Yeah, I'm a total newbie and have never used Linux before, and I've been told by 34534 people that slackware is "hard as hell and impossible to use" etc but I'm gonna try it anyways.....because I hate windows...


Am I making a mistake? Everyone sais I should start with Red Hat but it just looks like a watered down windows...



Am I gonna be overcome by this? What should I expect?

Linux is not hard, nor is it impossible. If you want to learn, and you have a little bit of patience, and you want to break away from the M$ grip...jump in. Red Hat...I never liked it. If you really want to learn how linux works, and want a slim, fast, and powerful distro...give Slackware a try. You'll learn, and hopefully have some fun along the way. Besides...if you don't like it, or it is too demanding as a beginner, what do you have to lose

That's the way I see it. I like powerful, slim, and fast... especially since I only have 120mbRam

I hear Linux is RamFriendly, which = good for me

Isn't there a app that lets you run certain Windows products on Linux? I was told there was, and I hope so because I'm a big WinAMP junkie, and have tried The GIMP (for windows) and can NOT get the hang of it like I have Adobe Photoshop.

Just follow the instructions and slackware is very easy to install (the text install looks scary, but is not ) Try some of linux's sound players, they work alright. The GIMP itself has a lot of help files and documentation on the web so it is easy to learn about.

I don't know too much about running Win apps under Linux...but I am aware of the likes of...
Wine
WineX
Crossover

...just to name a few. Also, you'll always find quality help here, and firendly suggestions along the way. Good luck.

Thanks

Your gunna need to play with LFS before playing Slackware as the name say's it all.
You aleast need to know what the file system structure is and where files are before trying to do a thing.
hey like to live the hard way install Slackware,also if you like a long learning curb installing somthing without a GUI like KDE allready configured for you is a great idea.
Just could take you 30mins to find out what the files in /dev/ all do and how they fuction-

I have NOTHING but time


Got me three days out of school tomorrow, wed & thur, and probably wont go fri. either...


I'd also like to add that I have no idea what you're talking about

All these abbreviations are really what's gonna kill me.

Here's a question, do I HAVE to set up different partitions?


I have 20 gigs and usually 15 or more of it is taken up by mp3's (though i have none now because I reformatted last night because of problems)


I like to keep it in one partition, do I HAVE to make seperate ones?

If you are just using slack and don't want to use windows than you don't need to have more than one partition though you should set up a swap with 120mb ram.

Ok, but since I have windows already installed,(windows ME), could i install Slack without putting new partitions, then uninstall windows?


I have absolutely NO intention of keeping windows lol



And I'll put what, like a gig of swap? Swap I assume is just like, extended ram(on the harddrive)?

i really recommend having windows if this is your first time using linux...no matter how much you hate windows, just having linux is very risky unless you don't burn cds, play games, or etc etc....u get the picture...all these take time to set up

and swap space is usually double the amount of ram you have if i remember correctly...

I do agree with newbieME, keep windows for the time beeing untill you're completely set ( I still have it somewhere on my hard drive even if I don't use it anymore!).
Slack is to me a great distro (but you'll need patience!) without experience you won't get it up and running as you do with windows in a few hours but it is not impossible.
When it comes to win apps, wine and xwine worked fine for me when I tried them, but you can find plenty of equivalents on the web; XMMS, xine, openoffice even good games.
But don't hesitate, get yourself a good book and go for it! I never regretted it (except maybe for the time spent configuring and figuring out what those guys where telling me!)
Welcome to Linux

Yes. You need to make at least one partition for / also known as rootand one partition for swap as well also known as /swap. Your swap should be double your RAM size (unless you've got a lot of ram). If you've got like 512KB RAM, then your swap really doesn't need to be any bigger than 512KB. However, it's up to you how you want to do it. Basically, when you run the install it will ask you if you want to format your partitions and what not.

The best suggestion I can give you at this point is to search around for threads on dual booting and KEEP YOUR WINDOWS FOR NOW. If for no other reason--internet connectivity. Should you need any help with your Slack install, it will be nice to have a way to get back to LQ.

After you get used to the Slacker style and Linux in general, you might consider dropping your windows. I was fortunate enough to have 2 old systems--one for Slacking, and one for cleaning Windows.

We'll be here to help you out when or if you need it.

That is so true, Slack rocks, but you probably want Windoze around for emergencies!