Getting Ubuntu Linux (need info)

[nightwheel]

If it supports writing disc images. This means look to see if it supports iso, img, ect. I've really never used Sonic so you'll have to check, you might have to look kind of hard they sometimes change the wording.

Just remember when you get a distro up and running, get K3B, it's (in my opinion) the best burner that is offered on the Unices. Very user friendly.

Can I dual boot with DSL?

[nightwheel]

A little while ago, I live CD Booted Linux on this computer which I am posting from. No harm was done to it. I still got Windows XP *yea!!*. Could not get it to work on my old computer tho. Anyways Linux is so alien compared to Windows. At least DSL is. It took me five minutes to figure out how to shut down my computer. Is Ubuntu easier to understand than DSL?

[parkie]

At the moment i am trying to set up a dual boot, Linux ubuntu distro and xp pro on the same hdd. And it was being difficult. Xp saw the hdd which was a 320gb hdd as a 120 one. And then when i was in Linux it saw my hdd all normal, But its all sorted now .. Just install xp first under FAT file system as it is easy to access from linux( Eg. to get your music from Xp hdd partition into the linux file system ext3.. yeah

[Sparkfist]

Ubuntu is a lot more easier to use. It's default GUI is Gnome and it's very familiar to anyone that comes from the Windows world, you can find you're way around fairly easy.

As for dual booting while some of you might not agree it was the best idea. I installed Windows on NTFS partition table. Why? It's better then FAT, namely in the area of any data lost, it can be read by most distros (that have the driver) and I'm not moving data to that partition any ways.

As for the problem of when you're in Windows and you can't see your whole disk. IFS Drivers, look it up or google search ext2 windows driver. This driver gives you the ability to see, read and write to Ext2/3 partitions. So if you have information you want to move or get from the Linux portion you can.

There is only one thing I must warn you about. It's not very fast as far as reading the information. For example I originally had my WoW directory on my Ubuntu partition, but trying to read it was too slow and so I moved it on the the Windows partition. So if it's a game or a big video file don't expect it to be very fast.

[bicostp]

Ubuntu is much easier than DSL, since it uses a bigger desktop program. DSL uses FluxBox, a more advanced (yet smaller and faster) system. Try booting DSL again, but this time right-click the Desktop, and in the menu, select "WindowManager", then "Switch to jwm". This will switch to Joe's Window Manager, which is a bit more like Windows than Fluxbox.

If you want another lightweight distribution, try Puppy Linux. It runs IceWM, which feels similar to Windows 95.

Aside from downloading a bunch of different systems, there isn't much you can do to get a feel for different environments is to look at screenshots.
http://shots.osdir.com/ has a ton of them.

[Sparkfist]

As far as look and feel of thing. When you go to install Ubuntu go and open Synaptic, and type in the search window "Kubuntu desktop", install that. When you boot up you can decided if you want Gnome (default), KDE (kubuntu desktop), or you can install others and see what you like the most. Once you get what you like you can go back into Synaptic and uninstall all the desktop managers you don't need/want.

I've used IceWM, and like Bicostp said, it's very Windows 95/98. It comes with themes so you can set it up to look just like Windows 98 and fool your friends.

[Life of Brian]

This is some good info guys. I've been researching Linux to use on some sort of mini-itx board or something similar for quiet media center pc, and this helps.

[nightwheel]

Now I got a new problem. I can not conect to the internet.I think it has to do with my usb wireless internet router. How do I fix that?