Sorry if I went about this the wrong way, but I'm an experienced (and therefore more than a little disgruntled) Windows user, who seriously wants to try Slackware as a dual-boot type deal. I've been using cygwin lately to get a feel for linux and I was recommended to this site and to Slackware. I just have all kinds of questions about how to go about it, what hardware Slackware supports, and other general things. I'm not exactly sure what I need to know.

I'm a C++ Windows programmer with a few years of experience and I am competent in Windows, so I kinda have a leg to stand on when it comes to this stuff, I'm not a complete newb.

I don't know if I posted to the right spot, but I've been registered here for just under an hour... any help would be appreciated

Well you have came to the right place. Slackware users are among the friendliest and will work to help you (I don't care what others say).
Slackware basically supports most hardware out, if you take a look at the Hardware Compatability List -> http://linuxquestions.org/hcl you can see what other users report as useable.
The best advice I can really give anyone wanting to try linux is just to install it. DON'T let it intimidate you, stick with it and read read read. If you have any problems, come back and search and ask.
Good Luck

I would suggest reading the Book on the Slackware site. It has a lot of useful info to get you started. The biggest thing that new users have trouble with in Slackware is getting X set up. All you need to know is your AGP chip set and the horizonal and vertical refresh rates for your monitor. Once you have them type /usr/X11R6/bin/xorgconf and answer the questions.

Other than that, if get stuck post here. The Slackware guys on here are great. Also I feel you picked the right choice for a distro.

Forgot, if you are gonna do a dual boot system. Use lilo and pick to install it in the MBR. I do this with all my systems and it works great.

also don't listen to anybody about slack's install being hard because it isn't. I think its easyer than Suse's install. Its not nice looking (terminal) but at least it works unlike a distro that rhymes with tanrake (at least for me). Lastly, once you get it working its not gonna crash. Dual booted for about a year and a half and used it exclusively for about a 1/2 a year and only had a hand or 2 but it was kde's fault. Oh and its not "slow" despite what gentoo users say, they don't know what there talking about (as far as slackware is concerned).

You guys rock... I'm gonna read your replies now :-)

Thank you for being so helpful

What's lilo?

Lilo is a boot loader, there is Grub also... I personnaly prefer lilo but for your purpose both will work fine... though maybe grub would be interesting to look at because you don't have to bother to run it after installing a new kernel (unlike lilo)... but for common use they both are very good :-)
Good luck!
A.

The Slackware book has been updated > The Revised Slackware Book Project

Every Linux distribution uses modules for your hardware, which are in the kernel.
If you install Slackware-10.1, it has 2.4.29 as the default kernel. Chances are most
(if not all) of your hardware will be recognized when you install. If you have a good
connection, you could download a Linux LiveCD first, burn a CD, and boot with it to
see what hardware is detected. That will give you a starting point.

Whatever you decide, you can post back here if you have trouble getting anything
to work. And when you install Slackware, as soon as you reboot, login as root and
read your mail by entering...mail. And then after you read it, when you get back to
the prompt, type adduser <username> where you substitute the name you want
for your regular user. Follow the prompts and if anything is unclear, just hit enter,
and you will be okay. Then at the prompt you can type exit and it will give you the
login: prompt again, and you can login as user. Then type startx to start the X
server and you'll be on your way.

LILO is the Linux Loader...the boot loader...as opposed to NTLDR in Windows.

Wha? You mean www.slackware.com/book is outdated?

Another question... why would I want to make a regular user account when I'll be the only one using this machine? Wouldn't I just want to always be root?

No, you wouldn't always want to be root. No more than you'd want
to drive you car without doors or seatbelts attached.

In *nix, the root user has privlidges to read, write, and execute all
files on the system. If you accidentally do something wrong, it is then
irreversible. Or, if someone gets access to your system as root, you
are owned. If they access your system as user, unless you change
the way Slackware sets it up, they can only write to /home/username
so you will be spared the typical thing that happens when a Windoze
box is hacked.

You say that I should pick to install lilo in the MBR, and the book (or at least the one at www.slackware.com/book) says that if you're currently using another bootloader you should pick the "superblock" of the root Linux partition, lest you obliterate the other OS's boot loader. Now, I know I'm the newbie here, so I don't mean to step on toes, I just want to understand what I'm reading (which, in the interim is currently the book at slackbook.org). What is the superblock? When they say "using another bootloader" do they mean that I've booted from my Windows bootdisk or something?

I haven't been using linux for very long (about a year), but the way i understand it a bootloader is a program that lets you choose what operating system to run at startup. WinXP has a bootloader which will pop up at startup if you have more than one version of windows installed. You then choose what OS to run. It is difficult to get the windows boot-loader to recognise linux partitions so that is why the lilo boot-loader is usually used instead on dual-boot windows/linux computers. I think it is still possible to boot from a floppy disk when you have lilo installed, because if you set the floppy disk as first boot device it should read this before reading lilo from the hard drive.

I am not sure what the superblock is but i think it is the first bit of the hard drive that is read when starting up.

Think I should wait for the box to arrive in the mail, or should I download? I definitely have $40 to spare for a cause as worthy as Slackware, but I AM kinda anxious to get started. What exactly do you get when you buy? An install disk, a "live" disk (which I guess is like an emergency rescue disk... someone please elaborate on exactly what a "live" disk is), priority email support, but what are the other 2 disks? Unless I remember wrong, I think I remember reading that they give you a 4 disk set.

I'm thinking of going for the gusto and downloading it, then buying the box so I don't have to wait for the mailman.

Whaddya think?

OMG, it's 3.30am already! I have to get to bed, but you better believe I'll be back tomorrow to catch up on your replies to my posts.

Thanks again to all you guys for the quick replies and for being so helpful. You know, what goes around comes around. Fortunately that goes for good stuff too :-) G'nite