Hi everyone,
Yes I am a new guy. I bought a new Vista loaded laptop and am less than happy with the total experience. I won't go into the issues, as they have been beat to death. Here is my problem.
At 44 I am getting into podcasting, web site owner, and some marketing, but my machine doesn't like Firefox, Office 2007, or it seems anything else.
I was on a business trip recently and met an IT config manager, and she recommended looking at Linux. Being something of a rebel, (I am running a car tire on the back of my motorcycle, but that is another story), I was willing to give it a look.
As you may have guessed I have been somewhat overwhelmed by all of the distributions and versions of Linux available. I saw on this forum where people have asked "what is the best?" and seen the responses. This appears to be asking which is better? Chevy or Ford. Therefore I am not asking that.
What I am asking is this: On the Linux.org site, I saw where one can create a bootable CD and run linux from there. Something called Knoppix. Well I gave this a shot and am now thoroughly confused.
I downloaded Umbutu 7.10 and copied it to both a DVD and a CD. Neither will boot. I tried both discs in my old laptop and they can't even be seen. This is frustrating. Can anyone assist?

Scott

The most common mistake with those symptoms is copying the .iso file to the CD or DVD as a data file. You're supposed to put it on the CD or DVD as an image.

The exact instructions and terminology vary depending on the program you use to put the .iso file on the CD or DVD. I don't know any of the programs other than ImgBurn well enough to give detailed instructions, and I especially don't know the details when using Vista (I use XP).

But the basic concept is that a .iso file represents the raw data to be written to the CD, including the directory structure. When you copy a set of data files to a CD, the software builds a .iso file including those data file and the directory information describing them and "burns" that .iso to the CD. If you do that with a .iso file, then your .iso file gets wrapped inside the new .iso file created by the software and that gets burned to the CD, which is wrong. You need to burn the .iso you downloaded without wrapping it in another layer of .iso file.

ImgBurn is a freeware program that makes the above process more obvious. You might try downloading and using that, if the program included with Vista is too "user friendly" to let you figure out how to control the process (skip the wrapping in an extra layer of .iso).

Sure thing.

Knoppix is what's called a "Live distro"; they boot, and run from a CDROM, and don't require installation - the downside, being, storing any personal data becomes a little foggy.

Ubuntu is definitely a good distribution to get you started down the Linux-path. However, when you burn a CD (or DVD) of an ISO, most burning programs (Nero, Roxio, etc.) don't provide the necessary function on the main screen. When you have the Ubuntu ISO, go into the Tools menu in your burning application of choice, and there will usually be something to the effect of "Burn ISO Image" or "Burn CD/DVD Image". Just going "Burn Data CD/DVD" will simply copy the ISO over, which isn't what you want.

EDIT: Imgburn is an awesome, free application for burning ISOs and other CD/DVD images.

NOTE: johnsfine can type faster than I can.

Scared that you fall over