i have a gateway pc running windows xp.. I am thinking of rinning some form of Linux on it.?

Question

i see there are many virsions of linux and Graphical user interface to use, and would like to know what would be the best one to use??

also can i put linux on 1 hdd, and windows xp on another??

i dont like the way windows freezes up and stops working and have heard linus runs better...

Any help is good help

Answer 1

The best one to try for testing is OpenSuSE 10.3 and Kubuntu latest distro(distribution ISO [CD/DVD]).

Both are good interms of desktop look and feel and easily detects most of the hardware.

I use OpenSuSE and no windows.....and all the help is available on opensuse.org Wiki page.

The Instalation of OpenSuSE is straight forward.....boot from the bootable CDROm and it will automaticaly create partition for you along with windows and do the necessary mapping (mounting) of windows partition on your linux env. This one is most stable and you can play with it. All the help you need is available in the system once installed just like windows alog with F1 within the application. Besides OpenSuSE wiki is also a very good place to look if you cant find thing.

Hoever, Linux goes with the philosophy of "Small is Beautiful" and so you have to install some software on your own using repositories (installation source locations apart from the standard one's) ...and the process is very well documented in WIKI.

Once you have done the installation...log on....

go to YAST (search for it in the OpenSuse Start button) and select Additional Repositories (there are two options for repositories).

Simply select the addtional repositiores you want ( select Packman, KDE Community, KDE base and Mozilla atleast) and click ok.....

once you have done go to Software management in the YAST window and read/ install the necessary by checking the check box and clicking apply....all the dependencie will be automatically taken care....

In Firefox browser under favoritories( bookmarks) you will find links to Novell Cool Solutions, Wiki and other imp pages that you can read and get a good start on SuSE Linux....) it is realy simply nowa days and much better than windows.

Al you need will be there in the system and yes....if you are using 64bit Architecture machine (with AMD or Core Duo Processor) then download the 64 bit distro(x86_64)...other wise download the 32bit one (x86)....

Believe me OpeSuse and Kubuntu makes it really easy and most of your hardware wil be easily detected......of cource... internal modem will not work....and wifi needs some tweaking...the process of which is availabe in WIKI

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Have you tried using a live CD? An entire operating system is contained in the live CD. You place the live CD in to your optical drive and reboot. When your computer reboots, it will boot from the CD instead of the Windows XP operating system, which is stored on your hard drive. The great thing about live CD's is there is absolutely no installation required. When you are finished and want to return to Windows XP, remove the live CD from the optical drive (i.e. DVD or CD drive) and reboot. There are several free Linux based live CD's available. You can download them as .iso files (i.e. image file) and burn them on to a blank CD. I recommend Knoppix. Its GUI is very similar to Windows OS, feature rich and its easy to use. You can find it at: http://www.knoppix.org/

Another idea is to use virtualization software (e.g. VMware). Basically, you boot in to Windows XP. Next, you start the virtualization software. Finally, you mount the desired operating sytem. It is great because the 2 operating systems are totally separated. Any changes you made in Linux will not appear in Windows XP.

You can find VMware and directions on how to use it at: http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/

I seen VMware used by people who have an older program which only works on Windows 2000 or older OS but not Windows XP. With VMware, they can run Windows 2000 and start the older program. When they are finished, they close the program and the computer returns to running Windows XP

I highly recommend these 2 options because you don't need to buy another hard drive or create a second partition to install Linux. Besides Knoppnix, you can try Fedora or Ubuntu. Both are free.