On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 13:26:15 -0800 (PST)
Gregory Forster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> dijo:
>My current computer is barely hanging on, as it is. I'm having the
>motherboard,CPU, memory & hard drive replaced. I'll be able to have 4
>hard drives simultaneously connected, besides my CD-ROM and CD-RW. On
>one of the hard drives I want to have Linux as a bootable operating
>system. I've had no problems with OpenOffice with WinXP Pro SP2,
>however there are many different Linux versions. Which version of
>Linux would be the best for OpenOffice? Do I have to use Linux to
>download Linux, or OpenOffice for Linux, or can I use my current
>Windows XP?
There are tons of Linux distributions, and which you choose depends on
your personal needs. Some are really bare-bones and don't even have a
GUI. At the other end of the extreme there are distributions which are
almost 100% GUI and preconfigured for just about anything. If you are
coming from a Windows or Mac environment and don't know anything about
Linux yet, I would recommend a distribution that is as completely
graphical as possible.
There is also the matter of hardware detection and configuration.
Again, some distributions do a better job of this than others. Some
distributions, for example, deliberately install no drivers at all and
expect you to figure out which ones you need and install them yourself.
This would be great for someone with years of experience with Linux,
because the more drivers you include the bigger the kernel becomes, the
more memory the operating system requires, and the longer the boot
time. There is much to be said for keeping things lean. But if you are
used to Windows or Mac, you'd be better off with a distribution that is
more automatic in this regard.
Luckily there is something that the Linux world pioneered that will
help you a great deal in figuring out which distribution is best for
you and runs best on your computer - the "live CD" (also sometimes the
"live DVD"). You download an ISO image, burn it to a CD (DVD), and boot
to it. All you do is have the live CD (DVD) in your CD/DVD drive when
you restart the computer. Most computers these days are set to try to
boot from the CD/DVD drive first and boot from the hard drive only if
there is no CD or DVD with an operating system in the CD/DVD drive.
Thus, when you boot the computer it will boot Linux from the CD/DVD
drive. The cool thing is that the "live CD/DVD" is designed so it
cannot touch your hard drive (unless you specifically tell it to), so
you can actually run the Linux distribution exactly as though it was
installed on your computer, without actually installing it. CD/DVD
drives are far slower than hard drives, so Linux will run pathetically
slowly, but at least you can play with it to your heart's content to
check it out. An important part of the "checking out" process is to
make sure the distribution found and configured all your hardware -
video, ethernet, wireless, etc.
Having said all that, my recommendations for a beginner are Ubuntu and
Fedora. Both automatically install OpenOffice.org, and include it on
their live CD/DVDs as well. The latest version of Ubuntu is 7.10
("Gutsy Gibbon") and the latest version of Fedora is 8.0. You can
download them from here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
(choose the Desktop edition of 7.10, and select 32- or 64-bit)
http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora
(choose 32- or 64-bit and I suggest Gnome for beginners)
Once you have the ISO file, burn it to CD or DVD using whatever CD
burning tool you have (Nero, etc.). You can download and burn from any
version of Windows.
Going any deeper into Linux would be off-topic for this list, but there
are lots of online discussion lists, wikis, blogs and forums that you
can participate in.
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