Windows to Linux
 

I have an old computer and it doesn't have any software at all except when i turn it the computer on, it flashes Windows 98 really quickly but then it tells me to inset a boot up disk. I just preordered a ced from linux yesterday and i was wondering, how do i convert windows to linux. This computer will not have internet connection at all.


PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW<I AM NEW AT THIS STUFF>


Thanks

well usualy you just put the cd in and reboot then follow the instructions, but I have no idea what cd you ordered as you were very vague.

You may need to choose carefully. A computer that runs windows 98 generally has older,limited hardware. Quite possibly, it will be too slow run most of today's distros. I would suggest that you look up the hardware requirements of the distro you had in mind.

On an older machine like that I would use ether DSL Linux or Puppy Linux.

If you're brand new to Linux Puppy maybe the way to go.
DSL is nice. It has run on every machine I ever put it in,
but it uses an older kernel so the newest Flash won't work
and is required for a lot of sites.

If you know what you're doing you can try a minimal install of Debian and use a window manager like Fluxbox or ICEWM. If you have no clue what I mean by "a window manager like Fluxbox or ICEWM" then this is not the way for you to go.

try puppy first.

Is there any information on the computer that you would like to recover, or do you just want to install a system?

I agree that you need to evaluate first whether this computer is just too old. Perhaps you might post a few specs? What does the "Setup" BIOS-screen say about ... processor type, memory, copyright date and so-on?

Well, it had windows 98 so there is no way it can be "just too old"
I've got Debian installed on a machine with 64MB RAM and a 333Mhz Processor. I'm running ICEWM and it runs great. I've run DSL Linux on machines with as little as 32MB of RAM. And, DSL is "light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram" according to the website. And can "Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB"

So, Linux will run on this machine, and if you don't mind a simple looking interface it will run good.

Installing most Linux Distro's are as simple as clicking on the "Next" button whenever they ask you to do so. So that should not be a big worry at all.

But, like the other members have rightly pointed out. If you're system is slightly old/outdated - It might not be such a smart move to install any of the regular distro's like Suse or Fedora or even Ubuntu for that matter.

It depends on what do you call "too old". Win98 officially can work on a 486 dx 66. It might even work on lower cpus, I don't know. I guess in your country it's 2008 nowadays as well. So, it can be as old as more than 10 years old. Of it can be 5 years old as well. Since the first 486dx cpu is from 1989, I guess that your computer could be as old as 19 years old. Either way, the better we know the target hardware, the more accurate the advise we can give you.


Above 486, almost any distro can run as long as you tune the things on a realistic manner. DLS is definitely one of the best distros out there for older hardware.

What machine? It will run on the hardware you described above if that's what you ask. It will run on any box running win98 as well, since windows 98 can't run on a 286 :p

Linux requires a 32 bits processor in any case. So, anything that's a 386 or higher (talking about PC/x86) will do fine. Older machines might run better with a 2.4 kernel like in DSL, though.

Well you maybe if you think a little a bit, and asked question than saying im very vague, maybe i wouldn't be writing this so you can shove it. I'm getting the newest edtion of Ubuntu.

There's only one way to find out, try it. If you get a quick flash of W98 logo it likely means nothing on the machine but previously had W98. If you have a W98 boot disk, you could put it in the drive and type 'fdisk' at a command prompt and answer yes to enable large disk support and get to a screen with 4 options, #4 is display partition info. If there is nothing there, you are good to go. If you don't have a W98 CD (or boot floppy) you can do the same with your Ubuntu CD. Load Ubuntu into memory and when it is loaded you will have some icons and one will be a terminal (looks like a computer monitor) open that and type 'fdisk -l' and you should get partition information.

Generally speaking, installation is as simple as following prompts just as with windows or other OS's. Language, keyboard type, etc.. I would suggest that you keep notes on the installation if this is new to you so that if you have problems you can note them and any error messages you get. There are some good sites with installation instructions for Ubuntu including the one below:

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/install...386/index.html

Well that's the best attitude to have when your asking for help from people who don't get paid.

I didn't think my comment was mean at all you were vague: Last time I checked there were about 400 distros; your question was imposable to answer without knowing which one you were talking about. Since when is saying something is vague offensive? I thought by saying you were 'vague' about 'what cd you ordered' I was inferring the question: "what cd did you order?" but I guess that was a little to confusing for you, and since I'm a senior member here who has been helping people on this forum for over 3 years maybe you should 'shove it'

Get fscked buddy.

I believe he was correct, you were a bit vague in your original post. You did not state what you ordered, and there are literally hundreds of distributions of Linux. More information is always better when asking for help.

Your reply however was rude and un-called for. Take a deep breath and count to 1010. You will get more and better help if you are courteous rather than taking every comment as a personal assault.

Actually no it's not. since we don't know where you ordered it from and ubuntu recently had a version bump we have no way of knowing what version of ubuntu was the 'newest' available at the time you 'ordered it.' not to mention last time I asked for ubuntu cds all they had was 5.10 and it's now on 8.10 so yours could be anywhere in between.

Point in fact: I highly doubt anyone around here is going to even try to help you with your attitude. I know I'm not, and if farslayer still wants to help you after you flat out call him an 'idiot' then he's a better man then I am. We are not your employees. We are volunteers and you pal are an asshole. While you asked a simple enough question that almost anyone could've answered; your attitude and ignorance will probably prevent you from getting an answer on what is widely known as one of the most friendly and helpful linux forums on the net. Make no mistake you would be much to afraid to talk to me like that if we were in the same room, so why don't you put your moms old computer back in the basement and jack it to the victoria's secret catalog like all the other punk assed 14 year olds.

Name calling is what children resort to when they want to be right but they are -without a doubt- wrong.

{ Note: 1010 in binary is just ten in decimal, so don't be that scared :p }

You asked for help. The info you had provided was not enough, and people asked you to give some more info or complement the little info that you had given us. That was all happening on a cordial tone, and people asked you politely.

I, even took (and evidently wasted) my time to explain to you why we need to know the exact hardware you are using, so we can give you better advise about what exact distro you could run. (you are not going to run Ubuntu 8.10 on a computer from 1995, an example). You continually refused to give that feedback for I don't know what reason. We still have no info about the hardware you intend to run this on, other that it's a 486dx or better.

You seem to be angry because we didn't guess correctly your hardware specifications and the distro you ordered out of pure telepathy, and you start calling us names because of that. We are volunteers that decide to spend some of our free time to help others, just because we want to. We (well, I) don't think we deserve any merit for that. But we definitely don't owe you anything either, and we have absolutely no reason why we need to help you to be happier. You are asking for a favor, don't ever forget that again in the future, and maybe you'll be getting a better response.

You might feel you have the right to call idiot your employees when you pay for technical service (it's not right either, in case you didn't know), but we are not tolerating that here in any case, and we definitely are not your employees.

Yes: your question was vague, very vague. And you don't provide details when you are asked for them. Instead you react insulting people. If you didn't know how to answer the questions the people asked you then just say so, there's no need to attack anyone nor defend yourself, we were trying to help, remember? We need info to give you an output, we don't have magic powers.

Because of this childish behavior, because your inability to interact socially in a social environment like this, and because you broke the forum rules and the rules of common courtesy, you are being reported right now to the moderators.

Have a nice day.