John,
Yes, you can repartition an existing setup. But the more
spare you have (drives, GBs) the easier it is.
An extra Harddisk or extra GBs takes the worry out of
repartitioning. As it allows you to keep a copy your
existing system in a safe place.
FDisk Linux works nice. Easier than FDisk-DOS. Linux-FDisk
can (is capable of) setting the partitions for WINxx as
well. Ready for (Sys C: plus) formatting by WINxx.
I avoided FAT32. FAT16 is still the play-it-safe file-format.
(Comments FAT32 welcome. I am behind on this maybe).
Hardware: No need for a 'Linux system'. The only critical part
is the video-card. Make sure it is Linux compatibe (there is
a list available). I had a list in hand when buying my
video-card. Now I have perfect Linux-video and minor problems
in WIN95 (I did not get the right WIN95 video-driver with the
card).
A CDROM is important to have. Re-installation is a fact of
my newbie-life.
OS: Buy what you like.... The perfect system is still to be
invented. It is not a big step to switch to a different
flavor of Linux later-on.
I use RedHat 5.0 because I am on an island here.... I tried
to buy my way in (RH does install much easier than WIN95) but
I could not use it work after that. Without a NEWBIE list I
would have been on WINxx by default. (Thanks to all that did
help! )
Good luck with the new system!
At 09:56 AM 8/24/99 -0700, Baskette, John wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I'm a newbie to linux, though I do have some unix experience (but none with
>partitioning drives).
>
>I have a $1,000, and I'm going to buy a computer (including a monitor). I
>want a dual-boot system running linux and win98. Win98 is required for some
>other programs I have which I run on my rather old Win95 notebook. Other
>than that, I wish to use linux primarily. Because I'm a newbie, I would
>prefer to use a distribution like Caldera's OpenLinux or Mandrake.
>
>My question is: What should I buy?
>
>1.) I could buy a Win98 box, then use Caldera's linux distribution that
>will repartition and install linux without trashing the Win98 partition.
>(Does Mandrake do this for you? I really am a newbie.) But I would pay the
>MS tax, and risk buying hardware that is incompatible with linux.
>
>2.) I could by a linux box from VA research or the Linux store with Linux
>preinstalled, and repartition it. Can I repartition without losing the
>contents of the drive?
>
>Or should I get vmware for linux?
>
>Or is there some other idea that is better than any of these?
>
>Thank you in advance for your helpful advice.
>
>John Baskette
>
Herman Aalderink, Philippines (Cebu island).
Permanent (always good, but slower) email addr :
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Note 'zero' in n0jn).
