installing linux

[winsucks]

I'm definately a newbie to linux. But I'm hellfire bent for leather to learn. Is it safe to install caldera or mandrake inside windows? What is the easiest linux to install? I don't have a monitor that mandrake recognizes. Which of the two linux
programs is easier? Or could one of you folks give me some advice from your knowledge and experience? I realize you are going to have fun with this one but I really do need your help.

Thanks, Kevin.

email: integ150@netscape.net

 

[RhythmAce]

I'm not sure that those two can be run "inside" of Windows. You can buy winlinux which will kind of give you a feel of the operating system or you can set up a dual boot system where you can choose at boot up which OS you would like to load. Most newer versions of linux have GUI install programs that will help you set up linux partitions on your drive without touching the Windows partition. You may have to disable Windows' swap drive (virtual memory) or undo drive space if you have a compressed drive but with this set up you will have the best of 2 worlds until you say goodby to windoze. )

 

[ifincham]

Hi,















I is possible to install linux on an existing FAT filesystem with most distros although it is far from optimal and not really encouraged. Winlinux specialises in that arena but until the latest version (7.2) you could also do that with redhat :

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.1-Manual/install-guide/ch-part-less.html

(From 7.2 Redhat no longer provides any support in the installer for a 'partitionless' install)















The only other non-partioning install is to run Linux inside a VMware virtual machine - its pretty good if you have enough memory but obviously can't be as fast as native. Plus its a commercial product and, unless you're the kind of person who goes looking for ways round these things, it costs real money - $299 for electronic distribution version !

http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/ws_features.html

.
The image here shows XP under Linux (wrong way round for you) but you get the idea -->

http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop/img/ws3_large4.gif

.














The easiest is to bite the bullet and dual-boot. You can either use partition magic or similar to free up some space from your existing system before the install or most linux installers will offer similar functionality during the install process itself. Having a couple of linux partitions on a windows box would be totally transparent to windows because it just ignores unsupported partition types.















On the monitor, just find out the various parameters (refresh frequencies etc) and note them down. You can specify 'generic' or suchlike and give these details manually during the install.















Hope this helps

 

[cs1]

Have a look at Cygwin, a UNIX environment for Windows.

http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/

- Karthika

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Both the Caldera and Mandrake distributions are nice and easy to install - especially Mandrake 8.1.

The preferable way is to boot from the CD and install that way. Just make sure you've got a partition available for it first!

Caldera comes with a Windoze installer (well, the commercial version does), which includes Partition Magic. The installation takes longer this way, though, and the free Pacman game Caldera give you to play while the installer runs isn't nearly as enjoyable.

I hope this helps