Hey there! First post here and wanted to say how I got there. First off, I've tried to use Linux of and on for about 8 years. No joy. Yesterday however, I decided to use an old copy of Partition Magic and make some space on my 40 G and try out Ubuntu, a copy I recieved last year. Also on the shelf were last year's Kubuntu, Fedora Core 4, Slack, Knoppix, and Debian. Here's how it went:

First off, I didn't defrag the HD prior to using PM. BAD! I had XP loaded and only used about 3 G's, but it must have been all over the drive. When it went to execute, everything froze, not getting back in. My copy of PM doesn't allow rescue discs for XP (ver 7.01). OUCH>

Ok, so I take a breath, (I hadn't backed up anything) and thought about it. Felt like an idiot! Ok, so I get XP out (hadn't loaded it for years), and started over. This time I partioned it into one 8 G's, and left the rest alone. I got XP up, and got virii all over the place. (maybe trying to DL AD Aware, Spybot, or Firefox (love that one). Loaded Avast anti virus, and it is still finding stuff. (but not ALL stuff). Dang me!

Anyway, last night, I used PM and made myself one 512 swap, and a 5 gig logical one the unused portion. Left the rest alone. Loaded Ubuntu, and couldn't figure out anything with that thing. It missed my modem (hardware) and wouldn't let me scan for it. It wants a network connection, me thinks. Tried Knoppix and.....I felt like I was on a space ship with Hal and Star Wars. Not for me. Next Fedora Core 4. This one wants to own me or something. So now? Well, I think a true Linux is for me and got Debian loaded fine. I'd also like to load Slack soon, but have heard it's going with the K stuff. I like Gnome much better. Anyway, I got Deb up, but have no idea how to get to a GUI. Really didn't know how to log out either! I scanned the first 5 discs of the 14 set and figure it's there somewhere. I have Linux in a nutshell on the shelf, but that's it. I also have a copy of Slack's manual somewhere. BUT......the dual boot with grub works!!! I'm using XP now till I figure this out, but I really want to dump Windoze BAD! Is there a question here? Yes, there is...

Assuming Debian is going to be Ok for me to learn, which book/site/paper or anyting should I study to get up to speed? I don't mind the CLI, used in in Dos actually. Just don't know what to do next. Remember I havn't tried Linux for a couple of years...

Thanks, and glad to meet you all.

Mike

My first advice is to pick one distribution and learn it reasonably well before moving on. If you keep trying things before getting the bugs out, you will get very frustrated.

Second, if you can swing it, I would get a high-speed connection. Life with Linux is 100X better when you can download things without it becoming a major project.

While you are using the modem---any of the major distros should work. Have you done any searches using your modem model + the distro name? In the case of Ubuntu, have you searched on the Ubuntu site?

[QUOTE=pixellany]My first advice is to pick one distribution and learn it reasonably well before moving on. If you keep trying things before getting the bugs out, you will get very frustrated.

Second, if you can swing it, I would get a high-speed connection. Life with Linux is 100X better when you can download things without it becoming a major project.
/QUOTE]

Yes, I have tried to read everything abou Ubuntu. And, I admit I WAS frustrated by the docs. HOWEVER, I answered my own questions above by going to the Debian docs page.


They have everything there including the kitchen sink. And...that's my one complaint with all the distros (the ones I've tried). Too much fluff. As a published writer, it seems as if every single draft is posted, and all the useable stuff is hidden. I did, however, DL 3 PDF docs from the Deb site and will have to print them out. I suspect, after a brief look, that they have the best documentation

Many thanks for the answer to the stupid question! It won't happen again, me thinks

I'm going to try and learn Debian, and think it will be a great education into the world of Linux. Even if I evetually go to something else. Yep, a high speed is in my future! And the current distros may have improved, too! Thanks again!
]
Mike

Sounds like me when I first started (though I suspect that I knew rather less).
http://www.beginningubuntu.com/software_1.html
is a link for starting with Unbuntu that I found at digg the other day - I've downloaded Ubuntu, but not burned it yet (actually I'm currently downloading SuSE 10.1 as a mate of mine showed me Xgl and compriz in action yesterday and as I'm a sucker for eye candy, I want 'em install and running NOW!).

You may be better making a bit more space for the system i.e. When I still had my original 40 gig drive, I used PM8 to make the windows 20 gigs and the other 20 gigs was split into linux partitons e.g. /root, /swap and /home - I think it was like 8 gigs for /root (which was plenty for me to install all the bits that I wanted to play with), 1 gig for /swap (at the time I had 512megs of RAM so 1 gig was about twice the installed RAM so that followed conventional linux wisdom) and the rest for /home - which is a better way of doing things, because if the install works OK, then any customisation/preferences/mail address books etc etc, should work fine and if you then wanted to try a different distro, you just install it to the /root, but don't touch the /home and as long as you install all the same packages then normally, things "just work" and you don't loose any personal data you might have created.

I would prefer to have something based either on debian (i.e. like Ubuntu) or gentoo - but I still like the idea of having access to lots of new shiney stuff like Novell are shoving into SuSE - my interest in mandriva has "flattened" over the past couple of months, though it's served me well.

Oh and don't make the mistake of trying to mix things too much between debian and Ubunut. Sure they're similar, but Ubuntu is, as far as I can suss out, subtley different and mixing too much can cause aggro - which might piss you off, especially if this is your first foray back into linux for a while!

Thanks, Big john, and I agree. I had a really neat partition scheme a couple of years ago and did it your way. Now, I can't remember what I ate yesterday. I also have all the parts for a new AMD 64 on the shelf, but it's been there a long, long time.

My issue with Ubuntu is that it kinda holds your hand too much, and, I agree would probably make a nice install for someone not wanting to get under the hood. Maybe when I learn Debian.........I really like Slack's simplicity, but think they maybe are trying too hard to keep to tradition.

My thinking is that I should have all the progs I need on the 14 disc set since I don't yet have broad band. Never needed till now. And you're right, I hear, in that you shouldn't mix distro's repository. Since Deb's is the biggest, it should have all I need. I understand Ubuntu is tweaked every six months from Deb's latest release anyway. I suppose it matters little anyway, since my biggest goal is to dump all M$. I may keep notes and write a complete beginners manual (maybe 5000 words or so).

Mike