspiron7500, Pentium II 501 Mhz, 128 RAM, with a pirated version of Windows and Office.

I have removed Office and am practicing with OpenOffice, and I have supplanted Explorer for Opera. Now I am ready to make the move to a free operating system, and I have just begun to learn about Linux.

I am looking for a smooth transition...please.

try knoppix out first, it runs completey off of a CD, so you dont have to format your drive... if you like it, install ubuntu (very noob friendly)

Thank you, much!

Might i suggest that after giving knoppix a wack around rthe olde bush you try PCBSD as it will probavly run alittle better on your minimal ram, my personal experience tells me that the fewer instances of disk access (I.e Read and write sessions) that you subject your main harddisk drive to the longer your hard ware will last.

While I agree that Ubuntu is a great distro to cut your teeth on, the low specs of the machine would worry me. It should work; however, an alternative suggestion might be Puppy Linux.

Mind you, I've never tried it myself, but everything I hear about it is that it runs great on lower end hardware. It also has a live CD and live DVD to try first.

It's not as pretty as most Linux distros at first, but if you want that, there are ways to make it look a lot better.

Anyway, that's what I would go for on that machine.

Good luck!

Edit: I tried out Puppy, and although it does run great on lower end hardware, I don't know if I would recommend it to a novice. Also, I don't know where I got the idea that it has a Live DVD...though I suppose you could burn it onto a DVD if you really wanted, though it is only about 100MB

Well, I'm considering an upgrade to 256 RAM; I was hoping to get maybe 512, but that would cost almost as much as the used DELL. And, at that rate I may as well wait and save a little more for a new laptop.

My deal is, I'm a hitchhiker type, and don't work enough to usually spring for a new laptop.

I'm going to download Knoppix now. It sounds from the responses that getting into linux depends on maxed out hardware, so I'm not sure if my intentions to switch are prudent.

The "horse" you choose depends on the task at hand...Some horses are bred for power, others are bred for show, and still others take people for gentle walks in the countryside.

Linux itself is the kernal, the brain..the other stuff is wrapped around it.

For example, I have Linux on a 400 MHZ 128 MB of RAM...its a very old Dell.
This computer has no graphics, but it serves websites very well.

What will demand the most of your computer is the window manager. Two big ones are Gnome and KDE. They are the show horses. There are several other WMs out there, and many are lighter on resources.

The Ubuntu series has several versions...If you like Knoppix and want something that is new-user friendly and light on the hardware, I would suggest Xubuntu. Ubuntu/Xubuntu is also a live CD that will install on the Hard drive, but nothing compares to Knoppix.

Even if you don't go Linux, Knoppix is an important tool to have around. If that venerable hard drive goes out, all you will need is a thumb drive (to save your data) and Knoppix to make it run again

SidewalkCynic,

You Might also give PCBSD A try as it is a relative le light weight distribution based upon bsd which means its damn near newbie proof

Well, I did't download Koppix, because the download time was saying it would take 4 hours, and I was on a $6.00/hr CD burner.

So, I am going to download to a USB on free WI-FI, and hopefully it will burn to a CD quicker.

It's a shame I can't check out(practice) a Linux version in the public sector as like MicroSoft is so well distributed to public entities like the libraries. Am I wrong that I'm getting the idea that Linux allows the user more ability to manipulate the program?...and that is why there are so many different versions?

"Kernal," is a new term, and I have yet to understand why that is the term used. I'm not sure if I am understanding the connotation to a popcorn kernal correctly.

And, now I am hearing of a "windows manager."

mohtech is giving me some better idea of it. I have been reading the Wikipedia pages. So, I'm trying to get along.

Just to mention: Ubuntu (Desktop disc) is a combined live-cd + installation media, so you can try it out without "doing anything" to your machine (writing anything to the HD that stays), and in addition you can install it if you like. So it would be rather odd to for example download Knoppix to try out, then Ubuntu to install..

And yes, Ubuntu *might* run slow on that machine. Well, mainly because of the Gnome desktop which nowadays needs some horsepower (like does KDE, ...) - but since practically every distribution of Linux allows you to change the "parts" it consists of (graphical desktop, for example), you could more or less easily switch the on-board KDE or Gnome desktop to a lighter one - XFCE, which resembles Gnome quite a bit (on the outlooks), or something even lighter (but not that similar to the Windows'ish look of the desktop you've probably got used to) like Fluxbox or WindowMaker.

Linux (as in the operating system, not just the kernel) is both more and less restrictive than Windows, if you're used to that. Less restrictive in the sense that you don't have to have that one solid package you once install (you can install and remove software, and have a very large selection of alternative software to use - many desktops, many cd-writing programs, many graphics programs, many web browsers, ... and nobody says you can't change them, vice versa), but more restrictive in the sense that the idea of the system is inherited from Unix: you're not allowed to do anything that isn't explicitly granted to you (ideally; some cases and many distributions do break this rule). That's for safety, and only one step among the others.

The kernel is the core of the operating system: it works between the user interfaces (the programs you interact with) and the machine itself. It's typically "invisible" for the user - you hardly ever notice it unless it goes dead or you go looking for it. You can read more about the kernel from various web sites, like kernel.org for example. Around the kernel are then userspace applications ("the rest of the software") and a bunch of other things you might not notice - the visible part for you is the graphical desktop, usually at least, which runs on the X server that provides you graphics in the first place. Or if you like, the visible part includes the powerful command line environment of Linux, similar to that of Unix (it could resemble DOS too, and it does occasionally, but even though they have something in common, they have a lot not in common).

Note that some very small Linux distributions (operating systems running on the Linux kernel; some people are strict that only the kernel ought to be called Linux, but most people know the operating system flavours - distributions - as "Linux", some as "GNU/Linux", some as something else; I think that many people know the OS by the name "Linux" that it's ok to use that word for the whole thing, and specify when it's about kernel) don't eat up one full CD so you have less to download and burn. Typically distributions, like Ubuntu, have one CD (around 650-700MB) that the setup is on, many offer in addition (or only) a DVD that is a couple gigabytes in size, and some fit onto a couple hundred megabytes only (like 1/3 of the CD). They might not be as "functional" in your point of view compared to the rest of the herd, but the good point is that you can install as much software as you want from the internet - legally. That makes even a "small" distribution just as big as the rest, and the only question is how you get the software. Most distributions come with a package manager, a program that handles installation of extra software packaged in nice "binary packages" (.rpm, .deb, ... it depends on the distribution) - the number of such pre-packaged packages then tells how easy or difficult it is to find the thing you want to install in an easy-to-install form. And if nothing else, you can always compile software from source (provided that the software comes in source code and is not closed-source) if you like - it takes a bit more time and maybe effort in some cases, but it works. Sticking to the "binary packages" eases life up a lot - and major distributions (like Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE, Mandriva, Gentoo, ...) even have a (graphical and command line) program that has a list where you select your wanted piece of software, and it takes care of downloading and installing it.

Long story short, there's a lot new to find in the "world of Linux operating systems". It's not difficult, but surely differs from how things are done in Windows.

I found a good deal on 512 RAM, but he didn't have it in yet, so he gave me 256 until then. And I definitely recognize the improvement in speed going from 128 to the 256, so I'm really excited to think about the response of 512.

So, hopefully, this will benefit my conversion to a Linux base.

Now, somewhere in my research I came across a distribution that supposedly starts off with one CD and then download the rest after the CD loads the HD. IS anybody familiar with that?

Or does anybody, know anybody in New York City who can help me out, sans Elliot Spitzer.

Thanks for the advice, thus far. I'm looking forward to exploring the Linux base.

SidewalkCynic, you need to realize that although PC-BSD may be good, it is not Linux. It may not matter to you now, but it may later. They operate differently, use a different filesystem, and install differently than Linux. Remember that...


As for thread #11, it is referred to as a "netinst" CD. Do not attempt unless you have a good net connection. Debian is the only one I know of that has it (and there are surely more than that).

Okay, today I went into a Barnes & Noble and found the Linux section; large enough to satisfy me that it's legitimate, and hard copy information available for relaxed comprehension. So, for $35.00 I get a book and a CD, seems like a better start; I can come up with $35.00.

I think it was Ubantu 6.06, sound good?

Dapper Drake was my first deep nose dive into Linux,so IMHO it would suite you very well to get your feet wet with ubuntu.

Bring on the flame, I can take it

Yes, that is Ubuntu 6.06, one of the only...2 versions that Ubuntu still supports.

linux-Hawk referred to Dapper Drake, the "codename" for 6.06.