Re: advice on switching to linux
- From: John Stumbles <john.stumbles@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:30:12 GMT
On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:22:32 -0700, gerry.casadei wrote:
Hello,
I'd like to make the move from Windows to Linux and have a few
questions.
Currently I'm running Windows98 SE on a Dell Latitude laptop with a 6
GB hard drive and 128 MB RAM. The processor is a 400 MHz Intel
Celeron. My external drives are a CD drive (read only, can't burn), a
floppy drive, and a 4GB USB "thumb" drive.
Here are my questions:
A.) Which version of Linux would you recommend for the above system
and a complete newbie?
B.) What's my best installation option since I don't have a CD
burner. Can I use my thumb drive?
C.) How do I backup my Windows operating system, including Registry
and drivers (I've already backed up my important personal files)?
D.) Is there anything else that is absolutely essential to backup?
All of my programs are open source that I've downloaded from the
internet (except for Internet Explorer). So, I'm not concerned about
backing up my programs.
Thanks in advance for your answers to any or all of these questions.
Also, please feel free to add any important info that I neglected to
ask about.
Finally, please base your answers only on the current specs of my
machine. Don't just tell me to upgrade my machine or get a new one.
I'm using this as a learning experience and a way to possibly get a
little more out of an old (but still useful) machine that I don't want
to throw any money at.
My first experience of running Linux on a machine of my own was a Dell
Latitude laptop much like yours. Mine didn't have an OS on it (I bought it
second-hand that way) and I couldn't find a 98 disk but I had a Mandrake
one kicking around so installed that. The rest, as they say, is history
:-)
If I were doing it now I wouldn't use Mandrake again, but I've had
various versions of Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE) running on it OK.
If you can't even burn CDs I'd strongly suggest finding someone who can do
so for you and getting copies of Knoppix and Kubuntu. Knoppix is great for
booting from without installing, to try out and also as a rescue/utility
disk. For example it'll have a partition resizing program on it (I can't
remember if it's gpart or gparted - I think it's the latter) so you can
shrink your Windoze partition to make room for linux. I'd get the
non-liveCD version of kubuntu (I think they call it the installation disk)
(i386 version of course) as that is less gung-ho about where it installs
itself.
kubuntu won't be blindingly quick on that machine if you try to use many
modern applications but it'll let you dip a toe in the water to see if
you're happy with it.
--
John Stumbles
Who's *really* behind all these conspiracy theories?
.
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