Windows to Unix

[TheWiz]

I just bought a notebook that has Windows 2000 installed on it, but I wanted to put a Unix environment on it instead. Then I noticed that there was a 'Icon" or "logo" of "Windows NT, 98" on the actual laptop underneath the screen. I was wondering if that meant that certain computers are designed for Windows and Windows only. Does it mean that they function better with this interface? Or is this some company related thing (I got this computer from Bellsouth Comm., so it probably was apart of some networking before it was acquired by me)? Any help or suggestions are welcome....

[chickeneater]

no, it is probably microsoft with 100, of billions to spend, they spend it on those stickers to advertise a bit...
You can put unix on if you want, but if you want to keep windows, make a partition for unix.

It may be because The computer was manufactured with windows on it.

[khp]

Installing linux on some laptops can sometimes be a bit difficult. Especially if you try to do clean sweep, and reformat the entire disk. A friend of mine tried this, and ended up, not being able to boot, the machine from HD or CD. I think the problem was that part of the bios is stored on the HD, on some laptops.

You should probably try finding a support forum, that addresses issues like this. Chances are that you are not the first one, to try installing linux, on that paticular brand of laptops.

[gd_nimrod]

56i

Edit: Sorry the forum was slow for me and i *thought* i couldnt post.

[TheWiz]

Originally posted by khp
Installing linux on some laptops can sometimes be a bit difficult. Especially if you try to do clean sweep, and reformat the entire disk. A friend of mine tried this, and ended up, not being able to boot, the machine from HD or CD. I think the problem was that part of the bios is stored on the HD, on some laptops.

You should probably try finding a support forum, that addresses issues like this. Chances are that you are not the first one, to try installing linux, on that paticular brand of laptops.

I notice that you keep saying "Linux", is it that flavor in particular that makes it so difficult or is Unix itself?

[TheWiz]

Originally posted by chickeneater

...You can put unix on if you want, but if you want to keep windows, make a partition for unix.

I think I will have to do this being that I wasn't supplied with the boot disk/CD for Windows 2000. I wonder, is a 4GB harddrive enough space for both?

[khp]

I notice that you keep saying "Linux", is it that flavor in particular that makes it so difficult or is Unix itself?

There is no operativ system called unix, unix refers to a family of operativ systems, like irix, Solaris, linux and (Open)BSD, and a few others I don't recall. You can get precompiled distributions of Solaris, OpenBSD and Linux, for the X86 platform. You will mostlikely want to install Linux, very few people run solaris or OpenBSD on X86.

There is a number of different distributions of Linux, that you can get. Like Redhat, Mandrake, Lindows, Debian, and Knoppix. For a beginner Redhat version 8 will probably be the best choice. Since it's extremely easy to install, and generally very newbie friendly. Knoppix might also be of some interest for you, because it lets you run Linux without installing anything on the HardDisk. This is great for checking, if Linux will work on your system, without makeing any changes to your system.

[khp]

Originally posted by TheWiz
I wonder, is a 4GB harddrive enough space for both?

Uhhh, I didn't see this before I wrote my above message. 4 GB is extremely little for a distribution like Redhat8. If I recall correctly, the default installation of Redhat8 takes about 2GB minimum.

You might want to start playing around with Knoppix to begin with. How much RAM does your system have ?.

[khp]

Originally posted by gd_nimrod
56i

You can call me stupid, but I have to ask, what does the above mean ?

[gd_nimrod]

Originally posted by khp
You can call me stupid, but I have to ask, what does the above mean ?

OH MY GOD THATS FUNNY!

Ok, see, for some reason at about 1pm today for me i couldnt post on like 2 topics i read, so i came here and did a test post, but finally after like 2 minutes i gave up, and i didnt realize i had posted because i closed the window. Sorry about that, but isn't that just funny now?

[TheWiz]

Originally posted by khp

...You might want to start playing around with Knoppix to begin with. How much RAM does your system have ?.

95.3 MB ...

Oh, and thanks for the lesson about Unix. I have been a little perplexed with all the different techinical terminology.

[khp]

@gd_nimrod:

LOL, I was afraid that some sort of hacker/warez term had finally slipped by me somehow. Anyways I did experience simmilar problems at about the same time, I think the problems were caused by some of the banner adds causing very slow pageloads.

Originally posted by TheWiz
95.3 MB ...

That's very close to the minimum requirements for knoppix, unless you don't want a graphical user interface.

Anyways you can read more about knoppix here

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[TheWiz]

Originally posted by khp

That's very close to the minimum requirements for knoppix, unless you don't want a graphical user interface.

Well... I didn't even know you had that option.

Anyways you can read more about knoppix here

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

thanks for the help...hmmm I might have more questions...I don't know yet.

[techno]

Linux Sux, it should be called lisux

my opinion....movin out...

[chickeneater]

actually, linux is at least 3 times better than windows xp because of its price (free) and the way you can use its shell, and the way that is optimizes memory and processor usage with the strong linux core. At least that is in my opinion.

I did as what khp said, and I got knoppix and I am running it right now on my xp box. This is fun!