HI
1:I am using live Ubuntu on my system and have no idea what to do as I have newer used any of the Linux op are there any other op to begin with for a newbie?
2: Is it any good to have 2 hdd with different op e.g. Win xp, Linux than one massive hdd?

Welcome to LQ cruise05!

Now, Ubuntu is actually the easiest Linux to start with, in most peoples opinion.

Other good distro's for beginner's are Fedora-10, Debian Lenny,
Mandriva, and also the "off-shoots" of all those distro's

Like Ultimate-Edition-2.2 (based on Ubuntu 904)
Debris, a debian/ubuntu based smallish distro
There are so many

Couple points to remember with almost ANY Linux distro:

Most everything boils down to editing a config file somewhere...isolinux.cfg, xorg.conf,
lilo.conf, menu.lst, etc

Most all major distro's have a package management system, under various names(synaptic, yum, portage, etc), where you install apps, etc thru the net.

LinuxQuestions is the best place to start, so your already ahead of the Game

As for your 2nd question, that's really different for each person.
I run a single hd, with about 8 partitions and about 12-15 distro's at any one time
I also run alot of stuff off my 2 usb's, a fat32 2gb kingston and a ext3 4gb kingston

if you are interested in linux then you can learn.
And there is no need of 2 hdd, you can install it on single disk with dual boot, but you should understand the method other wise you can lost your first OS(windows), if your system support you can also install linux on virtual machine.
But if you want to become expert in linux, then you have to use only linux.

Welcome to LQ!!

There is no "best" version of Linux.......Take a look at http://distrowatch.com You can start with anything in the top ten on their "hit list".

Using two hard drives is a very easy way of installing Linux without disturbing the Windows installation. Just be sure that the bootloader gets installed to the Linux drive**, and set the BIOS to boot from that drive. The typical installer will automatically detect Windows and set up the dual boot. If something goes wrong, then set the BIOS to boot the Windows drive.

**During installation, the drives will appear in the order detected by the BIOS. Thus, the drive you are using for Linux will likely be seen as #2 (sdb). The installer will typically default to #1, but it can almost always be changed. In the Ubuntu installer, you have to click the "advanced" button when it gets to the bootloader installation.

You will get many replies...

Better in linux is relative to what you want or need to do.

You may use Ubuntu or any other linux on its own HDD or on one disk as a dual boot. If you have a simple XP installation with a HDD that is large in relation to the amount of space being used, you might well consider a dual boot.

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_w...lled_first.htm

Here are some basic lessons.

http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/toc.html

You might use your live-cd to find out what you have for partitions. Google to find out how you acquire root privileges, open a terminal, and type the command <fdisk -l>.

Welcome to linux

I think there are several details that make Mepis easier for a beginner than Ubuntu. But they are just details. Overall, the difference isn't that big. If you've already started with Ubuntu, I probably wouldn't suggest switching.

A live CD is good for a first step, to make sure you can get the Linux GUI to load (that is tricky with some display cards) and to make sure your network access works (tricky with some wireless interfaces).

But using a live CD is enough slower and enough different from using an installed copy of Linux, it generally isn't the best way to learn.

You should install Linux on the hard drive.

One hard drive is usually fine.

If you already installed XP using the entire hard drive, it is best to use the defragment tool in XP to defragment the NTFS partition (XP's C drive), then use gparted on your Linux live CD to shrink the NTFS partition, then use the Linux installer, making sure you tell it to use the available space, not the whole hard drive.

If you haven't installed XP yet, it is best to install XP before Linux, but the XP installer can be told to use only part of the hard drive so you won't need to immediately defragment and shrink it.

Which operating system in linux I can use for free and step to download?

Normally, you should start a new thread with a new topic, but this is closely related....so let's keep it here.

Most versions of Linux are available free. Go to http://distrowatch.com to see the details of each distro, links to the websites, etc. At each website, there is a link for "download" or maybe "get <version>" I think distrowatch also has direct download links.

The normal routine is:
Download an .iso file
Burn a CD (be sure to use "burn from image" or "burn from iso")
Boot from the CD and follow instructions

Almost all of them are free, even distributions such as Mepis, which request that you purchase or donate. The free download is exactly the same file as the one you can purchase.

Do you have a bit torrent program? Most large files, such as Linux .iso files, are easier and more reliable to download via bit torrent rather than FTP or HTTP.

The bit torrents for Mepis are at
http://www.tuxdistro.com/torrents.php?cat=220

For non bit torrent download of Mepis, go to this page
https://www.mepis.org/mirrors
and click on one of the "mirror" links at the bottom.

For any Linux .iso, I also suggest getting the freeware program ImgBurn
http://www.imgburn.com/
which is less confusing than the CD writing programs often bundled with Windows systems, for the task of burning the .iso image to a CD.

Hi cruise05 and yudh_1981,

I'm new to Linux/BSDs, as well. I have Ubuntu on my wife's laptop and PC-BSD on my desktop. Both are very user friendly, but they are different than using Microsoft OSs, so there is a learning curve, small though it is.

For resources, this is a great website, most of the popular distributions have good forums of their own, and you can find the answers to a lot of questions by googling.

I have a favourite book that I keep telling people about, which I have no affiliation to, it is Visual Quickstart Guide UNIX third edition. This books covers a lot of very useful commands and ideas as to what you might use those commands for.

Welcome to LQ and Linux, cruise05!

Ubuntu is a good place to start. There are a million ways to set up the harddrives. You might waste space having one disk pr OS, but if you have enough space for each, why not. Actually I started like that. I then found I used Linux more, and so I took partitions away from my Windows installation, reformatted them to ext3 and mapped to them to various places on the Linux installation. Windows only have the "C" drive left now, but then I haven't booted it for 2 years...

If you have a recent system with virtualisation support on the CPU (e.g. AMD Phenom etc), you could also use virtualisation instead (the later generations of CPUs do this very efficiently). That way you can have many more OSs at the same time and maybe just Ubuntu as the only real installation.

Mons

Thanks for ur reply will stick to Ubuntu I have one more question.
Will it support install on a sata hdd?

Check the readme to find accurate support information. It is the best way going forward before performing any installation. But SATA should be supported by Ubuntu