[ki9090]

Hey all, im 16 and for most of my life had onlt had a computer that my parents had (i.e a shared computer) now i got a free laptop runnnig windows XP and have deicded after about 6 months of using it now that i will give Linux a Shot. I have never dabled in Linux or any other OS, i have a pretty good knowlege of computers and most things tech (fingers crossed for any job a G4 when older) but i wanted to know what should i do to get linux up and running, im gonna need to dual boot becouse i have alot of MS only applications im gonna need to run (mostly games) so how do i do this???

[TheHeadFL]

The easiest thing to do is get a distro like Knoppix which runs off of a CD. At the early beginner stages you probably won't spend much time in Linux since you may find it hard to get certain tasks done. Knoppix (and other CD based distros) allow you to get your feet wet before risking screwing up a preexisting partition.

[jakec]

Hey,

Yeah I agee with 'TheHead' try A live Distro first, this prevents you from buggering your HDD up. Although I wouldn't try Knoppix first off though somthing like Kubuntu or Ubuntu, possibly Mandriva.

Or another option is to go buy yourself A cheap computer and install linux on that untill you get used to the partitioning and using Linux commandline.

Jake

[god]

www.transgaming.com

what games do you play? all ID software games (doom 3, quake 3, and all that jazz) have native linux releases. what kind of video card does your laptop have? i can help you get hardware excelleration running if you need it.

edit:

and www.codeweavers.com

most windows apps run in their program called crossover office.

[macdude425]

I DO NOT RECCOMMEND WINE/CEDEGA/CROSSOVER OFFICE FOR ANYONE NEW TO LINUX!!!

Just dual boot, and make your life easier.

Get your feet wet with a good distro like Mandriva, and then step up to something more complex like Slackware or Debian.

[god]

you're right, but i was just informing him that its possible to run games and windows apps in linux.



IMPORTANT:

in order to dual boot you must install windows first.