i know that this question has been asked before but i'm still a little confused. i've read linux's web site and for newbee's they recomend either mandrake or suse. redhat seams more for business use or for people who like to program. since both mandrake and suse have new versions out 9.1 and 8.2 respectively i decided it was time.

i'm not into programing. i simply would like to become familiar w/it in case i find a job that requires linux knowledge and since i have a spare machine and its cheap i decided to give it a try. therefore i have a few questions:

1) which one would you recomend?

2) i want to dual boot the machine w98 and linux. which one do i install first?

3) i've done alot of checking on my hardware comapatability and about the only thing listed was my printer. my set-up is:
mobo: epox 8kha+ kt266a chipset
processor: amd 1700 athlon xp
video: albatron gf4 ti4200
sound: onboard
modem: generic
cd-rom: mitsumi
hard drive: wd 40gb
anyone know of problems w/this set-up?

4) i have ms office 97 but i am also looking at star office or i also saw linux office 2.0. i want to be able to do prentations that could be imported to powerpoint along w/word processing and spreadsheets. any comments on which would be best?

5) i also have wordperfect 2002. compatable?

6) which would be better for light gaming? about the worst thing i'd put on it would be command and conquer (original) or diablo. also which one do people make arcade like games for?

thanks in advance.

1) My personal choice is SuSE.

2) Install Win98 first then Linux.

3) The only thing that might be of concern is modem. You may not be able to use it if it is a "win modem" - if it relies on windows' drivers.

4) <A HREF="http://www.openoffice.org" target="_new">Open Office</A> is what you are looking for. Note, however, that some powerpoint presentations originally created from MS Office might have problems being imported to Open Office. If you want to keep using MS Office and other MS Applications, you can try an emulator called <A HREF="http://www.winehq.com" target="_new">WINE</A>, or better yet, a full emulator that lets you install MS Windows inside Linux - <A HREF="http://www.vmware.com" target="_new">VMware</A>.

5) You can try WINE or VMware. OpenOffice might be able to import WordPerfect, though I'm not positive.

6) Sorry, I don't really play games. Though, if a game is made "for linux", it doesn't matter if you run it in Mandrake, SuSE or anything else, it'll still be able to run it.

Disregard my previous post.
<font color=blue>
Men don't use Viagra because they're impotent, but because some women are just butt-ugly.

For a newbie of linux the best choice i think is suse. All most every Linux distro you can find will give you a dual boot. So don't be worry about it. SuSE may work happy with your hardwares but I don't know what's your modem type and your soundcard type. Mostly Win-Modem will leave you a trap in Linux whichever distro you chose. If you can get "corssover" you can even run M$-Office 2000/XP on Linux. Or you can buy SuSE Desktop edition which can install M$-Offic on it. I think this distro will be more suitable for you. I am also a Diablo fans. but even with wine or some simulate programs else you couldn't play win-game on linux smoothly.

oh damn

i am a new linux dude and i jsut spent 1 million years downloading Mandrake on my 56Ker 2Gb worth of 56K'ing




arrghhh oh well i guess i will just learn on mandrake LOL




Alltaken

Mandrake is a great distro too. Which is "best" is a subjective thing... It's just that a some of us have tried a few and liked SuSE the most. Other folks have other preferences.

It's all Linux, and they'll all run the same apps (mostly *ahem*) - the only real differences are the install and system setup tools. The packaging, as it were.

<i>Knock Knock, Neo</i>

well linux for the MAC

cough cough i read some stuff about it and it sounds SHE-EAT


but hey at least they are working on it!!!!




Alltaken

You can run Linux on PPC / Macintosh hardware no problem, if that's what you mean.

What I was getting at was some of the problems between distros, eg files sometimes in different places, and binary compatibility between older and newer versions, eg g++ versions.

<i>Knock Knock, Neo</i>