Linux?

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:15 pm

Ok, here's the situation: I want to try using Linux, so I can have access to thousands of free quality programs, and I am SICK AND TIRED of all the crudware that attacks Windows. So, I am thinking of taking a second dead comp I have in the garage and installing some flavor of Linux onto it. (Plus I think it could tell what the funky motherboard drivers are

)

However, with hundreds of thousands of Linux distributions out there, I am overwhelmed with the selection. I concider myself an "advanced" Windows user, but the most experience with Linux I have is an installation of Red Hat that I don't have the password for.

So, I humbly ask (on my knees praying lol) for help. Here's what I need:

-Fairly small installation (1 or 2 .iso images)
-Free (of course.

)
-USB Disk drivers (so I always have the SAME comp with me at school all the time, eliminating the "Sorry this version of Office cannot open this document" yadda yadda.. That's SO ANNOYING!)

Also, if somebody could recommend a similar Live CD, that would be great. (I hate to spend hours on end downloading something that won't work for me lol)

And if we come across a version that is as easy to use as Windows and just as compatible, I might try to fix all the school's comps with it.

Thanks for the help!

(Oh, I downloaded Slax Linux Live and I plan on making a disc when i get Nero to work again. Is it any good?

)

jellywerker · Post by **jellywerker** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:39 pm

get archlinux, combines the best of slackware, debian, and gentoo.

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:12 pm

SuSE 9.1 LiveCD and Personal. Both are only 1 CD, and it is a great distro. If you can find 9.3 for free, get it, but 9.1 is very close to it.

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:10 pm

damn small linux is only 50mb
i havent tried it yet though

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:25 pm

nos_slived wrote:SuSE 9.1 LiveCD and Personal. Both are only 1 CD, and it is a great distro. If you can find 9.3 for free, get it, but 9.1 is very close to it.

I have SuSE 9.1 personal installed on my computer. I'd say if you really like SuSE go for it. But I have had trouble, like I couldnt deselect gnome from being installed. That and I have yet to get my DVD burner to work with the packaged K3B.

shmagoogin77 wrote:damn small linux is only 50mb
I havent tried it yet though

DSL is a nice little thing to try. Its not bloated with user friendly crap, so be prepared to know something about the unix commmand line. However for basic things its not necessary (just saying for things like configuring). Also be aware with DSL you should use the DSL extentions. DEB may work but its not gerenteed, though they do have an expansive selection so many of the programs you may want they probibly have converted to work.

Otherwise those two I'd say stick to the distros that use packaging systems (RPM and DEB), the reason being if you dont have these you have to compile your programs from source and though it maybe fun I dont think most newbies to Linux./Unix want to do that right off the bat.

jellywerker · Post by **jellywerker** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:33 pm

archlinux has it's own live cd, archie. getting arch will also help you learn linux quickly, it can be installed in 10 min, and the base is only 210mb or so, from there you edit a few config files, then install thing like x windows (gui) with simple commands like pacman -Sy xorg Read up on it, yuo'll like it.

shmagoogin77 · Post by **shmagoogin77** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:45 pm

what should i burn the iso file with?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:32 pm

shmagoogin77 wrote:what should i burn the iso file with?

Nero, if you have it. However just about any program that supports buring iso/bootable images will do. If you want two other examples; Easy CD/DVD creator, and alcohol 120% should work well too.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:38 pm

Does anyone have any other advice?

(I do kind of need some beginner stuff, I know nothing about the Unix prompt.

But I can do quite a bit on the DOS prompt.)

HK-47 · Post by **HK-47** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 12:41 pm

Theres some good stuff here:
http://www.happyhacker.org/gtmhh/gtmhh2.shtml
Just ignore the "haxxor" stuff if you want. Though if you know dos, shell script is just like it, but with a few different keywords.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:11 pm

OK, I'mn trying Slax and DSL bootdiscs. (DSL with OpenOffice and many other MyDSL packages)

Now I just need to get my burner to work. lol

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:29 pm

Dont know if your in the States, if you are and willing to pay shipping I could ship you a.... package I've built up of distros. It has SuSE 9.1, DSL v1.1, Knoppix v3.8.2, PHLAK v0.3, Slax v4.1.4 and Fedora Core 3 DVD. Out of all of these Fedora's the only one that isnt a live cd, and their all in a hex case.

P.S. Just so you know Slax is a based off Slackware, and Slackware doesnt use any package system so you'll have to read about how to compile your application.

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:46 pm

also try smoking gravy... man thats a funny storry!

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:12 pm

Grrrr... How do I burn a bootable DSL disc from Nero?

I've already got 2 discs that won't boot... I use the bootfloppy (which does work) and it says something about an invalid file system. (I'm just using the "burn from image" option)

And I tried the boot CD option and couldn't get it to work.

Is there another program that would work?

Help please.

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 1:24 pm

Read this for burning in Nero.
A good, free, burner is DeepBurner.

Have you checked the md5 sums?