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Thinking of trying Linux


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#1
Vegan5589

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I have been googling to see what the hype is all about. I like open source stuff so I think I'm going to give it a try. I want to run it along side of Windows. If I install Linux on my external hard drive or my 2nd hard drive do I need to repartition C? How much free space do I need? I would prefer a graphical interface over command lines. I don't have many required needs, have to be able to sync my iPod, write papers, surf the web. I narrowed the distros down to Debian and Gentoo, I think they both meet my needs. Which distro would you chose from the two? Do you recommend a different distro then the two I listed, if so what? Any tips or info I should know?

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Windows XP Home SP2
Browser MSIE 7.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727
Brand/Model Intel Pentium 4
RAM installed 512 MB
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Monitor Dell 50563
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Edited by Vegan5589, 15 May 2007 - 01:53 PM.

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#2
Drumbum667

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Im no expert but to put Linux on an External HD you would have to partition it and then reformat it to the Linux file type. If you want a graphical interface I like Ubuntu. I hear PcLinux OS has a good graphical interface. Haven't tried it yet but I will soon.
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#3
silverbeard

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To run Linux next to Windows is not all that difficult, I've done it for years. And a external hard drive is a good way to use Linux. The Installer for PCLinuxOS has the option to install to a usb device as do other distros. Although most of the latest have the drivers to read and write NTFS be cautious as file permissions are handled differently and this can cause problems for both systems if you read /write to your Windows partitions or if you use the ext2 drivers for Windows you can end up with a mess.

Simple advise is to try a few Live CDs to see which one works the best for you. http://distrowatch.c....php?dataspan=4
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#4
Drumbum667

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Silverbeard can PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu 7.04 run on NTFS. Or do they need Ext3 or 2.
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#5
Tyger

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And if you've got an old hard drive laying around, or can get ahold of one, 10gb is enough for testing, you can unhook your current HD and install linux on the old on. I'm running PCLinuxOS on a machine with similar specs to yours, not nearly as good graphics but a sata drive with add-on card and I'm liking it much better than the old copy of XP that I was running. I still have the XP disk stowed away but this is a lot crisper and I can already do a lot of what Windows did without adding any software, or only adding what is in the repositories. BTW the distro had no trouble installing the sata drivers.
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#6
silverbeard

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I'm not sure if ubuntu has the NTFS 3g drivers installed but they are available in the repositories. I personally don't think its a good idea to run Linux on NTFS because of the permissions issues. Old habits die hard. The first generations of NTFS drivers could hoses a Windows system easily so for the last couple of years NTFS has been mounted as "read only" in most Linux systems and I tend to keep it that way for now until I feel more comfortable about the permissions h3ll that has arisen in the past has been overcome.

I prefer to use ext3 for Linux because it's efficient. If you need access to your Linux drive from Windows the ext2IFS driver works and will read ext3 as well.
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#7
Vegan5589

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I have a hard drive I am not using installed on my comp. Its 111g. I am moving everything on it to the external. If I am only using it for Linux do I need to partition it? How do I reformat it?

Right now I am reading throught this.

Edited by Vegan5589, 17 May 2007 - 09:28 PM.

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#8
Tyger

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I have a hard drive I am not using installed on my comp. Its 111g. I am moving everything on it to the external. If I am only using it for Linux do I need to partition it? How do I reformat it?

Right now I am reading throught this.

Most Linux distros have an automatic mode for partitioning and formatting, and it does a pretty good job of optimizing your setup.
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#9
-OCM770-

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get fedora from fedorapoject.org. burn the live cd and boot it. select install to hard drive from the linux desktop. on the where to install box select install and partition on unused space, it will take care of the bootloader for you. NOTE, you have to make some free space on your HDD using partitioning tools, i used 25gb for fedora.


-OCM770-
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