I am interested in learning more about Linux. I am currently using a Dell 8200 PC w/ a 4gHz P4 running XP Pro, 1GB of RAM, 2 internal driver & 4 external USB2 drives. It also has a ATI Radeon 8200 with dual monitors installed (very important to how I work - I am hooked). I would like to install a dual boot build of some flavor of Linux, but I am paranoid, because my current life lives on this computer (although it is backed up). I also have a huge outlook dbase and tons of archived e-mails I would need to import. Additionally, I use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and other specialized programs that may not be Unix friendly. I also do some very basic website stuff, and would like to know about any GUI based web design aplications for Linux.

I am also considering using some older computer parts to build a separate systems to run linux, but would like to avoid doing so if it is safe to go dual boot on my main PC.

Having said all that, I am interested and just would like some general feedback.

Thank you in advance for all of your help!

Cheers!

Try Knoppix or Mandrake Move. That will give you the option of trying linux without having to install anything to your hard drives.

Other options would be VMWare or Virtual PC. This would let you run linux on a virtual computer and still have all of your work applications in place.

The other option you mentioned, about getting another PC, to run linux sounds like the best option though. This way you have a true installation of linux to play with, and you don't have to put your livelyhood at risk.

Yes definetly try KNOPPIX. You do NOT install anything on your hard drive(unless you want to), KNOPPIX's CD runs off the CD-ROM plus memory. This way you can play with it to your hearts content, and see how you like it. KNOPPIX uses KDE and is famous for detecting pretty much most modern hardware. It can set up your sound and network automatically and painlessly. Plus it's totally free. How can you beat that????
Go to knoppix site, get the iso, burn it(make sure you make it a bootable CD), stick the CD in your CD-ROM, reboot. http://www.knoppix.net/ and
http://www.knoppix.net/get.php

If you prefer GNOME to KDE, get GNOPPIX at http://www.gnoppix.org/ . It's the same Live CD concept as Knoppix, only with Gnome instead and it's also maintained by a different developer group.
Both GNOPPIX and KNOPPIX work beautifully. I know quite a few people who have copied it onto their hard drive through the sudo knoppix-installer script.

Well, I built a dedicated Linux test computer out of a POS I had sitting around. 466MHz Celeron, 256MB of ram, DVD drive, Ge-Force2MX graphics card and a wopping 10 GB drive. I installed Mandrake 10 Community, which went pretty smooth, although I had some hardware problems (nothing to do with linux) that screwed things up a little.

Anyway, it is very cool and I am enjoying it so far. I downloaded WINE, figured out how do decrypt DVDs, setup a network print server and some network sharing between my three other Windows XP machines. Very easy.

I did have one problem installing Real Player. I downloaded the RPM, but it didn't install anything. Any suggestions would be great?

Anyway, thank you guys for the feedback. I appreciate the help!

Cheers!

how do you ahve a 4ghz p4 in a dimension 8200? is that a typo? Dell doesnt sell 4 ghz p4s because intel doesnt make them, and definitely not in a 2 generations back 8200 i thought they never had more than 2.4 ghz? and I would accept overclocking but Dell bioses are locked and as far as I know impossible to overclock without writing your own bios...did you get a new motherboard and overclock on that? if so how did you get it into a non-ATX case and non-ATX power supply? just curious

Sorry it that was supposed to say 2.4gHz... I did update the power supply. PC power and cooling sells some that work in the 8200. Sorry for the error.

ok I was just curious, I've always wanted to overclock the many dells that my parents have bought over the years and everywhere ive went has simply said its not really possible and even if it were it would be more economical to just buy a new pc and overclock that