Aqua-Soft ForumsDISCLAIMER: I Am A Linux ****ie! Anyway I found a fast mirror site downloaded the 3 Redhat 9 .iso's in 4 hrs. 
Ive playin with it. It seems pretty cool. Im usin KDE 3.1 over it. Got questions Can it read NTFS drives? Is is faster than XP/OSX? Im askin here cus this is more my turf. The linux world is scary right now. 
Ill ask them questions later.
Redhat 9
Linux is only as powerful as your skill with it. If your interested in playing games Linux will not be powerful for you, but if you are interested in programming and running a server of some sort then Linux is mighty indeed. I would recommend learning on Mandrake Linux instead of Redhat as I think that Mandrake is a bit more user friendly. As far as I know Linux does not read NTFS.
Kaniada
use gnome!
yes anyway, i'm using mandrake 9.1 and i get a little increase in speed, but not much mind.
can a linux expert help me too?
Mandrake can do NTFS drives... but i can't get it to work
i can get to my fat32 drives created under windows, the ntfs drive can't be accessed at all.
Some of the fonts look amazing, better than xp and as good as os X, but some of them look awful, like this web page, and i can't seem to do anything about it (i'm usingg mozilla)
Theres something set up wrong with the keyboard, i type as i wouuld normally and lotss of the keys seem to get hit twice.
The keystroke repeat length is too short i think, bbut i don't know how tto change that. (you caan see for yourself, i'm not doing it on purpose!)
thaanks for thhe help,
fissy
edit: i lie about thhe fonts, they aree perffect but i can't seem tto select any one but a times new roman styyle fforr webpages
oh and damn this fuccking keyboard!
Linux CAN read NTFS but cannot write to them.. i know mandrake sets it up atuomatically but i think redhat took out NTFS support in fear of violating anything with microsoft so you may have to install somthing im not sure....
mandrake sets it up autop but since your new to linux i wont go through the mounting commands with you jsut yet...
-bolero
If you want to get at windows shares it is really easy. All you need is samba if you actually want the drive mounted then check this out http://www.computing.net/linux/wwwboard/fo...orum/18008.html
I'm based towards KDE as I much prefer konquerer to the gnome file manager.
Kaniada
it didn't set them upp properly for me.
btw the drive is external usb, but thhat didn't stop me accessing a fat32 drive on it.
fissy
To read NTFS in Linux, Add this to your FSTAB:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs defaults 0 0
replace /hda1 w/ whatever your NTFS partition is (use cfdisk to find out)
make sure you create a folder called windows in /mnt, or you can make it w/e folder you want.
You have to have the NTFS mod loaded though, as SU, type "lsmod" and look for NTFS.
Im pretty sure MDK and Redhat have it though.
If you dont have it, you have to download the module and recompile your kernel (which you should do anyway).
Thanx Bolero. Im just lookin at this to possibally be a full time machine. I got some good spare parts together. This came with alot of apps - XMMS (music player looks like winamp) Gimp - photo editor, burning software, Mozilla 1.2 or 3, KDE 3.1.5 (I think) lots of really current stuff. Looks like theres a lot of promise. Found most of my hardware. but the permissions wont let me create or access folders. It also told my my account or password had expired. Weird.
sorry i ddon't want to mess this up. whhat ddo i need to change to this?
/dev/hda5 / ext3 noatime 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 noatime 1 2
none /mnt/cdrom supermount dev=/dev/scd0,fs=auto,ro,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=auto,--,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs iocharset=iso8859-15,ro 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c2 ntfs user,iocharset=iso8859-15,ro,sync 0 0
/dev/sda5 /mnt/win_d vfat user,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
My head hurts already. Looks like I have to neglect my kid some more. 
Its gonna be a long year.
Jokin about my kid. 
USE:
/dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/win_c2 ntfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda5 /mnt/win_d ntfs defaults 0 0
Then at startup (make sure you reboot), your partitions will mount at /mnt/win_c,c2,d.
KDE 3.1.5? I thought they were at 3.1.1a.
Yeah, for that password expiring and changing folders, edit your permissions and expirations in "kuser". Make sure your logged on as root though. It should be strait forward when you get in there.
hmmm still says you don't havee permission tto mount
And what the hell is this a dock and a bunch of transparent bars or somethin? and a samurize clone? PIC: http://www.kde-look.org/content/preview.ph...file=5649-1.png
Then change your permissions. Whenever you do anything in Linux, you have to make sure regular users have permission for it. Kuser is an easy way to change permissions. There is a GUI for GNOME too, or you can do it w/ the cli, but I dont like that, too many flags.
i didn't understand how to use kuser to get access, without giving myself root priviledges which i don't want to do.
I tried another way: startinng konqueror as root in terminal, however this wouldn't let me chhange the permissions either.
I can chhange the check boxes giving whoever access, but whhen i come to press ok it says it can't change permissions.
please help!
thanks for all the help so far 
fissy
ps my keybooaard probllem: even turning off the *reppeat keys if a key is held down* dooesn't stop it happeninng.
please help with this! its driving me mad!
you need to be root to change permissions for users and mount things
As for NTFS, linux can read NTFS and write (it is experimental in the kernel and it might destroy your windows partition)
yeah if i try tto change permiissions through konqueror as root, i can alter the check boxes, which i couldn't do otherwise.
When i press ok to activate the chhanges, it says i can't alter the permissions
You cant just SU for that, you have to log on as root, are you?
LOL.. that would make a great sig.
i don't know how to log in as root in mandrake 9.1, it gives you a very mac like login where you can't type in a username.
when i do the su thing and the start nautilus, the desktop goes red, to signify i'm logged in as root, i think
You have to allow root to log on, in your KDM Prefrences. Check the KDE Control Center for KDM. Im not sure where it is though, I use GDM (gnome desktop Manager).
In mandrake 9.1? well when i installed mandrake.. with just kde... has the kdm deafult login manager.. you just go to the login screen type root as user name and the roots password and it logins in to KDE as root....
-bolero
a work around is to log in as a regular user, su to root and then type "init 3", it will close down all graphic mambo jumbo and give you the real stuff (UNIX username password login ) log in as root, type "startx" and you are set.
btw.. when you su to root you get all the root privileges.. it is as if you have logged in as root... there is no need to log in as root.. but you have to start the apps as root in order to get the privileges... i.e:
(localhost)-(1)-(15:09:39)--(Sun Apr 20)--(~)
(roberto)-> su -
[root@localhost root]# kde-config
thats what i was doing i think:
root@host fissy> nautilus
it says it can't change permissions as the drive is read-only
i can play files from the drives if i start xmms using su.
why can't i change permissions in nautilus iff i start it the same way?
a slightly annoyed,
fissy