I have a spare fairly old computer and since this is always a good extra skill, I thought I''d get into linux. Now I know nothing of the matter. Is there a site where i can just download the os, and if so where. Any other helpfull links are appreciated. -CProgrammer

Link: Everything unix forum,

but i''m too lazy to make that a link...

pick a dsitro out of a hat. Lotsa people seem to like fedora, debian is a nice one, too.

then, i believe its linuxiso.org, downlaod an iso (only one please, you don''t need all 13) for you distro.

after that, google about looking from install guides.

debian.org Debian is what I use and I really like it. Or since you are new you may want to try knoppix. It boots from CD but there is an option to install it to your hard drive.
-Greg

Actually, that''s an excellent idea.

download knoppix, fool around with it for a few weeks until you get the hang of it, then go for fedora or debian or suse (or others, too. i guess.)

One place to compare linux distros, is at distrowatch, it has a listing of all of the linux distros most will hear of. I would also suggest looking at The Linux Documentation Project, it has some fairly good tutorials. Also, if you choose to use Gentoo, they have a lot of documents here. Also the "everything UNIX" forum is a fairly good resource, and that is here.

Thanks for the advice guys.
One more question though:
How many cd''s is debian? Am I getting this right: 9 cd''s.
Or is binary 5,...6...etc always a different release?
-CProgrammer

quote: Original post by bastard2k5
One place to compare linux distros, is at distrowatch, it has a listing of all of the linux distros most will hear of. I would also suggest looking at The Linux Documentation Project, it has some fairly good tutorials. Also, if you choose to use Gentoo, they have a lot of documents here. Also the "everything UNIX" forum is a fairly good resource, and that is here.

I use Gentoo, myself, and I''m loving it, but I would not recommend Gentoo for a beginner. Fedora, perhaps?

Well... if you want to get started right away using the most simplest and easyest form of installation, then I recommend Mandrake Linux "screenshots" . Another good alternative is to get RedHat Linux, I am not sure about how they do things right now, I havent used it for a long time. I have also heard that Knoppix is very simmilar to my favorite distribution: Gentoo (I dont recommend Gentoo for someone who hasent done a lot of hard-core system installation)


.. good luck

Gentoo allows you to download a processor chip optimized version. If I download one for p4, would it still run on p3 or p2 without any damage?
-CProgrammer

quote: Original post by Miserable
I use Gentoo, myself, and I''m loving it, but I would not recommend Gentoo for a beginner. Fedora, perhaps?

That would be why my first link was distrowatch, more for him to research and see what distros are best, I just placed those docs there since they are fairly nice. I would probably say that a LiveCD would be the best idea(Gentoo makes one, Knoppix is fairly popular, I think SuSE also makes one) to try linux, and if it is cool enough, then place it on the actual hard disk.