1.What exactly is Linux?
2.How can you get a Linux computer?
3.If you have windows, can you install Linux as your OS? 4.How is Linux different than Windows?
Just a couple of questions Ive been wondering about.
Airjoe
ID:189686
 Jun 5 2003, 8:53 am
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LOL. Anyways, there are hundreds of redhat distributors, and even server IP addresses for their site.
Also, I have a question - does Linux have a dualboot built in? I think so, but I just want to make sure. | |
Linux has Lilo, which I BELIEVE is capable of dual booting.
If you're installing Linux/partitioning a hard drive for the first time, I'd suggest to try it out on a computer that you can stand to lose all the files on. Partitioning is a tricky thing. | |
2. http://www.debian.org/
If you have a high-speed connection (which should be anyone except me >_<), I'd recommend downloading this for Linux. Debian is the version that WorldsBYOND uses for it's hosting servers, and works great. It has most of the features of Redhat, plus extras. All you need is a computer to install it on. | |
Airjoe wrote:
1.What exactly is Linux?K'ros babbles: 1. Linux is a Operating System primarly used for programmers and hackers. It uses a dos like prompt or a graphical desktop. Linux is not primarily used by hackers, cracker, or programmers - at least not anymore. Linux can be found in everything from home desktops, office computers, laptops, printer servers, CD jukeboxes, Palm/Pocket computers, air conditioning systems, DSL routers, watches, security systems, game consoles (like Xbox and PS2), auto-navigation systems, not to mention a hefty chunk of webservers and file servers available on the 'net. Linux is nothing more than an operating system like Windoze or MacOS, and has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Is it good for web-hosting? absolutely! Is it secure? no less so than a Windoze box, and in some cases even better - but that depends on the person doing the securing, and has nothing to do with the operating systems abilities. Is it good for the home? modern distributions of Linux from the top companies - RedHat, SUSE, Mandrake, Debian, and others - can do everything a Mac or Windows-based PC can do, and do it in a nice clean GUI interface. What about games? Gaming on a Linux-based PC still falls short of the amount of games available for the other platforms - but this too is changing at a rapid pace. Personally, I can play Quake2/3, and other WIndows games with Winex - http://www.transgaming.com/ . There is also a strong support growing by the major game companies to make ports of their games to Linux. see http://www.lokigames.com/products/ and http://www.linuxgames.com/ and http://www.linux-games.com/ and http://www.happypenguin.org/news and http://www.tuxgames.com/ for more info on the many games available now for Linux! And to correct K'ros - Linux can use a 'shell', not a DOS prompt, for it's 'behind the scenes work' - but now-a-days that is hardly necessary with the modern distros. 2.How can you get a Linux computer? I have been seeing some of the popular companies like DELL, and IBM offer up computer/laptops with Linux pre-installed. You will have to hunt around for them. Or check out the major distros as mentioned earlier. I know that YellowDog Linux can sell Macs with Linux pre-installed for you. 3.If you have windows, can you install Linux as your OS? Absolutely! All you need is a few gigabytes of HD space or a second drive (recommended). If you wish to use a drive that already has windows on it, you should defrag your HD to make sure everything is moved to one side of the disk to make room for the other OS. Pop your Linux CD in, boot the machine (assuming that you have "boot-from-CD" ability), and you can follow the directions to install a dual-boot system. Most offer something like Lilo, Grub, or their own custom boot-loader so that you can boot from either OS. Properly set-up, you can even access your Windows files from Linux! And use Wine or WineX to run many windows programs and games! 4.How is Linux different than Windows? One way of answering that: Linux can be considered a free alternative to other operating systems - other than purchasing CDs to burn distros on, and finding a computer and HD space to install the Linux OS. Modern Linux distros can do anything the others can do, and often do it faster because of the better effort at optimizing the OS. One thing I like is that I can use Linux on older machines, giving this older hardware an extended life as a server, router, printer-server, robot-controller, or even a smart-firewall. Linux has even been ported to non-Intel machines like the Macintosh, Sun/Sparc, and the old Commodore Amigas. | |
You can always count on digi to answer your computer-off-topic-based questions =P.
So its similar to windows? Does it have a desktop? Im thinking about getting a new computer, and Id really like to try out Linux. If I get linux, and I don't like it, can I re-install windows on it? Thanks, Airjoe | |
You should be able to. Provided you can access a prompt (which I'm pretty sure you can, having remote-accesses a few machines myself), and have a Windows installation(NOT upgrade) CD, it should be pretty simple. I've had to re-install Windows on my games PC nearly 5 times now, and it's quite capable of wiping your HDD, so be careful!
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It does have a desktop, although its interface is slightly different to Windows'. (Don't worry, you'll soon get used to it!)
As digi said, you can dual-boot Linux and Windows, which is probably the best solution; you get to use Linux, but have Windows as a backup in case there's a game you can't play in Linux or something. =) | |
What I found most annoying was the lack of access to my Windows files :( I guess some people just cant hack change.
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The problem is, the computer Im using now is shared with 6 people in my house. I don't think they'd like it if all of a sudden theres a different operating system and they can't download stuff from kazaa! O NO! WHAT A TRAGEDY! MY BROTHERS CAN'T DOWNLOAD ADULT MOVIES ANYMORE! lol =P. I may be getting a new comp, and i wanna see if I should use Linux instead on Windows.
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What turned me away from Linux is the fact that with the older distros(that don't need you to burn a CD :)) you have to partition your harddrive yourself. I don't feel to comfortable risking blowing all my files away.
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Well, the newer distros can do that automatically, and without destroying the existing data. So you no longer have an excuse! Get penguin-ised! NOW! =P
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I found that annoying, too. I've heard that there are ways to access the Windows partition from Linux, but I don't know what they are. Anyone? (Need I say that I'm looking at you, digi? =) )
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There are, I believe everything from the Windows partition is located in the /bin somewhere, it's one of the top-level directories, so it's not hard to find.
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You can access you Windows partition if it uses FAT32, but not if it's NTFS. Where it's mounted exactly depends on your setup, though.
If you're using XP, there's a good chance it's NTFS, though. NTFS is a better filesystem (it uses journalling, much like Linux) than FAT32, though.. so if you ever set up a new windows partition or something, you have to make a choice. -AbyssDragon | |
2. Some linux distrubuters (www.redhat.com) (www.mandarake.com) will sell you a puter with Linux installed and such.
3. You can partion your hard drive to install linux and windows on the same hard drive and do a dual boot, or if you have a second hard drive you can install it on that one and boot from that drive (for help on how to do so check out the websites i listed above)
4.Hmm...Dunno what to say here.