In message <bcad0998674508884821e58e3a588132@tatooine.homelin ux.net>,
starwars <nobody@tatooine.homelinux.net> writes
>I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
>the experts here will answer.
>
>
>Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?
>
See the other followups for most answers.

Is the UK the only place where Linux distros come on magazine discs? In
the last six months, I've collected SUSE, Mandrake, RedHat, Fedora,
Gentoo, FreeBSD and OpenBSD, most of which I've installed and played
with. I mostly use Debian Woody, which also came on a magazine, though
it's quite rare to find Debian that way.

Yes, I have ADSL, I could download complete ISOs, but it's still a
nuisance at about ten hours per distro. With a DVD magazine
subscription, I've also become aware of many apps I'd never have heard
of otherwise. Even a few of the articles have been of some use.
--
Joe

starwars wrote:
> I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
> the experts here will answer.
>
> I'm looking for a version of linux that is easy to install. If it could be
> as easy as windows 98 to install, that would be ideal, but I'm willing to
> do a little work if I have to.

As easy as Windows 98? The easiest is what you know the best. If you do
not know Linux at all, you will find some stuff difficult to understand,
(huh? /dev/hda1?, huh? tar xvzf?) or at least, more difficult than
Windows. If you are more interested than just giving linux a quick
glance, you should or will shortly overcome these difficulties and, very
honestly, may find that you made the very best decision about computing
in your life. It is just plainly fantastic.

Just for your info, my installation of windows involves 12 CD's and some
6 or seven rebooting. My installation of Red Hat 9 only two and is much
quicker.

>
> Standard office apps are available for linux, if I have it right, and so
> are email clients and browsers, but I'm wondering how difficult it will be
> getting linux to recognize my network card. Will there be any problem with
> the CD reader and the CD burner?
>
> Once the network card is working, can linux 'talk' to the other computers
> on our home lan? They are running windows, and are connected using a
> Linksys router.
>
> Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?
>
> Thanks for any recommendations.
>
>

Gaétan Martineau <gmarti@mediomPAS_DE_SPAM.qc.ca> wrote in
news:2wjLb.2904$fM3.14577@news20.bellglobal.com:

> Just for your info, my installation of windows involves 12 CD's and some
> 6 or seven rebooting. My installation of Red Hat 9 only two and is much
> quicker.

More info: WinXP took 2 CD's including Office and RH9 took all 3 ISO for
me.

--
- Mark ->
--

Mark A. Odell wrote:
> Gaétan Martineau <gmarti@mediomPAS_DE_SPAM.qc.ca> wrote in
> news:2wjLb.2904$fM3.14577@news20.bellglobal.com:
>
>
>>Just for your info, my installation of windows involves 12 CD's and some
>>6 or seven rebooting. My installation of Red Hat 9 only two and is much
>>quicker.
>
>
> More info: WinXP took 2 CD's including Office and RH9 took all 3 ISO for
> me.

More for me as well: Given a pc;

Linux-------->
We have a red hat 9.0 on 2 CD's (included with a book). We boot from
the first, then a point insert the second. After that is ok; we just
have some backup files to copy back into places.

On the same system (dual boot) the Windows installation consisted in :

Windows----->
1 Windows XP CD
2 ATI driver CD
3 Intel express installer CD
4 MS Office
5 Logitech ITouch
6 CD AVG, Acrobat,
7 Power DVD,
8 Nero burner
9 Dictionnary
10 Installation CD for Palm pilot
11 Installation CD for Cannon A 70 camera
12 CD for learing spanish...

The biggest pain is CD 1, which reboots one or two times, I don't
remember exactly, and most of all, CD 3 which reboots 4 or five times at
least and leaves you with a message such as "The diver for this sound
card is material not approved by Microsoft, are you sure you want to
install this driver?"

I would say that installation for Windows is quite more complicated.
However, on the other hand, installing a *new* program or device seems
somewhat easier than on Linux. But then, this is quite personal matter,
finally.

Take care,

Gaetan

In article <bcad0998674508884821e58e3a588132@tatooine.homelin ux.net>,
starwars <nobody@tatooine.homelinux.net> wrote:
>I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
>the experts here will answer.
>
>I'm looking for a version of linux that is easy to install. If it could be
>as easy as windows 98 to install, that would be ideal, but I'm willing to
>do a little work if I have to.

It would be difficult to find a version of Linux which was harder to
install than Windows 98. The task of installing Windows has got easier
since then but Windows 98 is a proper pig to install.

>Standard office apps are available for linux, if I have it right, and so
>are email clients and browsers, but I'm wondering how difficult it will be
>getting linux to recognize my network card.

It will almost certainly just work. It's hard to find a network card
which doesn't have good Linux support these days.

>Will there be any problem with the CD reader and the CD burner?

Again, most unlikely. Assuming they're normal IDE devices they will
work fine.

>Once the network card is working, can linux 'talk' to the other computers
>on our home lan? They are running windows, and are connected using a
>Linksys router.

Yes, no problem. Assuming you want to use Windows file sharing you'll
need Samba installed on the Linux box. As long as you're using TCP/IP
on your Windows boxes they can talk to anything. (If they're using
Microsoft's obsolete NetBeui instead then upgrade them to TCP/IP.)

>Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?

Probably easiest to buy a boxed set to start with.

HTH
John
--
Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England
We had a woodhenge here once but it rotted.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 08:28:22 +0000 (GMT), John Winters <newstmp@sinodun.org.uk> wrote:
>
>
> In article <bcad0998674508884821e58e3a588132@tatooine.homelin ux.net>,
> starwars <nobody@tatooine.homelinux.net> wrote:
>>I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
>>the experts here will answer.
>>
>>I'm looking for a version of linux that is easy to install. If it could be
>>as easy as windows 98 to install, that would be ideal, but I'm willing to
>>do a little work if I have to.
>
> It would be difficult to find a version of Linux which was harder to
> install than Windows 98. The task of installing Windows has got easier
> since then but Windows 98 is a proper pig to install.
>
>>Standard office apps are available for linux, if I have it right, and so
>>are email clients and browsers, but I'm wondering how difficult it will be
>>getting linux to recognize my network card.
>
> It will almost certainly just work. It's hard to find a network card
> which doesn't have good Linux support these days.
>
>>Will there be any problem with the CD reader and the CD burner?
>
> Again, most unlikely. Assuming they're normal IDE devices they will
> work fine.
>
>>Once the network card is working, can linux 'talk' to the other computers
>>on our home lan? They are running windows, and are connected using a
>>Linksys router.
>
> Yes, no problem. Assuming you want to use Windows file sharing you'll
> need Samba installed on the Linux box. As long as you're using TCP/IP
> on your Windows boxes they can talk to anything. (If they're using
> Microsoft's obsolete NetBeui instead then upgrade them to TCP/IP.)
>
>>Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?
>
> Probably easiest to buy a boxed set to start with.
>
> HTH
> John


Second the motion.

I've found the Debian install from the CDs to be a breeze on boxes old
and new.

When in doubt, just hit Enter during the install and the program will work
it out.

Debian installs in the textmode, taking care of the basics first, which is
a very intelligent approach.

AC

In <bcad0998674508884821e58e3a588132@tatooine.homelin ux.net>, on
01/08/2004
at 04:37 PM, starwars <nobody@tatooine.homelinux.net> said:

>I'm looking for a version of linux that is easy to install.

Any of the major distributions is easy to install.

>If it could be as easy as windows 98 to install, that would be
>ideal,

It's not as hard.

>Standard office apps are available for linux, if I have it right,
>and so are email clients and browsers

Yes.

>but I'm wondering how difficult it will be
>getting linux to recognize my network card.

Probably automatic, but what card is it?

>Will there be any problem with the CD reader and the CD burner?

Most likely not, but what models do you have?

>Once the network card is working, can linux 'talk' to the other
>computers on our home lan?

Yes. You may need to do some configuration.

>Any idea of the best way to acquire the OS - download or on CD?

How patient are you? How many extras will you be wanting? For a basic
system, someone with a burner and broadband is probly better off
downloading, but if you want dead tree documentation or you don't want
to spend the time, then just buy a boxed set or loose CDs.

>Thanks for any recommendations.

I'm an everything but the kitchen sink type, and I opted for SUSE
Linux Pro. It's less expensive than some distributions that don't
include as much. But if you have a friend that already has a set and
you don't need the hardcopy documentation, the license allows him to
give you a copy.

If you're a tinkerer then you might want to look at something like
Debian or Gentoo. You might also want to start with something more
automatic and then switch when you get more comfortable with Linux.

There's no "one size fits all." But chances are that any of the major
distributions will be a good start.

--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT

Unsolicited bulk E-mail will be subject to legal action. I reserve
the right to publicly post or ridicule any abusive E-mail.

Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+news to contact me. Do
not reply to spamtrap@library.lspace.org

On 2004-01-08, starwars <nobody@tatooine.homelinux.net> wrote:
> I am thinking of giving Linux a try, and have a few questions, which I hope
> the experts here will answer.

Go down to your best book/magazine store and look for the latest issue of
Linux Format, a linux periodical from the UK. It's outrageously overpriced
($13) but it usually has a ton of software on included CD discs. The
current issue has one disc of Suse and one of Slackware. Buy it. Install
Suse first. If you do Suse successfully play around a little. When you're
feeling all warm and fuzzy, try installing the Slackware distro. These two
distros represent the best of each end of the Linux spectrum, a great
cross selection.

nb

In <vyGebhFRib$$EwK0@jretrading.com>, on 01/08/2004
at 08:07 PM, Joe <joe@jretrading.com> said:

>Is the UK the only place where Linux distros come on magazine discs?

No.

--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT

Unsolicited bulk E-mail will be subject to legal action. I reserve
the right to publicly post or ridicule any abusive E-mail.

Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+news to contact me. Do
not reply to spamtrap@library.lspace.org

In <btjv7s$f5o$1@rzsun03.rrz.uni-hamburg.de>, on 01/08/2004
at 04:07 PM, "Kilian A. Foth" <foth@informatik.uni-hamburg.de>
said:

>No, not unless they're older than eight years or so.

Or are designed by incompetents who ignore standards. There was a
recent thread on one such drive.

>support the distributor.

That's one of the reasons that I bought a boxed set.

--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT

Unsolicited bulk E-mail will be subject to legal action. I reserve
the right to publicly post or ridicule any abusive E-mail.

Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+news to contact me. Do
not reply to spamtrap@library.lspace.org