Potentially new user

[Stephen R Laniel]

On Sun, Sep 04, 2005 at 02:08:24PM -0400, forgotten one wrote:
> As I stated I'm no tech genius so I don't even know how to partition a 
> disk, but i know i want to keep windows.  Linux is a long standing 
> curiosity of mine and I would like to move away from Mr. Gates' monopoly 
> of media.  So if any one could offer assistance with partitioning that 
> would be peachy.

Partitioning itself is not a big deal. Let's just make sure
we're using terms right: to 'partition' a hard disk means to
split it up into nonoverlapping chunks, each of which is
called a 'partition.' You might have one partition for
Windows, another for Linux, a third for your Linux swap
space, etc.

It's been a while since I've installed Ubuntu on a machine,
but I'm pretty sure that partitioning is a non-issue. I
think you can accept the defaults (twice your RAM size
devoted to swap space, but that's about the only
complexity).

It may be slightly more complicated than that, but if it is
it shouldn't be.

Have you tried Ubuntu Live? You can download a CD image,
burn it to disc, then reboot your machine and boot from the
CD. You can play around with a full Linux install, including
web browsers, word processors and so forth. It's really the
best way to experiment with Linux. Then reboot back into
Windows if you want. Only if you want to install Ubuntu on
your disk do you need to mess with your hard drive.

Here's where you download Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/download/

Just download, burn, reboot, and play.

> As for an Ubuntu related question, I read the Installation Wiki, but was 
> unclear of whether I need to download Ubuntu and find another source of 
> Linux or whether Ubuntu would be the core.  (I know it's a dumb question, 
> but I have to ask.)

Some terminology will help you here: a "distribution" is a
collection of Linux programs -- word processors, browsers,
spreadsheets, etc. -- all bundled together. They typically
share a common installer, such that you can install or
upgrade all of the programs on your hard disk from a single
centralized program.

Ubuntu is a distribution. So are Debian (on which Ubuntu is
based), Red Hat (a commercial distribution, probably the
most famous Linux variant), Mandrake (based on Red Hat),
etc.

Distributions are self-contained: they contain all the
components necessary to run all of the programs inside of
them. Which is to say: once you've installed Ubuntu, you
won't need anything else.

Let us know if we can help you get started. We find this
stuff very fun, and I've found this group very helpful.

-- 
Stephen R. Laniel
steve at laniels.org
+(617) 308-5571
http://laniels.org/
PGP key: http://laniels.org/slaniel.key
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