Jaymie1989

Hi, I have windows vista on my pc. I was just wondering If Linux Is an operating system or if its like Intel, AMD or what?

If its a Operating system that i can use along with my AMD computer with windows vista or not? If yes can you give me a link to a site where i can buy it from please?

Thanks

Jaymie

PureEvilDan

Linux is an Operating System, and you can use it more things than you can Windows.

It will work fine along side your Vista machine.

Linux/Vista (Vista installed 1st) <- That appears to be a very helpful link on how to install Linux and Vista together.


Linux is free* so, there are many different flavors of linux.
Popular one at the moment is Ubuntu.


*: You could make a donation towards the said linux foundation you use, or you could buy there products.
Certain flavours of Linux, may cost money, RedHat is one that springs to mind, the main cost with RedHat was the support packages.

Bartender

Jaymie, you should probably hang out at the forums for a bit and soak up some Linux goodness. Just get a feel for what's going on right now in the Linux world...
Ubuntu has a lot of momentum right now, what with the Dell partnership, but there are several other very nice Linux distros to choose from

PCLOS (might want to wait a week or two for PCLOS2007 final to be released)
MEPIS 6.5
Mint Linux (KDE or GNOME version)

Those are just a few. There are some distros that are tailored to run well on older machinery but the learning curve can be a little steeper.

To me, the #1 question is - do you have broadband? If you're on dial-up Linux can be a frustrating experience. With broadband, new horizons open up

Jaymie1989

yes i do have broadband. So what version do you think i should get?

Bartender

If you have broadband and just want a fairly easy introduction into Linux, I'd download/burn a popular GNOME distro, such as Ubuntu.
Then I'd dl/burn a good KDE distro, such as Kubuntu, PCLOS, MEPIS 6.5, or KDE Mint full version. The full version of Mint must be burned to a DVD. There's too much data for a 700MB CD.

I suggest this route because there are two prevailing desktop environments (DE) in the Linux world right now. KDE and GNOME. The Linux kernel running underneath can be identical, but Linux under KDE looks and feels different than it does under GNOME. Most folks develop a preference for one or the other, so you owe it to yourself to look at both.

And you know that with a modern LiveCD (or LiveDVD in the case of Mint full version) you can run the operating system from the disc without making any changes to your hard drive, right? Linux magic

You can search back thru TSF for several discussions on how to burn the discs. Here's one from a few weeks ago.

Downloading the .iso, then converting it to a bootable CD or DVD, is not hard.

But if it's something you've never done before, it can seem to be. Use good quality discs, burn slowly (4X or so) make sure you understand how to convert the .iso to a bootable disc, check the CD for errors when you get to the first screen on a LiveCD, etc. etc.

Did you say you have an AMD machine? Is it 64-bit? Most folks will tell you to download the 32-bit version because the 64-bit distros have some bugs. It can be a little confusing to tell which .iso to download. Tell us what country you're in and what you think you want to try. Someone will point you to the proper download.

Jaymie1989

Hey again,

Bartender if you read my info at the side you will see that i live in the UK.
I have AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2Gh'z is that what you are on about? if not
my version of windows vista is 32 bit.

PureEvilDan

x86_64(/amd64) runs fine for me, but its configured to run 32bit libs as well ;)

Try Ubuntu in my 1st post.

http://www.ubuntu.com

Jaymie1989

ok i have put that onto CD no problem and it just opens this untitled.JPGhow to i install it on my pc?

Kalim

For a beginner, I would strongly advise you to go for Ubuntu, Kubuntu or Xubuntu.

Mainly Ubuntu - Feisty Fawn (7.04). It couldn't be easier. I'm also running it and I'll give you some screenshots of it later on when I get back home if you want.

Basically Linux is very different to Windows. Similar menu structure but different way of doing things, controls, commands, file formats, file management and placements (etc). Also it's free and user orientated.

If you don't like something, no questions asked, you may delete it and try any other. But I would advise to stick to a spare hard-drive for initial playing around. Can save an awful lot in many ways and lets you play devils advocate.

PureEvilDan

Thats the Vista theme?
I'm sure you could skin that on XP :/

Anyway, Leave the CD in, goto Start -> Shutdown -> reboot.

If it reboots in to Vista, you need to change the boot order of your system in BIOS.

Del / F2 / F1. (if your lucky you maybe able to select a bootable device with out entering bios).

And should be under "Advanced BIOS Features" or something simular.

Jaymie1989

Okay Thank you i will give it a werl ill post you back on how it goes it will be tomorrow now. Thanks you lot

Bartender

Jaymie -
It's good that you knew how to plug in a screenshot. Kudos to you.
From your screenshot, I can see that what you did was just ran the CD in Windows.

What you have to do differently is get into your computer's BIOS settings and tell it to boot from the optical drive. Whether that's a CD or a DVD I don't know of course.

When your PC starts up it looks at the BIOS settings to tell it where to go and find an operating system. Usually that's the C:Drive, and if you didn't know what was happening behind the curtains you wouldn't even know that the computer does this every time.

If you set the BIOS to "Boot first from CD/DVD drive" then the computer will spin up the optical drive looking for something to boot. With any luck, your Ubuntu CD will be what it sees first. It'll spin the CD, the LiveCD menu will come up, and you can play around with Ubuntu without making any changes to your computer's hard drive.

Do you know how to get into BIOS? It can be very frustrating at first. Just google for some directions, look in your PC manual, search back thru this forum - it's been covered many times. If you just can't find it, tell us the exact brand of your computer and someone will know. There are only a handful of different commands to get into BIOS.

EDIT: Whoops, EvilDan, sorry, I didn't notice that you'd already explained BIOS

Jaymie1989

Thanks okay i got all that. I Know how to get into BIOS, Can I install Unbntu on a different Drive location. I know I know i have to create the partition but when i do what format has it got to be Fat32 or NTFS?

Bartender

FAT32 and NTFS are Windows file formats.
Modern Linux distros use ext3 for the operating system and files, and - uh, oh; I don't know the actual name - a different file format for a small swap partition. The installer knows how to do all this on its own. You don't have to specify what sort of file format.
Of course, nothing's as simple as we'd like it to be. Linux can read NTFS and FAT, and can write to FAT. As far as I know, Linux's ability to write to NTFS is still a little shaky.
So, what some people do during Linux installation (as if you needed more complications) is build a FAT partition that's used as a place where an NTFS-based Windows OS (W2K and later) can share files with a Linux OS on the same PC.
If you take a look at my screenshot in post #2 of sluggo's thread you'll see what I mean. See the list of partitions? The last one, /dev/hda5, is called "vfat". That's a FAT32 partition. For newbies, I think that looking at a map of a HDD helps to visualize what's going on.
You said you've got broadband, right? I've got a suggestion. On YouTube there are several videos of people installing Ubuntu. They're rough, but still, I think the ability to look over someone's shoulder would be invaluable to you at this point. Try that out and see if it doesn't help you to develop a mental picture of the process.
I think there's a place on the Ubuntu website somewhere where they have some videos too. I'd know more about that if I weren't on dial-up

Kalim

On top of that, bear in mind C:\, D:\, E:\ etc are no longer mentioned for drives in Linux Ubuntu. It's rather /dev/hda or /dev/sda you'll be seeing as the naming convention most common.

justo

You should consider what you may do if you cause Vista to be damaged in the process of loading Linux before you jump in without much knowledge of what you are trying to do.What about reloading Vista? Repairing the boot record? If you do not study for the unexpected you can get a good education by the damage that can arise.