newbie a little overwhelmed
 

I'm looking forward to buying a laptop in the almost near future, but I don't want windows vista. So today I started to look at my linux options and honestly I'm in need of a place to start. I want to install linux (I was thinking slackware) on my 5 year old HP pavillion so I can get to know what I'm doing, and if I even want to do it, before I order a laptop to put it on.

Do I NEED a floppy drive? neither of my computers have one.

If I'm downright linux dumb is slackware an appropriate distro for me?

Will I be able to get the games I want to play to work? Specifically SimCity 4, Morrowind, Oblivion, SimCity 2000(love that game), The age of empires games.

Okay, as a near newbie myself, I will recommend Ubuntu Edgy Eft 6.10. I have been using it for a month and could not be happier. You can download the LiveCD desktop version and learn to use it before doing a clean install.

Ubuntu is the premier Linux distro at present. I believe it has the best support forum on the web. Here is a link:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

Also, here is a link to the best Ubuntu guide that I have found:

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_E..._.28xine-ui.29

It has almost anything that you would need/want to install and how to do it.

Q: Do I NEED a floppy drive? neither of my computers have one.
A: No. However, if you decide you want one, buy a USB 2.0 drive. I have one and it works great.

Q: If I'm downright linux dumb is slackware an appropriate distro for me?
A: I don't have any experience with Slackware. Do try Edgy, however.

Q: Will I be able to get the games I want to play to work?
A: This is a difficult question to answer. There are two options for you to try --- Cedega and Wine. Both can be used to install Windows games on a Linux box. However, with that said, I have to say it is not an easy task to get either to work correctly. Do a search on Ubuntu Forums for games.

I am a gamer. Since, Linux does not have the games I want to play, I did a dual-boot setup. I have XP Pro on one drive and Edgy on the other.

Good luck!

Short answer:
No, you don't NEED a floppy drive.
Slackware is appropriate for anyone.
No, your games won't work.

Well, you might be able to get you games to work. You would have to install a program like Cedega or Wine to run those programs.
Most windows programs don't "Just work" on linux unless there is a version specifically made for linux (like Firefox works because there's Firefox for linux, but MS Office won't work natively because there's no "MS Office for Linux")

I think old_geekster gave you some great advice, I tried to install Slack (older version) a couple years ago on my Pavilion 8756c with Intel copermine 850mghz processor and all I got was "white noise" after installation, no command line even. If you have the i810 chip set, you'll have graphics problems with many Linux. I would do some digging in this area before downloading. The graphics will eventually work with some hard work, which is alright too as you'll learn to work with Linux in a hurry. Slack proclaims to be for power users, but it is one of the harder ones to set up for a newbie. Right now, I have Mandrake 10.1 and Debian Woody on it (and 4 different Windows including XP), these are both a little older but work great with it, I had to upgrade Xfree86 on Debian from command line to get graphics, Mandrake installs perfectly and everything works.

Buy a dual-boot system. It might cost you a little more money, but it will save you many headaches.

Thanx for the prompt answers, I'll look into ubuntu some more and probably take your advice.

Why does the i810 chipset have poblems? I doubt I'll understand the answer

Dual Boot system? what?

It's strange, the i810 was a massed produced popular chip set in it's day, why there are graphics problems? I don't know, probably a natural weakness in the chip technology. Same for other Intel chips, usually in a "Value priced" system.

On the subject of video chips, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches if you make sure your new laptop has an NVIDIA chipset. These are well supported.

That means buy a computer with MSwindows and Linux both preinstalled. You reboot to switch between them.

i810 works just fine. I don't know where all this is coming from.

Download Slack 11,install it, and go from there. If you're willing to dive into the learning curve you'll be fine.

I feel dumb but I downloaded ubuntu but then realized I didn't have any blank cd's can I just use a blank dvd, or will that mess it up.

It's not that big of a deal, I'm just broke and it's a couple weeks before I get paid.

Well
It's been around two years since I installed a Linux on my old HP Pavilion, back then, 50% of the Linuxes either gave me "white noise" or command line only. I'm sure the newer distributions got the message, as it is now one of the generic drivers included with many of them because like I said, "it was massed produced and very common in some countries", especially HP computers.

That's how it is for a "superbum".....I guess.

Not if you downloaded a CD ISO image, has to be installed on a CD. Go trade someone a DVD for a CD, would be a good deal for them, unless they don't have a DVD burner.

If you are happy to tinker and dont mind having the odd problem that might take a few weeks for you to solve, then slack will be fine.

If you would rather have a nice easy installation and set-up, with as much working as possible, then go for ubuntu or kubuntu.

If you dont want windows, try asking for a refund on it.
This guys did and succeeded in getting the purchase amount of windows AND MS works 8.0 back, worth about 15% of the purchase price of the laptop....

http://www.thealternative.ch/tiki-in...ware-Refund-en

duh! I know this was a little off-topic, but, I thought I would chuck it in, anyways.

oh yeah, about the distro? if you have used windows before, and want a really easy transition to Linux, try Ubuntu. Endless info available and really easy to use.
Dont dispair about your games, there are plenty of games available on Linux! ;)