I have Mandrake on a cd..
2006-11-09 06:11:03 · 10 answers · asked by John 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
Backup any data you wish to keep using winzip or similar. Unix/ Linux can unzip these files. Try out several varieties of Linux, my personal choice is Red Hat Fedora. If you are not familiar with unix as an OS, get a book, there are many good ones, I learnt from "Unix in a nutshell". Be prepared to have "fun" trying to get obscure system drivers to work. But most of all, be prepared to take absolute control of your computer, if you set your system up correctly, nothing happens without your allowing it to. Say goodbye to viruses, spyware et al.
Linux will usually run well on even the most antiquated hardware, I have been running Fedora on the same mediocre box for years and it flys. I can watch movies, edit photo's, surf the web, create Powerpoint slide shows, spreadsheets and documents (even create .pdf's) all of them interchangeble with Windoze. The good bit is all of this software is FREE and is usually better supported than the stuff Micro$hit produce.
Things to be aware of. Your hardware and software support will be you, most of your answers will come from the web. There are unfortunatly many technical sites that will give you a "flaming" for asking what is to them "silly" questions, ignore them, move on, you will always get the help you need. If it helps I can reccomend this site http://www.stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html
Enjoy your newfound freedom.
2006-11-09 07:01:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Simple tip - partition your drive. That way you can keep XP on one (or even give Vista a try), and use the other partition to experiment with Linux. If you don't Find Mandriva (paid or free version by the way?) to your liking, have a look at SUSE
2006-11-12 22:46:09 · answer #2 · answered by ♫kanis.lupus♫ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Be prepared to go back! - I just moved my laptop to Linux but not all of the computer worked correctly - I could not find drivers for the wireless card or my video card. Very very sadly I'm trying to go back to windows although I've misplaced the serial number.
2006-11-09 14:27:02 · answer #3 · answered by Sparky 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah Back up your data ... and Delete all your FAT 32 or NTFS partitions as Linux uses its own partitions
2006-11-09 14:13:01 · answer #4 · answered by rockiee80 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I recommend you stick to windows. Linux is worse.
2006-11-09 14:24:41 · answer #5 · answered by 987899 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes back up all of ur driver & software make sure you have ur drivers cd and ur win xp cd . ur need them . if you install linux over win xp ur find most of ur drivers and all of ur software has bean wipe off da hard drive
2006-11-09 14:13:40 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah, get a Mac instead.
2006-11-09 14:13:16 · answer #7 · answered by Craig 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
make sure you set up OK and take you time
good luck
2006-11-09 14:14:25 · answer #8 · answered by DAVID M 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Where will you find software to run on it?
2006-11-09 14:20:19 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
have fun im headed back there myself
2006-11-09 14:12:44 · answer #10 · answered by spankdis 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋