Total N00B to linux...Help!

[talldude123]

Okay, I'm a total newb when it comes to Linux. I know lots about MS Windows, but i'm getting bored with it.


I downloaded Mandriva ISO a few nights ago, so how do i boot from it? Do i burn the contents of the ISO to a CD-R, or just the ISO files to a CD-R?

Also, how do you install it on its own, without MS Windows? And instaling programs...


Is there a free guide to using Linux or installing it out there?

 

[macdude425]

Burn it as an image. Then boot off it, and if you want to get rid of Windows, then delete that partition.

http://www.linux.org
http://tldp.org

 

[talldude123]

i see..

would i burn an Image using Nero 7, and then boot from the CD in the BIOS?

 

[macdude425]

You got it.

 

[talldude123]

Thanks.

I'm actually downloading PCLinuxOS right now, is it going to run on a Celeron 2.6, with 512MB RAM?

I heard that Linux is very low on system resources.

 

[macdude425]

If you can run demanding distros in 256MB (albeit a bit slowly), that will run fine.

Linux CAN be very low on system resources; the X window system eats most of the system resources that are used. Since everything can be custom compiled and tailored to YOUR hardware, it could potentially run much faster than Windows, which is generally compiled for the lowest or closest to average denominator.

 

[talldude123]

When i downloaded PCLinuxOS, there was a light version, but i didnt bother downloading it; it looked pretty bland. The full "memory hog" version looked almost like XP, if not better.

As far as installing off the BIOS, its just like XP?

 

[horndude]

fluxbox and no server svcs running and your looking at about 47-65mb of overhead for RAM

KDE no apps running, about 110mb give or take, about same as windows

commandline only, pfft, you can get it down to under 16mb if you work at it, less than 8mb with a custom kernel and only 1 or 2 tty's turned on

 

[macdude425]

The disadvantages of using Linux on my Mac; KDE uses 380MB give or take IDLE. Wonder why...

But on any PC I have, it idles at about 100MB, like you said.

 

[horndude]

dont know, may be a false reading, sometimes the cache/page stats get screwed up, probably a kernel issue with respect to how the app reports the RAM usage, or it may be accurate, dunno for sure