Adding Linux to a Win98 machine

[Benson]

I'm tired of seeing all this vacant hard drive space, so I've decided to install a linux distribution on another partition. Which distro?[nbsp][nbsp]I'm leaning toward SuSe. Opinions?

Whichever I choose, it will have to partition the drive for me AND be reasonably newbie friendly....

Do all distro's now include the 2.4 kernel?

[0degree]

I've tried two: Red Hat and I can't remember its name![nbsp][nbsp]I think Red Hat is the most comprehensive version and was pretty easy to figure out (for me).[nbsp][nbsp]This, ofcourse, does not mean the installation was trouble free.[nbsp][nbsp]I've installed Linux on a secondary HD, that way, I was able to mess about with out fear of messing up my main HD.[nbsp][nbsp]

I've read in several places that the Corel version is the most user friendly one.[nbsp][nbsp]I can't remember which ones would partition your HD for you but that's easy to accomplish when compared to other linux problems you might face.[nbsp][nbsp]I used Partition Magic 5.0 for that and the resulting Linux partition was perfect.

I don't have any idea if they all include the 2.4 kernel.

Tony.
-Linux Rules, Windows Just Fools.

[Benson]

As a followup to my own post, I'm now running SuSe 7.1 (personal edition) on a separate drive.

Installation did not go smoothly. I had to update my BIOS before the installation would work - no big deal, except that it takes some head scratching before realizing WHY the installation isn't working!

Then, I realized that my IBM Aptiva came equipped with a pseudo-modem, a win-modem, instead of a true modem. So not wanting to kludge and search for a special driver for the pseudo-modem, I bought a new modem.[nbsp][nbsp]Now, linux is able to dial up an Internet connection!

I still don't have USB printing working properly, but I haven't devoted much time to it, either.

[Justin]

Linux is great, but honestly it took even me a while to get to the point of just being able to install it. It really isn't intended for newbies, which is probably Linux's biggest flaw... I always have to do something odd on an install, and it's different every time (even on the same machine)...

But, once you get up and running, it's great. I run three Linux boxes (one is an Aptiva, but I junked the modem and video card that came with it), including my notebook.

USB support is still pretty new in Linux, and probably won't be true "plug n play" for a while; I still haven't got my Intellimouse to work via USB, but I haven't really been that worried about it either... and I've never successfully dialed a "win"-style modem in Linux...

The second hard drive is the safest way to go Linux. I did manage to repartition a hard drive using 'fips', which comes on the RedHat CD -- and I don't recommend this method... Partition Magic is probably a different story, but I've had no personal experience with it.

The best way to get into Linux is usually to set up a second box -- any old box you have lying around would be suitable. This way you can tweak, while reading online documentation or searching for answers on your Windows machine. Plus, you can set up a web server, a real firewall, and so on... It's harder to learn when you have to keep switching OS's to find answers.

------------------
Justin Nelson
SFE Software (http://www.sfesoftware.com)

[Tahna Los]

I think I've heard somewhere on the lines of "As long as Linux is not on the same partition as Win98" you'll be fine.[nbsp][nbsp]I think it's due to the fact that Linux is not compatible with FAT, FAT32 or even NTFS.

*rereads post*

Whoops, forget I said that.
[This message has been edited by Tahna Los (edited 04-09-01@4:46 pm)]

[Benson]

Hey Justin, glad you're still poking around in here![nbsp][nbsp]I'm slowly getting linux running the way I want. Took me FOREVER to install sylpheed, a gtk-based mail pgm. It kept complaining during the configure routine about glib and gtk not being available. I finally had to remove the packages as installed by SuSE and reinstall them from source files dl'd from the web.

As a new Linux guy, I was proud that I solved the problem, but should it take several evening's worth of work to install one email program?[nbsp][nbsp]No, but how else is one supposed to learn?

Now, if I can get WINE to run Info Select, I'll be in business. Oh wait, then there's Dreamweaver and Fireworks.[nbsp][nbsp]Oh well...

[Justin]

There have been many times I've had problems installing what should be a "simple" program in Linux. With RedHat, my problems almost always go like this:
</font><font face="Courier" size="3">
$ rpm -i somepackage.rpm
Failed dependancies: somepackage.rpm requires
[nbsp][nbsp] - blah.so.1
[nbsp][nbsp] - foo.bar.so.5
...
</font><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Yet it never says what RPM I might find those dependancies in. It took me literally 3 weeks to get the latest KDE to install. I would have given up had I not been just dying to try it out. Of course once I got it up and running on one box, doing it on the notebook was a breeze, as I had been there and done that. That's the only way to learn; unfortunately it happens with any major package I try to install... the procedure is always different.

Even worse was just getting the X server running on this laptop. The display driver needed quite a few abnormal Option statements to make it work. Took quite a few Google searches to figure that one out... but that's what I get for getting a Compaq...

All in all, I can install Windows in a couple of hours, but Linux takes weeks of tweaking -- yet, for someone like me it is very well worth the extra effort. You won't find Linux undermining what the user wants to do. Want to echo &quot;blah&quot; to /dev/hda? Sure, go right on ahead. Just don't expect me to boot... Want to encode an MP3 or burn it to a CD? Whatever, I don't care... I'm not Windows, and I won't try to stop you. It's your computer, you do whatever you want. Want to look at the source code? Add a kernel module? Recompile me to do extra stuff? It's a free world, and the source is right here...

Okay, enough of that, I think I'm getting carried away. Just don't expect any of that from Redmond ;)[nbsp][nbsp]

Linux is a pain to learn, and I would never recommend it to anyone who doesn't really know computers (unless they want to learn via a crash course).

Here are what I consider to be the requirements for running Linux:

- You have to know what a &quot;Linux&quot; is
- You have to know how to use Google
- You have to have patience
- You need to know a little bit about hardware
- You have to have a reason to run Linux (curiosity is more than enough reason)

Harboring a hatred toward Redmond is helpful, but not necessarily required -- that will come in time :P

<EDIT>
By the way, the above is one reason I really did like FreeBSD. Using the &quot;ports&quot; collection, I could install *any* package with one command. If it had dependancies, or didn't have all the required files, or needed certain things upgraded, it would go fetch them off either the CD or via FTP -- automatically. I never once had a problem getting a package to install.

But, FreeBSD isn't much of a desktop OS just yet... though, I am tempted to set up one of my (too darned many) boxes with FreeBSD again, as I kinda miss it now...

<thinking out-loud>Can we say &quot;triple boot notebook&quot;? :P</thinking>
</EDIT>

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Justin Nelson
SFE Software (http://www.sfesoftware.com)
[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 04-15-01@01:13 am)]

[Brian]

You might try WinLinux @ http://www.winlinux.net