Need Suggestions

[IceReaver75]

I have been think of going to a dual boot system with windows and Linux but am kind of confused of what linux version to go with. My computer specs are as follows:

AMD Sempron Thoroughbred B 2600+ Processor
PCChips M848ALU Ver. 2.1 Motherboard
On Board Ethernet Connection
Nvidia GeForce MX400 128mg Graphics Card
Seagate 200 gig Hd
Western Digital 40 Gig HD
DVD Rom/CD-RW Combo Drive
Emprex ide 16x DVD Burner

What Linux version should I go with and is the most user friendly for a first time user. Any help will be appreciated and thank you.

 

[khiloa]

I would suggest you try Ubuntu. It is pretty easy to install and is pretty easy to maintain once installed. It comes with a nice package manager for installing / uninstalling / upgrading all your software, etc, etc. I think it is a really nice distro for starters and it is flexible enough you can do pretty much whatever you want with it.

http://www.ubuntulinux.org

 

[cornbread]

I think I will give this a spin, going to try the live version first. I have dabbled with Linux before, but been a while. If I like I may dual boot with it.

 

[khiloa]

Good idea, you can try an Ubuntu liveCD to see if it is something you would like to install and give it a real test.

 

[IceReaver75]

This maybe a stupid question but should you do the duel boot on one hard drive and just split the partitions or is it possible to run a duel boot with 2 different harddrives? If its better to do it one one its not a big deal since this is a pretty fresh install I have now since I just put this system together not too long ago.

 

[khiloa]

You can do it either way, it doesn't make a huge difference. It would probably be easiest just to put Linux on a completely seperate harddrive but you could install both OSes on just one harddrive.

 

[cornbread]

If you run this off the cd, where does it store the files? In memory? Burning the cd now.

BTW IceReaver75, welcome to the forums, enjoy your stay.

 

[IceReaver75]

Alright thanks for the help. Just been kind of interested in linux and thought id give it a try. Ill just install on another hard drive. And thanks for the welcome.

 

[cornbread]

Just finished messing around with the live cd version, not bad, seems smooth and has enough to mess around with to get familiar with it, so I guess I will go ahead and install and do a dual boot. I did have one problem though, I couldn't connect to online, don't know if that was a live cd thing or not, but I configured my ethernet cards so...

 

[cornbread]

The day after....

Lol, I gave up on trying to install this last night, for some reason I kept running into partitioning problems, now I'm trying to install it again (different pc) with a good online manual I found about installing.

I do have to admit, when I tried Suse a year or so ago, the install was a lot easier, but after messing around with the live cd on this distro I think I will like this one better. Hopefully I'll get it going.

 

[IceReaver75]

I got it downloaded last night and burned to disk but I havent tried installing it yet. Have to wait until Monday to try as I am out of town for the weekend. Hopefully your install goes better and you get it running. I burned mine at alow speed cause I've heard the install could go bad if you burn at a higher speed. Hopefully I dont have to many problems when I try.

 

[cornbread]

I got it installed ok, but having a few problems connecting to the internet, I assume it has something to do with my router.

I always burn my cd's at low speed too, I have read that before to that burning at high speeds can sometimes cause problems, so waiting a couple minutes longer is not a problem for me .