[Blade-Runner]

First off I know nothing about Linux, other then I have been told it's better than windows.

I was thinking about trying out Linux on my Dell, is this possable?

Where can I buy it from? Or download it for free?

Can I still run MS program on my computer?

Will all the data on my computer be lost is I change to Linux?

 

[Doraf]

You can buy it cheap at just about any software store and I think you can download it at www.freshmeat.net I haven't been to the site in awhile. When you install redhat it will give you an option to duel boot if you already have windows installed on this computer. I would seriously suggest picking up a cheapass 300mhz machine or something and running it on that first untill you get used to it before installing it on your main, because you run the risk of hoseing everything on the HD if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[Oni]

Go out to www.knoppix.com and download an iso and burn it to cd. You can then boot from the cd and play with linux and see what you think. Runs entirely from cd and doesn't touch your hard drive.

 

[wct097]

You'll get as many opinions on what you should run, as there are distributions to run. To go 100% Linux on your personal PC without having a Windows backup, is brave. You'll probably pick it up fast though.

I'm sure you can run Linux on your dell. If it's relativly new, it should scream. You can download linux for free all over the internet. DL the ISO's and burn a CD from them. Easy as that.

I'm running Fedora Core 1 on my 300mhz IBM Aptiva. A little slow for graphical/internet use, but it works as a backup in a pinch when my XP machine goes down for the count.

For a rank newbie, I would suggest Fedora Core 2 (the latest Fedora). You can download the ISO's here:

http://fedora.redhat.com/download/

It'll install and have you up in running in no time. For a n00b, I'd suggest getting a dedicated machine to run it on so you don't hose your old one or have to deal with dual boot issues.

 

[BuRn__]

www.linuxiso.org has download FTP's for most of the well-known distro's.

i would suggest doing a dual-boot for a starter. linux is easy to pick up, but ull realize how many windows-only programs u use daily and need to ween urself off of.

im setting up a server in my apt. and when all my stuff i ordered gets here, ill be running SuSE9

 

[Blade-Runner]

I have an extra hard drive (external) I have never used, would I be able to run linux off of that? I could back-up/copy everthing to that drive, then disable the main hard drive and work off/load linux on the external. Will this work? what do you think?

 

[wct097]

You can install linux on the second drive while Windows resides on your main drive. Linux will have to install something in the MBR of the master drive to allow it to dual boot.

 

[Blade-Runner]

Ok, thanks for the info guys. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[MotoTiller]

Can't answer any of your questions but after looking at this I have to say that Linux is goooood