Posted by Gav on 10/24/06 09:50

"Luigi Donatello Asero" <jaggillarfotboll@telia.com> wrote in message
news:6qc%g.20721$E02.8424@newsb.telia.net...
>I am considering switching from Windows 98 into Linux to post to NGs and
> e-mail in some days/1-2 weeks and I wonder whether some of you would like
> to
> sum it up where I could download the OS and which parts I would need
> download, given the above mentioned needs.
> Please consider that I know very little about Linux.
> --
> Luigi Donatello Asero
> https://www.scaiecat-spa-gigi.com/sv/valkommen.php
> ??? ???????
>
>

If you know how to I would dual boot your machine leaving your Win 98
intact, then you can use Win 98 or Linux. That way if you find Linux is not
to your taste then you can go back with little effort, plus if you get stuck
you can use Win 98 until you figure things out.

Linux is great I have been using it for years now but I still use XP on a
regular basis for development work and to use the Plextor Plextools software
which has no Linux version.

As for what distro, I am currently using "Fedora Core 5", "OpenSuse 10.1",
"Mandriva 2005" and "FreeBSD" (not Linux but similar). My favourite by far
FreeBSD but it is not for the beginner, I mention it because on an old
machine it will run far better than the others and you may like to try it in
the future. Out of the other three I find Fedora and OpenSuse to be the
better at the moment but to be honest you cant really go that wrong with any
of them. You don't mention the spec of your machine but I'm guessing it is
fairly old, don't expect Linux to run really quickly on an old machine
unless you are going to use some very basic window managers and plenty of
memory is also a good idea.

If I where you I would try OpenSuse as a starting point with possibly KDE
(windows like desktop) or Gnome (Mac like desktop) although these maybe a
bit slow depending on your hardware. Using Windows is easy all the decisions
have been made for you, using Linux can be more difficult because of the
vast choice but I like this aspect as do lots of others. My current setups
are at the bottom of the post to give you an idea of what I run these OS's
on. Good luck.

Gav


Fedora Core 5 (runs ok, but applications can take a while to open, needs
more memory)

Pentium III 1 GHz
256MB Ram
30GB HDD (all for Fedora)
Using Gnome Environment


Open Suse 10.1 (runs very well no issues)

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (laptop)
1GB Ram
12 GB HDD (for Fedora, running 3 OS's on Laptop. XP for Work, XP for gaming
and Suse)
Using Gnome Environment


Mandriva 2005 (runs ok, only really use LimeWire on here, needs more memory)

Pentium III 750MHz (laptop)
256MB Ram
12GB HDD (all for Mandriva)
Using Gnome Environment

FreeBSD 6.1 or 6.0 (runs great, everything has been compiled to hardware)

AMD Athlon 700
768MB Ram
12GB (for Mandriva, running 3 OS's
Using Gnome

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