Hi!
I'll get a new computer soon, and since it will have only Linux until I'll get a WinXP CD, I'm curious how one can use Linux. Does it work like Windows (e.g. click, click, VIRUS!!!!, click, click, click *OS crashes*), or is it more complicated? :ph34r:

It's more click, click, wtf am I supossed to do?

Seriously, it may be hard for you to get use to it in beggining but it's allright. Virus? On Linux? I doubt it. I never saw Linux crashing, I don't know how that looks like.

I think that the biggest problem for you will be to live without your familiar apps for a while. But Linux rules, I plan on switching to Linux this summer (dual-boot with windows offcourse)

There is a virusscanner for Linux, ClamAV (http://www.clamav.net/), but I seriously doubt you're going to need it. To get started, use a user-friendly distribution like Ubuntu (www.ubuntulinux.org), which is my personal favourite. It'll install in less then an hour and will detect most (if not all) of your hardware (allthough wifi-cards may pose a bit of a problem). You can also try a live-cd first (Ubuntu has one, but Knoppix is also a very good one).

As for the actual using, since most distros startup KDE or Gnome at boot it's pretty much the same as using Windows. There's a big button which gives access to all programs installed... Adding software is mostly done using some sort of package manager (Synaptic in Ubuntu) and is really simple and straightforward...

Hey, Reup, I plan on using Ubuntu. Any expiriences with TV Tuner cards (PCI card, not integrated in graphics card)?

That's what I wanted to know. Thanks Reup!

My poor lil' Trillian... Anyway, I think I'll keep Linux and Windows installed on my new computer. Who knows. Maybe I'll also like Linux more. :P

Yeah. My TV card was recognized (philips chipset). I'm planning to run MythTV on my Ubuntu machine :D

You can use Gaim on Linux (and on Win as well). It also has multiple protocol support!

There is something called Damn Small Linux... that thing can work off anything from 486 upwards, and if you have over 128 MB RAM, you won't even have to install it - it can run off a ramdisk.
Even better, it has pretty decent set of drivers and a bunch of basic web and media programs.

Philips chipset? And it works! YAY!

Now, if I get PPPoE working right (ADSL connection, but "modem" just does AD conversion so the computer must do rest of the work) I'll throw my Windows CD right throught an open window! Had problem with it on SuSe but I hope I'll have better luck with Ubuntu.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jul 10 2006, 04:08 PM) [snapback]242483[/snapback]</div>Thanks! I'll download it and use it on another one of my computers to see how it's like. It's great that it can run from Windows or a USB thingy, since I don't have a CD Writer.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("Reup")</div>Thanks. I'll look over it also.

Also, you have QEMU Puppy Linux, works from a USB memory stick (you need 256 (or more) MB stick), but can also run under Linux EDIT: and Windows. Yes, just like DosBox: you load it and there you have your fully operational Linux with GUI (Gnome) running on your Win based computer. It's about 50MB in size, so if it isn't too big download for you I reccomend you to try it.

Had to use it exclusively in place of Windows for a few days some months back - turned out to be very convenient to use.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jul 10 2006, 06:51 PM) [snapback]242523[/snapback]</div>So I can use it instead of Windows98, if it will ever crash at startup? Cool.

DSL is nice and feature packed. I have it sitting on a 150mb partition on my Pentium I laptop. The one thing that I really like about it is that you can add modules to it have it detect automatically on startup. I've got Opera, Gnumeric and Doom on top of the standard set.

Yup, and it also reads NTFS partitions nicely -> useful for recovery purposes.

I have an ubuntu cd but it refuses to dual boot with my windows xp installation im working on it but after trying the live cd I think linux is great.

Guys, I need help.

Acronis does not detect my SATA disk and I need to swap some partitions before installing Linux.

Can I do it when installing Ubuntu? I know I was able to manage partitions when instaling Mandrake looong time ago...

I installed Ubuntu just fine on my new machine with sata300. You supposedly can resize and move data around too, but I would definately have it all backed up first.

Ubuntu/Kubuntu should work great on any computer with 512MB ram or more.

If you got less than 512MB of ram you should try Xubuntu, which uses the XFCE desktop that takes up far less RAM.

Linux is the best OS to use due to it's very high level or security and the pile of free software / games for it. It's also easy to use but at some point sooner or later you will need to learn how to use the terminal and such.

Good Luck ! :)

Thanks, but what's that a terminal in Linux? :)

Terminal / Console / Command Line,etc.
http://linux.org.mt/article/terminal
http://www.faqs.org/docs/bashman/bashref_toc.html

@Onyx: You'll need a fairly up-to-date kernel for SATA support; if your version isn't the latest one then I'd try the newest one available. My housemate managed to break the SATA support in my kernel when recompiling it the other day - must get him to fix that...