Virgin

B

br0kenem0ti0n

New Member
ey there. I am a Linux virgin, and what do switch to Linux. I have never had the opportunity to sit in front of Linux before but I have liked what I heard about it. I have found a few distribution I would like to try but I with every dis I find, I cant figure out which one to DL. i386, i386 live, source, alpha, netinst, ect. I would like some suggestions for a dis and type of install for a HP pavilion ze4900

specs:
CPU 1.5-GHz Intel Celeron M
Operating System Windows XP Home
RAM/Expandable to 512MB DDR/1GB
Hard Drive 4200-rpm 40GB
Optical Drive 8X DVD-ROM/24X CD-R/24X CD-RW/24X CD-ROM
Display/Resolution 15-inch/XGA
Graphics/Video Memory Intel Extreme/64MB shared
Wireless Networking 802.11b/g
Ports Two USB 2.0, FireWire, VGA, headphones, mic
PC Card Slots One Type II
Memory Card Slots None
Weight 6.7 pounds
Dimensions 13 x 10.7 x 1.6 inches
Service and Support 1 year, parts and labor; 1 year toll-free 24/7
MobileMark 152
3DMark2001 1491
Battery Life
(Wi-Fi On/Off) 2:29/2:29
Wireless
Performance
(5/50 feet) 13.7 Mbps/2.2 Mbps

Any help would be MUCH appreciated.
 
Welcome to computer forum we hope you enjoy your stay here with us :D

ok. the i386 is in other turms windows 32 bit which you need. the live will load into your memory or off the disk and is good if you dont want to lose data. the normal i386 will load like windows and you only need the disk once. for distros it depends what you will be using it for, server, office, both or just to test everything out?

btw. nice comp :D love hp
 
Well, to help with the download options...

The options i386 and i386 live are the basic x86 (32 bit) forms in a regular installation disc and a live disc respectively. The live disc would be like brainmay was describing.

Source would be the source code and files for the operating system. You'd have to compile it all yourself, which would provide just a slight performance gain, but it's not always the easiest thing to do. I wouldn't suggest it just yet.

Alpha is just the development version of the operating system. It would be just like a normal i386 install, but it usually isn't nearly as stable as the released version. I wouldn't recommended this now, especially if this system will have important documents and such.

Finally, netinstall would be a small disc image (think less than 400MB) that would only contain a basic graphical system. You'd then download all the packages you wanted from this basic system. This is what I usually recommend, but as you're new, you should probably go with a normal i386 install until you gain some knowledge. That's just my opinion though. This would be my second choice right behind the normal i386 image.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong with my descriptions above! :o

As for distributions, there are a few I'd recommend.

For a more "windows like" enviroment, KDE is for you. I'd recommend PCLinuxOS, Kubuntu, or OpenSUSE.

The other most common desktop environment, and the one I use personally, is Gnome. Ubuntu features a Gnome desktop. My personal favorite is Fedora. I'd also recommend LinuxMint, which is sort of like Ubuntu on steroids in a sense. It comes with codecs installed by default, along with a nifty menu called Mint menu.
 
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