Linux newbie (fwd)

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

This is no problem. The 3 major distributions of Linux, SuSE, RedHat and 
Mandrake are relatively easy to install. They all have graphical 
installers. When installing, you simply tell the installer to place Linux 
on the second disk. (Disks in Linux are labeled as (for IDE):
/dev/hda - Master disk on the primary IDE channel
/dev/hdb - Slave on primary channel
/dev/hdc - Master on Secondary channel
/dev/hdd - Slave on Secondary channel

Partitions are labeled from 1 to 4 for primary partitions, and 5 and up for 
logical partitions. Let Linux do the partitioning for you. I recommend that 
you buy a boxed set with the books.

The only other thing is the boot loader. The Linux boot loader is called 
LILO. It should be installed in the Master Book Record (MBR) of the first 
disk. Most of the distros will set up Lilo to boot both Linux and Windows.

If you want to be able to run both Linux and Windows simultaneously, there 
are some products that allow that, which are called Virtual Machines. One 
is VMWare and another is Win4Lin. Win4Lin allows Windows to run as a 
process under Linux, and actually uses the Linux file system. VMWare 
separates the different OSs.

My personal preference for Linux distro is SuSE.   

> From: "Kalyan Vaidyanathan" <kalyan_v at hotmail.com>

> Hi,
> I found your name in the Linux User group.  I am trying to install Linux 
> on
> a home computer I recently bought.  I have Windows ME already installed 
> and
> configured on the primary hard drive (20GB).  I have a secondary drive 
> (40GB) disk space.  THe machine has 128 mb RAM.
>   I would fundamentally like to install Linux on the second hard drive and 
> be able to switch between the two OS seamlessly.  Can you suggest an 
> "idiot's" guide for me?
> 
> let me know,
> thanks and regards,
> - -kalyan
> 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9