i posted this in the newbie forum but i shall ask here b/c it may be more fitted here. Anyway theres to many distros to choose from..mandrake..red hat..i mean..my god can someone help a newbie out?! i have XP now..and want to make a dual boot..linux on a seperate 20gb hd..so what linux should i use or look into...even more where can i get one for free of the net?

insane? calm down eh? and use USEFUL thread titles.

and DON'T double post. I've already answered your question in the OTHER thread you used. please stick to the same thread in future.

but liek i said... just use mandrake. just do, it'll do you fine. peopel can argue until the cows come hoem, but redhat/mandrake/suse... all fine.

sry..its been getting to me but i went to the mandrake site and i went to the downloads page and theres so many to choose from...which to start with? and remember that im on a 56k! so it will be a while, ,the second thing is how do you go about dling it..then installing on a new HD?

sorry about the double posting..it's been a long day!

if you got a burner.. goto www.linuxiso.org has about every distro you can imagine for download to be burned to cdrom.

If you have a 56k modem connection downloding isos (2x650Mb) surely will drive you insane
Search for a computer magazine that have a linux distro (mandrake, redhat, suse, ... not slackware ) with it.
Good computer shops (here you have something to pay) or lugs (linux user group) are good too.
It depends on your location.

Kewp... I actually got the point, okay I may have been channeling at the time. Also, congrats on crushing 3k.

Tricky, I think linuxiso needs to give you a kickback by now.

56k and downloading an ISO may be a bit of a killer. Also, you of course would have to have a CDburner to cut the ISO when you were done. Taz mentioned he got an ISO off of a modem a while back, took about 25 hours and I think 2 tries.

The two other big options are

A) buy a boxed set. Mandy runs about $40, RedHat about $30, and I think SuSe $50. These are old prices and ballparks.

B) A Net Install, which is basically downloading and copying a couple of floppies, booting from them, using your dial-up through them, and then downloading what you need as you go.

Mandrake is a good call as either way its built to be a new user's introduction to Linux, so its put together to easily be the second operating system on a machine and the install will lead you through how to set up the dual boot. Just remember if anything goes kazoo, the proper post title here is not:

Linux broke my XP install,

but instead,

XP mysteriously vanished in a blinding cloud of MS BS.

Luck,

Finegan

heh...alright, i think ill check for a magazine, mayb get a subscription..i think ill go for a mandrake 8.2 on one drive and Xp on the other...happy stuff..thanks guys

"Kewp... I actually got the point, okay I may have been channeling at the time."

sorry fin... but what the hell does that mean???

taz suggests you are on crack btw.

I was refering to that. I think he got the idea accross that he was having a poor case of distro overload from the thread title.

And, if I were on crack, I wouldn't have been as lazy as I was and would have used the cute little quote button.

But I'm lazy... I need more coffee.

Cheers,

Finegan

LOL Well, as I should have expected, acid_kewpie a.k.a. buttmunching sod, would have to relay my question ever so carefully!

Okay, what thread did the "Finegan's on crack" theme start? Have I had my head in the sand and missed something over in general? Or Have you AIM junkies been chatting about my extra-pharaceutical habits again?

Man I work in a library, I can't afford real drugs. I have to go home and pray that my roommate has re-stocked our supply of household cleaning products. I still kinda miss the days I worked in a cafe with a 6ft tall Nitrous Oxide tank. Now that was FUN, wheee!!!

Cheers,

Finegan

We weren't really talking about you. Was on irc and bugger there asked what you meant by that. So I looked and said HUH? Ask him if he's on crack even. lol So that's how it came aboot. I don't even use aim anymore...Ahhh the feeling of freedom and a can of whip cream.

Ah, finegan. Who was it that suggested that we were the crack monkeys?

Dude, I think you've been IRc'ing with Kewp too long, he's infected your vocabulary. Remember there's nothing more pitiful than an American talking about going home to their flat after a long night at the pub.

Then again, maybe I just hang out with too many Indy-rock-anglophile-Brit-pop-wannabees.

Yes, okay the crack monkey suggestiong was my fault, I was just hard up for another possible 1000+ plus moniker.

Okay, we're not in General, and before Jharris comes down and smites us for being woefully off topic, while I've got you jokers here: I've got a 2.8Gb in my Athy that I decided to start using for random current distros so that I could keep abreast of what was going on that wasn't Slackware. Right now it has RH 7.2 on it, but I destroyed the X install having too much fun... Which should I try next? Of course SuSe 8.0 is out of the question as I don't have the cash, I've got to move next week.

Cheers, (Non-anglicany)

Finegan

Honestly, you are probably quite right. I now have over a four word british slang vocabulary. Time to get back to my roots! lol Whatever those are ... BUT, you'll never get me calling my house a flat. What in the heck is that anyhow? Silly buggers...