Do I need Windows to install Linux?

zoso1951 · 07-22-2004, 02:46 PM

Howdy,
I have a Dell/running Win2k pro, that I bought 3.5 yrs ago. Needs reformatting before OS decay sets in, and all ready have new Panther iBook
for mail & internet. Can I just do C:\format and not re install windows2k
and then install Linux? Don't really want to mess with Windows any more
unless I need to for Linux to run right or something. If this is possible,
any distro recomendations debian, mandrake 10??
Thank you!!
zoso1951 aka Robert

needforspeed · 07-22-2004, 02:49 PM

no, you don't need windows to install linux.

I suggest Red Hat, Suse, or Gentoo. Those are the only distro's I have really gotten along with.

noobtesting · 07-22-2004, 03:04 PM

Mandrake 10 is a really easy to use and install distro as is Fedora Core 2. I am not a fan of SuSE for the simple fact I will not pay for a Linux distro. With either Fedora or Mandrake you just need to download the iso's burn them to cd's then make sure you can boot from the cd-rom drive and you are off and rolling to getting a new OS.

Have fun.

I love your Duck Hunt game by the way need4speed, if you don't mind me asking where did you find it?

dadepfan · 07-22-2004, 03:10 PM

I simply choose a Windows partition of size zero during the install of SuSe 9.1, and assumed that removed Windows entirely.

zandak · 07-22-2004, 04:00 PM

You Don't need Windows for anything, and most Linux Distros will format the HD for you

Gkarfield · 07-22-2004, 04:11 PM

you get rid of windows with a linux distribution CD. i did partitioning before. So I don't know what partitions asks for. For linux u have 1 partition for swap, and 1 for normal use. Suse says u can run them along with windows, but only if u have a fat32 disk, otherwise u blast the disk, it works only with linux then. (I have 2 disks, one with windows , and one with linux)

zandak · 07-22-2004, 04:15 PM

NO, that is not True, i have both Windows XP(NTFS) and SUSe9.0 on this machine, i did a safe install, and boot manager set up the Dual boot, LInux not only configured the who HD, but partitioned it too, i now have 6 partions, one for Windows and 5 for Linux(FAT32)

Gkarfield · 07-22-2004, 04:22 PM

with a linux distribution CD , u just go along with the installation. it guides u

Gkarfield · 07-22-2004, 04:29 PM

i have the old win disk with 3 partitions and the new linux with 5
the first has 2 ntfs, and 1 fat32, the second has 1 reiser , 1 ext2 , 1 fat32 , 1 swap, and 1 unformatted

NoxVampyre · 07-22-2004, 04:42 PM

The simple answer is no, you don't need windows to install linux.

It says you have MDK 10 under your user name so I will assume that that's correct. Put the first CD in the drive, and when it asks you what you would like to do about partitioning, choose whole drive.

That's it. after that just follow the prompts. When it gets to the summary it will probably say "not configured" for video click that and it will take you about 2 choices to finish the configuration.

Continue to follow the prompts and you will soon be enjoying a nice fairly loaded distro of Linux.

Enjoy

Komakino · 07-22-2004, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zandak
NO, that is not True, i have both Windows XP(NTFS) and SUSe9.0 on this machine, i did a safe install, and boot manager set up the Dual boot, LInux not only configured the who HD, but partitioned it too, i now have 6 partions, one for Windows and 5 for Linux(FAT32)

Why on earth did you use FAT32 for linux? It's a horrible filesystem that defragments, corrupts data on a bad shutdown or crash and is generally less reliable than ext3 or reiserfs.

needforspeed · 07-22-2004, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by noobtesting
Mandrake 10 is a really easy to use and install distro as is Fedora Core 2. I am not a fan of SuSE for the simple fact I will not pay for a Linux distro. With either Fedora or Mandrake you just need to download the iso's burn them to cd's then make sure you can boot from the cd-rom drive and you are off and rolling to getting a new OS.

Have fun.

I love your Duck Hunt game by the way need4speed, if you don't mind me asking where did you find it?

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~jslack/duckhunt.php

For some reason, it doesn't want to load properly in IE all the time.

Ghost_runner · 07-22-2004, 06:37 PM

linux will run faster, and more securely on something like reiserfs or ext3 partitions, IMHO

Commando464 · 07-22-2004, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by noobtesting
Mandrake 10 is a really easy to use and install distro as is Fedora Core 2. I am not a fan of SuSE for the simple fact I will not pay for a Linux distro. With either Fedora or Mandrake you just need to download the iso's burn them to cd's then make sure you can boot from the cd-rom drive and you are off and rolling to getting a new OS.

Have fun.

I love your Duck Hunt game by the way need4speed, if you don't mind me asking where did you find it?

Where do you download Mandrake from?? I went to their site and its buy only.

I tried Fedora Core 2, but did not work out for me. It could not find my mouse. The mouse worked fine during the install, on reboot it would go dead.

I am using SuSE, which in downloaded from their site. So far i am happy with it. I am completely away from Windoze within this past week.

I have found everything i need for my business and most of it for free.

Open Office
Gimp
QCAD
Quanta
LICQ
Kopete
Mozilla
Multimedia-CD players and so on
The latest i just got is the replacment for MS Project called GanttProject.

Happy like a pig in s***.

cd_han · 07-23-2004, 03:02 AM

Hi, Commando464, where did you get that 'newbie' thing? It's very nice. Can I ask for a 'copy'?