After doing some research, I'm somewhat comfortable with the idea that I want Linux installed the second of two computers. But I have a few questions that prevent me from moving forward.

Currently, the computer is running win98 SE, has 192MB SD RAM and a 600 MHZ processor. Sometimes it runs a bit sluggish(I've uninstalled, and reinstalled many many programs, but have cleaned the registry and spyware..), but I think/hope linux will fix things up nicely.

First question: Which distro should I go with? I was eyeing Mandrake 9.1 and heard that it's great (nice interface.) However -- I also heard that it's more resource intensive than even windows XP. Is this true? Will my computer be able to handle it? Or should I go with something else?

And while were on that on, is it true that mandrake is the best, or should I go with something else?

2)My parents gave me the go ahead for this little project as long as I could meet a few requirements. The first, of course, was that it had to be able to connect to the ADSL internet through the linksys router. Is this really difficult? Apparantly people running redhat have problems doing so?

3)The second condition was that it had to be able to run MSN messenger for my siblings. I'd imagine there's something like trillian for linux but I'm not sure. So is it possible?

4) Will I be able to access and download files from the linux computer onto the XP through the LAN? The Linux computer doesn't need to access any files from the XP, BTW. This isn't that big a deal, just a bonus.

5) I know I've asked something similar, but I'd prefer that linuxrun better or equal to win98SE. Are these expectations reasonable?

The prospects of mandrake seem very intriguing. But I've never used the system and I have no idea what the final result will be. If there's one thing that scares me it's that I will not be able to go back to win98 as I don't have the install CD. So screwing up is something that I want to keep away from.

Please reassure me that I'm doing the right thing by replacing win98 with mandrake 9.1.
I look forward to your answers. ANY help you can offer would be appreciated.

-Thanks.

Mandrake is a good choice and it will resize a Windows XP NTFS and has support for it fresh out of the install. Just defrag Windows before you re-size your hard drive partition with the install.

Preparation is the key. Here is some valuable stuff

# Partitioning
Linux Partition HOWTO
Rute - Partitions, File Systems, Formatting, Mounting

# Linux filesystem structure
Directory Navigation Help File
Filesystems, Directories, and Devices Help File
Proper Filesystem Layout

# Linux Distribution links:
A Beginner's Guide to Choosing a Linux Distribution
Reasons to Choose or Not Choose Linux
LWN distro list
elinux Linux Distributions

How To Check MD5sums On A Linux Iso Image
# Cheap CDs
Discount Linux CDs
Linux Central
Cheapbytes
TuxCDs
ComputerHelperGuy

# Pre-installation guides
GNU/Linux pre-installation checklist
The Pre-Installation Help File

# Mandrake links
Mandrake home page
Mandrake Users website
Easy urpmi config for Mandrake
urpmi mini-HOWTO
Easy software management: Red Carpet
Maximum RPM
rpmfind
You didn't install the developmental packages? As root, command:
urpmi gcc
An Introduction to the Midnight Commander. You can install it by commanding:
urpmi mc
Midnight Commander home page

Mandrake will run fine on your system. I am using Mandrake 9.1 and it is currently using 82 meg of memory. Not nearly as intensive as XP.

Gaim will load almost all messengers but Microsoft has decided they don't want 3rd parties using their service so you may not be able to use MSN Messenger with anything but Microsoft products until developers make agreements with MS. (this is just the kind of attitude that makes me hate MS).

I have Windows 2000 Pro running as an Internet gateway so I can run my satellite Internet connection and I use Linux to connect throught that box. If I can get satellite working with Windows on a LAN ADSL should be a breeze.

Hope that helps,
Ted.

Oh, BTW, Windows 98 SE uses a fat32 filesystem , not the NTFS (Win flavors NT, 2k, XP).

Thanks for the advice guys!

So I guess I feel safe going through with this. Always fun to take a chance anyway. But I have one last question:

I'd also love to have linux on my good computer (2.4 GHZ) 256MH DDR, etc, too but at the same time I'd like to keep XP on it. Is it possible (besides the NFTS issue) to break off an unused chunk of my hard drive say 15 (45 gigs left on an 80 gig hard drive) for linux mandrake, and then somehow switch over? Or is this just one of those things that is possible* although way to complicated for a person of my experience to attempt?

Following some of your links, Fancypiper, that seems to be the impression I'm getting. Although I'm not sure if they are reffering to the installation on a seperate hard disk..

-Thanks

If your XP partition currently takes up the whole of your drive then you'll have to resize the XP partition to leave some free space for Linux - Apparently, Mandrake 9.1 can resize NTFS , but as always, just to be on the safe side, back up any existing XP data first just in case of problems - Once youve got to a situation when youve got some unpartitioned free space at the end of your drive you can then install Mandrake straighforwardly - simply boot into the 1st Mandrake cd rom, the crucial part is the partitioning - choose the option to keep all existing partitions and install in the free space - install LILO to the MBR.

Again - if your thinking of resizing your XP partition, back your data up first - best of luck and re-post if there are any more questions/probs.

My God. It sounds weird, but this is so exciting. I'm a step closer to Geekhood as the days wear on.

So great news it is. I'll be attempting the XP thing.

But just out of curiousity -- how risky is this? I love danger, but my music collection is..big. So is backing up a *highly* recommended precaution or something that I can get away with?

Will I ever be able to recover that part of the drive after I reformat under linux? (don't think I'd need to anyways..)


Here's the chunk that I'll hopefully be partitioning, I defragged only a few nights ago:

http://members2.photofun.com/aaronel...y/untitled.JPG

So is it sufficient, or could I end up having problems since it seems to be located in the middle of the drive?

..
Apologies for all the questions. I know from experience that they can get annoying.

-Thanks

I don't think you should install linux on that drive, because it's way too fragmented.
What you should achieve is that ALL xp files are to the left, so you can 'chop' of a piece of youre drive and put linux on there. I've had problems too with windows defragging, it sure does a bad job.
I think you should try another defragging program. I used partition magic for this, but that's a long time ago. Maybe someone here has a suggestion.

You are welcome. We like to help, especially if we're helping someone join the Linux community.

Any time you are messing with partitions you should back up your data. If something goes wrong while partitioning, you could lose all data on the drive and have to reformat.

Good Luck,
Ted.

Just a little tip. When installing onto a system with broadband or lots of patience, I suggest doing the minimal KDE install and following the directions on this site http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/index.php (temporarily taken offline in protest against software patents) and then installing all the software you need. Furthermore, I'd use only the main, contrib, updates and plf repositories. The tux repository can be a little flaky at times.

I just installed Mandrake 9.1 on a 450 P3 with 128M ram and 4G harddrive and it runs surprisingly well.

For the weak of heart:

# How do I uninstall Linux completely and keep/use Windows only?
How to Remove Linux and Install Windows 2000
How to Remove Linux and Install Windows XP
You can remove lilo from the mbr with
/sbin/lilo -u
You can remove grub or lilo from the mbr by booting with a Windows 98 boot floppy (at the prompt, type fdisk /mbr), or by using the Windows XP Recovery Console or the Windows 2000 Recovery Console

Again, thank you guys very much. This is making much more sense.

But about installing linux on the XP computer, I seem to have run into a bit of a problem. You see it's a dell, and while running partition magic, I found that there is something called a 'dell utility partition' of fat 32. It's 31.3MB in size. I'm guessing that's whats at the end of the drive. Although it could be something else. I guess I'll defragment in partition magic and see if that helps.

Does anybody know how to 'move' the dellutilitypartition to an earlier part of the drive? And from experience (I imagine that some of you have dells) could you tell me of possible problems caused by this partition?

WAIT! -- I just discovered that the dellutilitypartition is located at the very beginning of the drive, followed by the NFTS partition, and then 7.8MB of unnallocated space.

So the question changes: If I use partition magic to shrink nfts, will it just move the files closer together so that there is more unnallocated space, and therefore sufficient space at the end of the drive? OR will it automatically chop off data at the end of the NFTS partition?

Again, here is the link to the defrag space:

http://members2.photofun.com/aaronel...y/untitled.JPG
Thanks!

Okay, let's say you have an NTFS volume on a 20gig hard drive. The primary partition is using 100% of the volume so the parition is approximately 20gig in size. You have Windows XP installed and some programs and data. Your OS + data take up about 10 gig of hard drive space. That leaves about 10gig of free space on your drive. Partition Magic will use that free space to create an extended partition and a logical DOS drive. So, if you tell Partition Magic to allocate 5gig for your new partition you will have a 15gig primary NTFS partition (where XP is installed) and a 5gig extended partition you can use to install Linux.

Hope that explains it for you. I personally like having Windows installed on one drive and Linux on another, but you can still dual-boot with an extended partition.

Have fun,
Ted.

Thanks! I'm about an hour away from installation now.