Hi there guys. I decided to join your community cause I have alot of questions to ask and I would like to learn more about Mandriva and Linux as a whole.

I have never installed Linux befor, infact besides the small things my friend who was on Linux said ( he did not like it ). I want a learning experience and I've been told Mandriva is the easiest for noobs ;D.

I'm currently downloading 1/4 disc at the moment. While downloading here are my questions:

1) I have made a partition already. It's 30Gigs I was using it to store my files while I reformatted yesterday. Now I'm placing all my files from my partition back onto my main partition. Can I install Linux on the partition I already made from yesterday? Or does Linux make its own partition?

2) A friend said to install programs you have to go into a command prompt and install it like that. I've never had to do this befor, which I'm not too fazed about however. I do want to know befor I go into it head first about what differences I'm looking at.

3) I've never ran 2 OS's on the same PC befor, when I boot up will I get asked which OS I would like to load? The first being Windows Xp Pro and the other being Mandriva of course .

4) What are some advantages Linux has over Windows? I was told it's very hard to get trojan'd or Keylogged when using Linux, this is a plus for me ^_^.

5) How easy is the set up? I'm not a complete noob to computers at all I've been using them since I was 8-9 ( I'm 16 now ). Though I've never had any experience installing any other OS cept for Windows. There's still a few things I don't understand and I don't want to be stuck at an install menu not knowing what option to press :P.

6) I was also told Linux is more stable than Windows. Is it true? Or are they both about the same? Will I notice a difference between the two or will there be very little change?

At the moment this is all I have to ask. However I'm sure I can dig up more and more questions as I wait here waiting for my disc's to finish. Thank you all in advance who reply and attempt to answer my questions.

Hi,
1)Linux can't be installed on an NTFS partition, I think it would work on FAT, but linux is designed for the extended filesystem, so, you may have to reformat to this filesystem, + make a swap partition (this one's essential).In other words, you will have to split your disk up a little more.

2)Mandriva has a fully equiped GUI which guides you through (almost) everything, installing programs dor instance), the prompt is essential for some things, but those you will get to only if you really want.

3) Yes, you can run 2 systems on one computer (=dualboot); as to the order, its up to you...

4)Indeed, its very nearly impossible to get trojaned, virused etc... As for the other advantages, its simply for you to figure out what you prefer in it over windows.

Mandriva is veeery easy to set up, if everything works. In any case, be prepared to do some googling. Whatever your windows level, when you come to linux, be ready to start learning from null...

May I suggest you read this
As far as stability goes, it depends on how you configure it, if you use beta (or alpha) stage software/drivers. I, for instance, can go on using my system for 4 days without a reboot, but loose my wifi connection after a random time span, because I use beta drivers for my card.

Good luck,

Serafean

Thank you for the info. That was a good read you gave me =) I enjoyed all of it and how he explained it. It was very easy to catch on to his point.

glad I helped. Must say I liked reading it too.