I've installed linux on a compac evo n610c, giving an outdated windows 2K computer new life instead of scrapping it for parts. I'm glad I did. Back in the day, this was an awesome computer and, for my purposes, it still is.
Since I'm new to linux, I followed my IT guys instructions and downloaded mint 10. The following questions will help me to run linux more efficiently for the space this computer has;
1) How can I tell what version of linux I have (in searching software I see KDE and various other linux acronyms and it's kind of confusing)?
2) When I know what version of linux I have, how can I tell what software to get rid of (I've downloaded some things and would like to know if I need to get rid of anything)?
3) I've tried to burn linux OS download to my CD/RW drive and it seems like none of the players I've installed will recognize a cd in the drive, whether it's a CD/R or CD/RW. (I've downloaded Brasero, Gnome mplayer, movie player, Rhythmbox music player, sound recorder, sound converter, and VLC media player, not to mentions minitube and pulse audio device chooser...which is best for burning cd's?) What can I do to get media recognized by these apps?
Thanks in advance.

Hello bustertech, welcome to LQ,
Mint is known as an excellent distribution for beginners, I'd recommend to read the documentation: http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php
If you want to install software you can use the repository of Mint, the usage is well explained in the documentation.Your version of Linux is Mint, there are also tools (packagemanager) which help you to uninstall software.if you've installed Mint sucessfully, what do you want to achieve with the downloaded "linux OS", I don't understand your question. Brasero is a burning tool (like Nero is for Windows) and the others are players (like Windows-Mediaplayer).

Markus

1 members found this post helpful.

Markush, thanks for your reply. The downloaded linux OS is a 64bit for my fiance's computer. Mine is 32 bit. She's seen my surfing on my old compac and getting places faster than she does on her dell with the 250 GB hard drive and 2 GB ram. I've got a 30 GB HD and 512 MB of ram and I'm smokin' her so she wants me to install a dual boot for her. I just got rid of win 2K and went linux mint. So far, so good. I'm learning something everyday.

If burning doesn't work, you may as an alternative create a bootable USB-device with the installer as described here: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/
Then the computer will boot from the usb-drive instead of the CD/DVD-drive and the rest of the installation remains the same.

good luck

Markus

1 members found this post helpful.

The command "uname -a" entered at the command line should tell you what version of the kernel you are running. It may also tell you which distro you are using, depending on the distro.

To find which distro you are using may be a little more complicated, because different distros may use different files to store that information. In general, cat /etc/*-release at the command line usually works.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks to Frankbell and Markush. You've both helped me. I've installed linux mint 10 on my lady's computer and now I just have to find out how to get her box (on the linux side) to get onto the internet. I got my other computer on it and it wasn't hard (I'm not needing that info from you). I've already figured out how to assign her as an admin on her side of linux and how to install mustiple user logins. Thanks guys! I really appreciate it. Linux, in my opinion, rules. To get tech support for windows, you usually have to pay. Windows is nothing but pay, pay, and pay some more. As I learn more about linux, I'll answer people's questions as well. I can't tell y'all how much I like linux. I know I'll learn something everyday on it. Have a good one!