New to Linux

[Red Beret]

Hey everyone,
first of all I would like to say that I have used this site in the past and I received a lot of help regarding all kinds of hardware questions that I had. I am extremely new to Linux, and I currently use Windows XP. I want to try something new and also experience the reliability of the Linux OS. I just downloaded the SUSE Live Linux, which I started from my DVD, and experimented a little. I noticed that I coudn't access my internet, or couldn't access my hard-drive partitions, or my printer. I know Linux has to be configured in some way. So if anyone could help me in that, it would be nice. Also, can you reccommend to me the most easy to use, but most complete distribution of Linux for a new guy like me?

Thanks a lot, your help will be appreciated.

 

[jakec]

Ubuntu, It has access to the Root termanal, it is uncluttred and easy to use. Detects your hardware automatically.

It is damn sweet

D/L it at

http://neacm.fe.up.pt/pub/ubuntu/warty/

Both the full D/L and live .iso are there.

Jake

 

[Red Beret]

Thanks a lot, what would you suggest about my problems with the hard-drive and printer? I got the internet to work (it just started working out of no where . Thanks a lot for your help guys.

 

[macdude425]

1. What are these partitions formatted as?

2. What model is the printer?
Check http://linuxprinting.org to see if you can find a driver for it.

 

[Red Beret]

1. these are formatted as NTFS...I think I just answered my own question...Linux uses a different file system?

2. I will check that web-site for the printer, thanks.

Another question I had was, does the Linux installation come with a tool to create a new partition with the Linux file system? Thanks.

 

[horndude]

yep, fdisk, and some come with cfdisk as well, use either to make partitions as needed, some linux distros do this for you, some dont

yes linux uses a different filesystem, and you have several choices, I usually use reiserJFS, but ext2 or ext3 are fine too

linux can read from NTFS but writing to it is iffy, but it can read or write to FAT32 no problem

there's no defragging with linux either, the linux filesystems are usually much better than anything windows uses

 

[macdude425]

It really is better to use ext3 or ReiserJFS than ext2, because these are journaling file systems. This article explains journaling file systems:

http://www.linux-mag.com/2002-10/jfs_01.html

 

[horndude]

not all distros offer journaling filesystems though, most do these days, but not all

most folks cant or dont know how to rebuild a filesystem tree when it breaks anyway

 

[Red Beret]

So which file system should I use then?

 

[horndude]

reiserJFS, ext3 then ext2 in that order of preference

http://www.lowfatlinux.com
http://www.tldp.org

goto those places and start reading, lowfatlinux.com is good place to start, linux documentation project is better for after install and you need to figure out to do stuff, it has mass HOW-TO's

your distro will also likely install docs on your hard drive, check in /usr/docs