I have a Medion M3C4100 desktop and a Gateway laptop. I would like to convert one to have Linux as the OS. These computers come with OS installation disks (windows), which don't seem to be actual Windows disks because they have disclaimers which state such things as "The software included on this CD-ROM was preinstalled.....and may only be used for backup", and I am not sure they will work again if I change to Linux. I know these production computers come with D: drive partitions, which have all the bundled software. I am not concerned about the bundled software really though, because there seems to be enough open source software for all my needs, which if I switch to Linux I would contribute to gladly if it means I never have to deal with Microsoft again.

My questions:
Can I install Linux on a production computer.
Do I have to wipe my hard drive, or can the D: drive be retained.
Will my re-installation Windows disks work if I chose to go back.
Can I save the software on the D: drive in any way which would let me use it with Linux, as there are App. and Support disks which I think are the ones that actually use the D: drive to install the software. (Nero is the only software I really want.)

P.S. Rox already wiped the hard disk on the laptop by fooling around with Windows Server 2003 (she was taking a course), so the D: drive is gone on that.

I hope this is relatively intelligible.
Thank you,
Roland

welcome!
if you ask me whether one can install windows on a production server i answer better dont do that. linux is ok. but in respect of nero i think it is a windows only solution. Maybe it will run under an emulator like wine but probably not completely.
Linux needs some space on the harddisk and most distributions will ask you what part of the disk should be used and formatted. But you can take a live cd of i.e. ubuntu, and boot from the live cd without installing anything on disk. It is slower but you can go testing without risk. If you feel like it download at ubuntu.com or let them send a cd to you for free.
good luck.
j

Point your browser at www.distrowatch.com. Scroll down the page to see, on the right side, a list of the top 100 Linux distributions. Use the search (in the list at the top of the page) to search for liveCDs. Then choose one or more to download and burn to cd. Reboot with one in the drive and explore Linux without installing anything.

Study the tools for resizing/creating partitions. Your windows installations probably take up the entire drive, so you can use the tools in your chosen distro to examine your drives and decide where to make the free space for Linux (probably at the end of the drive). You will need a minimum of two partitions, swap and Linux.

The main thing is to use the liveCD version of a Linux distribution to become familiar with Linux before you install anything to the hard drive. You will probably be most interested in how well the distros detect and configure your hardware. This is the way to do it without commiting anything to disk.

If one distro doesn't work well enough, try another.

When you do install, it won't hurt windows unless you install in the windows partition. Things to do before you start messing with partitions:
1) defrag windows
2) make a backup of windows
3) make a windows boot floppy or boot cd because you may need it to boot into windows to repair the MBR of the hard drive if anything goes wrong when you install Linux.

"Getting started" below might be useful. There are many low-risk ways of test-driving Linux, and the kind of machine you start with is not a big factor.

Try Puppy Linux out.
It's a run live so if you don't like just reboot.

Read this :
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm (Linux is not windows: a comparison article)
and this is a good reference
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...ndows_software (sic)
and
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz (under the hood manual)

Thank you all!

This is a lot of very helpful information for me.

Roland