Re: FN-FORUM MS takes control

date posted 1st July 2002 20:55

Paul J White [EMAIL REMOVED] writes
>I have found out things today and am considering a dual boot setup as a toe
>in the water - I can't see me ditching Windows yet, despite its regular
>crashes. Anyone tell me how much HD space I would need to install Linux
>alongside Win and what is an easy to use distro for the novice?

The HD usage depends entirely on what you choose to install. An
extremely minimal install (without a GUI, but usable over a networked
graphical X link) could be as small as 40-50Mb. However if you're
installing a "typical" desktop system, I'd want a good 500Mb to cover
you for the whole OS, browsers, office apps, and shed-loads of other
stuff. As it's such a configurable system, you have a lot of control
over what you install, but as a novice many of the components are likely
to be unfamiliar to you, so a distribution's "typical" installation is
likely to be most useful to you - however bear in mind that a typical
installation will probably install a lot of stuff you don't need and can
easily remove later once you find your feet. Depending on the
distribution you're likely to be asked during installation which default
window manager you want (which determines the general look/feel of the
GUI). If you're coming from a Windows background I would probably
recommend KDE, which is like a feature-enriched version of the Windows
UI.

I would probably suggest a distribution such as the latest RedHat or
Mandrake for a novice, as they have the easiest installers (just as easy
as a Windows installer, if not easier). However there are superior
distributions such as Debian that suit users with a decent level of
Linux experience, so that's maybe something to aim at long term if you
find you like Linux.

I would suggest having a look at some suitable websites for further
information. www.linux.org is a good site for this, and their "Linux
101" is a good introduction for the Linux novice (direct URL is
).


--
Neil Durant
Octrix Software Ltd.
Email: [EMAIL REMOVED] Tel: 07931 164346 Fax: 08700 520159