linux

shanethemofo

hey all. there is no section for linux in operating systems so ill put it here. im just wondering is linux any good and if anyone knows of a site to LEGALLY download it for free??

ntlbell

Comp>Operating Systems>Unix

you can post there

as for downloading.

ftp.esat.net and ftp.heanet.ie have mirrors for many linux distro's

WexCan

shanethemofo wrote:

hey all. there is no section for linux in operating systems so ill put it here. im just wondering is linux any good and if anyone knows of a site to LEGALLY download it for free??

Most linux distros are free - google it. The unix thread has huge amounts of info.

Be prepared for quite a learning curve if you've only ever used windows.

Raz

As the others have said the Unix board covers all unix based operating systems which is what Linux is.
There are many different brands (called distributions) of Linux and almost all of them are free.
You'd probably be best starting off with 'Fedora Core 4' which can be gotten here.
Use the i386 folder to get a distribution for an intel P4 (socket 478) or an AMD Atholon XP (Socket A). If you've got a newer P4 (socket 775) or an AMD64 the you need the x86_64 folder. From there you go to the 'ISO' folder and download the files with the extension .iso
You then burn these files to a CD using the 'Burn image' option (in Nero anyway) and then you can install it. The .md5 file is used for checking that the file downloaded correctly, use the command 'md5sum <filename>' to check the the file and compare to the text in the .md5 file (I'm not sure if this works in the windows command line)
Here's the homepage for fedora. Read the documentation here.

DonkeyStyle \o/

For a first-timer I'd reccomend getting something like Knoppix... this way you can boot the OS from a CD and not have to install it on your harddrive (avoiding having to mess with your partitions and MBR).
And when you get bored of it after 5 minutes (when you realize that your most interesting hardware doesn't work and the included applications are useless unless you like watching fractals), you just pop the CD out instead of having to remove linux partitions and boot loader.

shanethemofo wrote:

im just wondering is linux any good

If you've been using Linux for years and know how to set everything up and overcome any teething problems... then, yes it's super!
If you've never used Linux before and don't fancy spending hours upon hours reading 'how-to's and tinkering around in a console window before you can do anything even slightly useful or entertaining, then... no, Linux sucks balls, avoid it.
Like the other guys said... it's a steep learning curve, and unless you have the patience of a saint, then you'll reach a breaking point and wonder why you bothered installing it in the first place.
Which, again, is why I suggest starting off with something you can dip in and out of like knoppix.

Gandalf23

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

For a first-timer I'd reccomend getting something like Knoppix... this way you can boot the OS from a CD and not have to install it on your harddrive

Yes totaly agree with this. Download the latest Knoppix iso (called a "LIVE CD") from http://www.knoppix.net/

Its a good idea to mess with Knopix for a while before making any decisions.

Also have a look at http://distrowatch.com/ to get an idea of the most popular distros and where to download them.

The most important thing when starting to use Linux is to go slowly and carefully, and not get totally confused and soured to the whole OSS thing. I STRONGLY recomend downloading a couple distro live cd's and experimenting before you make any decisions.

Syth

Unix was invented about 40 years ago and has been in use since then in various shapes and forms. People and companies came up with their own form of unix, some free open source versions were made. One of which is Linux. Hence it's in the Unix section