[help] linux questions to get started

hello, i just got started on menuet os, which is the easiest operating system i have ever instaled, but it's functionality is too small, and i was thinking of using my 256mb flash drive as my boot drive for linux.

these are the things i'm looking for.

simple instalation, and configuration. i don't know how to do command prompt or dos stuff like "run 0-linux!#$%%@64" kind of stuff.

also, for the same linux software, i also wanted it to boot from a flash drive, having my entire computer and documents inside a flash drive. so, if i go to my friends house, just boot and all my homework is there.

all i need to do on it is to do openoffice application stuff like word processing, and maybe some exel stuff. so i want a light instalation

i want to be free, and as light as possible.

is it all possible at the same time?

#228762

I would strongly recommend Slax, which is based on Slackware, and is light and free. Read this link for in depth info:

http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20041109.ars

#228772

Thanx for the link man, very useful.I'm a ****ie and i use suse 9.1 personal edition by the way.

#229205

yea. that will get me started. even though it can be quite tough on the command part.

also, do you guys think that linspire is a good linux system? i might be getting it as a linux desktop computer to dual boot with my preivious windows xp.

#229268

I installed Linspire 4.5 a long time ago, but I didn't like it much. While its a Linux system and fine one at it, you need a subscription to their 'software warehouse' to install things. Otherwise, you need to pay a monthly fee for something you can install for free on other Linux systems. Granted, you can find a way around that, but not being able to install even the most basic browser (Firefox, for example) without paying them is a big turn off.

Now, Linspire is debian-based, and its a pretty solid distro as far as stability. But its pretty basic Linux, not much different from Windows (in terms of how things are arranged). If you're new to the world of Linux, I'd recommend SuSE or Mandrake. Linspire is for people that don't mind paying money for programs and services that are free everywhere else.

#229277

The newest version of Suse is good, it fixes up quite a lot of things that i didn't like with 9.0 Fedoras good too. If you want, you could get a cd bootable linux, and just access your flashdrive from within the system once its booted, you probably wouldnt be able to make any system file changes etc, but it'd save you alot of space on your flash drive. Plus most cd bootable linux distro's come with a text editor etc, the things that you might need.

#231043

I used Fedora Core 2 for a while, but I found it too similar to Windows (bloat, etc.).

I was like, "WTF. Where's the cream filling? What are all those Linux zealots talking about?"

So I switched to Arch (without knowing a lot about *nix at all). Following an installation tutorial in the Arch Wiki, I had me a nice (kinda 'barebones') setup after some hard manual labor (I lie ) editing some config files and configuring X. I then used pacman to install fluxbox, etc. (in a single command) and off I went to Never Never Land. Wheeeeeeee....

edit: I tried (to try) Slackware first, but I couldn't install the thing. Either the ISO(s) got corrupted or something (but the md5sums were right...) or they weren't burned right, because it couldn't read most of the packages.

(The same thing happened in the Fedora installation, except in its case only the developer tools/compilers and OpenOffice couldn't be read.)

#231045

yay, another arch user!!!, unfortuanatly its very difficult to configure arch >.< I love pacman, pacman = best thing to ever happen to linux. But i got kinda pissed at arch when i couldn't get my serial port to work >.< Most of the things a normal os has, arch doesn't have active. Thats why it runs so fast, but its a pain to activate those things if you don't know how. I wouldn't recommend Arch as a bootable os, but if you have a more stable computer enviorment i highly recommend it.

#231077

Fedora Core 3 is pretty nice. And I don't think SuSE has real competition as far as hardware recognition - ease of use goes. I am an experienced Linux user myself (I'm no guru, but I've run it for a couple of years), and SuSE is how I started to learn. I remember installing Red Hat 7 (before it became Fedora), and it ran fine. I just didn't understand what was going on. Then I found out (lol!) that they use different window managers and that they each have somewhat different config options et al.

Along came YaST and my life became much easier. Too easy in fact, so I began to be interested in other distro's. I installed and ran Slackware for a while, it was good. But then I found the mother of many distro's (Ubuntu, Linspire, et al.) Debian and to this day, I don't think that there's a better distro for advanced users. Not as hightly polished as some in terms of graphical interface and featuring kernel 2.4 in stable and 2.6 only in unstable (debian's unstable version is much, much stabler than windowsxp 3 years after it came out... lol), but very, very good. Anyway, from there on I tried every distro I got my hands too and I still run (mainly) Debian. I have a triple boot (w/o Windows on my PC) - 1. Debian, when I feel like a geek., 2. Gentoo - when I feel the need to optimize unnecessary things, 3. SuSE - when I feel like I need things to just work for me.

I might give Ubuntu a try as I've heard good things about it. Well, good luck to me lol...

#231130

yup after convincing my parents i bought 9.2 professional. still can't get the networking out though. it's so difficult and confusing. the manual is useless. dosen't help me at all. i followed the step by step process and it still dosen't work.

#231140

Why would you BUY a Linux distro?

#231157

and i also recommend you go over to the *nix geeks at www.gooeylinux.org , they have the answers

#231188