I was playing around on yahoo auctions this past week and "accidently" won a new computer. If this computer works out like it is advertised then I think I might butcher my slowest computer and use it to play with. I am thinking about reformatting the harddrive and installing Linux.

Although I feel like I know more about computers than the "average Joe" off the streets, I know that my knowlege of Linux is only slightly better than the person who has never heard of Linux.

My question is this: I want to install a distro that is relatively easy to install but at the same time offers me an opportunity to really learn Linux. I would really prefer to not have to go out and buy a copy of Linux, opting instead to download whatever packages that I need through my broadband connection.

I actually did have a Debian linux machine up and running about 1.5 - 2 years ago, but I couldn't get a lot of the things to work (ie sound, dial-up, etc). So I gave up. There were also a lot of things that I wasn't sure if I was duplicating, for example, not really knowing a whole lot about the desktop (X Windows) aspect of Linux, I'm not sure if I had everything that I needed or maybe too much installed.

So, my next question is: Are there people on this board who would be willing to help me with my setup, should I decide to go through with this project.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond to this.

Jim

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Jim,

You can download pretty much any linux distro you want from www.linuxiso.org

I'm certainly not an expert, but mandrake has excellent hardware detection, minimizing the complexity of installation and setup.




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Thank you for the information thus far. I was unaware of the site LinuxISO.org prior to this. I've looked at the site for a couple of minutes so far and it looks like it may be very good. I'll have to go digging into it more in a little bit.

I personally don't see a need for me to go the dual boot route, seeing as how I currently have 3 Windows machines. The plan calls for getting a fourth machine (which will be windows as shipped) and then converting one of my older machines to Linux, for a total of 3 Windows and 1 Linux machine. I am hoping to eventually become savvy enough with Linux that I can eventually dump Windows all together.

I have also been browsing through the net looking at some of the books that are available on Linux. I'm sure I'll end up having to buy one before too long.

Jim

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