[CLUE-Tech] Total newbie here....it's not easy being green ;)

[Joe Linux]

Yes, Knoppix is in fact the best place to start as it runs off the CD 
and you don't even have to install it.  I'm able to log onto the web via 
DHCP with Knoppix. So it is really cool.  It gives you a good idea of 
the Linux OS without the need to install it.

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:

>Hi Ed,
>
>  
>
>>My name is Ed and I'm just getting into Linux a bit.  I have 2 questions 
>>that I would appreciate any help with:
>>
>>1)I read somewhere that Linux will work on older equipment, and I was hoping 
>>someone could tell me if my old machine would be adequate or not.  It's an 
>>old Gateway with a 1Gb hard drive, Pentium 100 with either 128 or 256 
>>memory.
>>    
>>
>
>Adequate is a relative term... Linux should install just fine. The
>question is: What would you like to do with this machine? If it's just
>using Linux as a internal Web server or gateway, or if it's just to get
>to know Linux a bit, it will be fine. 
>
>If you want to use it as a desktop machine for Web browsing and using
>OpenOffice...then it's going to be a bit laggy. 
>
>The other question is the video card -- how much video ram do you have?
>You'll want at least 2 or 4 MB for a desktop machine, 8 MB or more is
>optimal.  
>
>I'd recommend Debian or Slackware for that machine. You can do a very
>minimal install and add packages as needed. 
>
>  
>
>>2)My current machine is an HP, 100 gb hard drive, Athlon 1.4 ghz and 256k 
>>memory.  If I were to put Linux on here and keep windows, would I have to 
>>partition my hard drive and all that, or would Mandrake/Red Hat help me out 
>>with that upon installation?
>>    
>>
>
>Yes and yes... Red Hat or Mandrake will help, but you'll need to guide
>them a bit. I wouldn't recommend letting them decide what size your
>partitions should be. 
>
>Mandrake 9.1, AFAIK, is the only one that will resize NTFS partions
>right now, though -- so if you're using Windows XP + NTFS, you'll want
>to try that. 
>
>If you want to find out if the rest of the hardware is supported without
>actually installing Linux, you could download Knoppix & run that first
>-- I've found it to be really good for testing hardware. 
>
>Good luck with it. 
>
>Zonker
>  
>

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