Hi guys and any girls

I wanted to know whats the best Linux to install on my spare PC never used Linux before so please explain well lol.

This is the kind of things i want to run on Linux if i can

Photoshop
Msn
Dreamweaver
Firefox
FTP (???)
Media Player (???)
Firewall (???)
Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware (???)
DVD Burning Program (???)
Winrar or something like it

* (???) = Means i need a program that works with Linux like i said im new so most of my Windows ones might not work.

Thanks for any reply or help on this topic

-bballuk

EDIT

I dont mind buying Firewalls/Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware thats no problem if it comes to that and also this was the Linux i was think of installing

Fedora 8 (DVD Version)

Photoshop - GIMP is the free version, although Photoshop is well supported in WINE
Msn - gAIM / Pidgin works well for this.
Dreamweaver - Well supported in Wine.
Firefox - Easy to get for all linux, if not already installed. (Called iceweasel in Debian)
FTP (???) - Many programs available, usually installed by default.
Media Player (???) - Many Programs available again, personally using Xine(DVD) & Banshee(Music)
Firewall (???) - Don't use one, so cant advise, sorry!
Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware (???) - As for Firewall!
DVD Burning Program (???) - Many programs available, usually installed by default.
Winrar or something like it - Many programs available, usually installed by default.

Personally have never used Fedora so can't say. Ubuntu and its variations get a lot of good press, though personally I never quite got all that I wanted out of it. Been using Debian (on which Ubuntu is based), and have stopped using my Vista install, its been going so well. I found that wine worked a lot better under Debian than any other distro I have used, tho i did need to update to a newer version, but thats where the beauty of apt comes in

I'd say first of all experiment yourself, its the most fun, but Debian is a solid choice in the end.

Thanks for the reply condorstats i will have a look at Fedora 8 and if i dont like i will try Debian also is it free or will i have to buy it.

One more thing im a Newbie what is Wine ?

Sorry I meant to explain at the end of last post.

www.winehq.org

WINE is basically what allows you to run windows programs under linux. Its very easy to use once you get the hang of it, and for many programs it is no different to doing it under windows.

Brilliant i will look into using that thanks again for all help i will let you know how it goes

EDIT

Also one thing i forgot to ask is someone said in another post about linux "the command line usage is gonna take some getting used to" what does he mean ? Command Line ?

Hi

the Command Line Interface, sometimes called CLI, is very similar to the DOS prompt you may be used to in windows.
I would say youi can get 99% of things done in Linux without using CLI, many newer distros are trying to avoid CLI usage to make it more user friendly. I personally like to use the CLI for somethings, and to be honest you can pick it up very quickly.

If you ever do need to use the CLI, there are plenty of how-tos on the internet for what ever the task is, but in general, you wouldn't need to use the CLI unless specifically directed to, and those directions should tell you what to do!

Good lol not very good with commands but if i wanted to use the CLI what kind of things is it used for ?

see with windows everything basic and if anything goes wrong fairly easy to fix aswell.

also one last thing when i install Linux will my Motherboard Disc (Drivers etc.) still work with Linux or will i need to find driver for Linux ?

Thanks for the replys

to be honest, unless your doing something a standard user would not normally do, you wont see the CLI to be honest. I've been on the PC all day to day, and only used the CLI to do some more advanced stuff (trying to create a boot disk based on my current system etc...)

Unless you have pretty unique hardware, there should be no problems re drivers, excluding graphics drivers, as Linux will do what Windows does in the absence of the correct driver, just uses a basic driver which decreases the user experience, but proper linux drivers are only a google away!

Right i will install tomorrow now ive got all the info i need and i will let you know how it goes and if it works out i might even setup my main pc i use with Linux.

Right well today i installed Fedora 8 and when i reboot its spose to go into Setup Agent then i config everything then login like normal but it dont.

After setup it reboots like normal and when it about to kick in it says "No Operating System Found". Ive had this problem before with a faulty hardware but im 99% sure it not that.

The only thing i can think of is installing some other Linux like Debian.

Hi,

run the install again, and if it asks if you want to add something called GRUB, or LILO or anything to do with MBR, then say yes.

BTW, is this a dual boot system?

not a dual boot also i re-installed and it came up with login in this time had a search on a couple of forums i found the commands to type to set user and pass and also the permission level all sorted now im still thinking of installing Debian to see if i like that better

I've never used Fedora so can't say.

It looks to be GNOME, as default Debian also is.

It seems to use YUM, as an Apt like tool - cant say how it works, only that Apt, is the absolute best (in my opinion of course)

Best thing with Linux is, you can try them all!

Ubuntu, Debian based, does a good Live CD.

right i want to try out Debian 4.0 the new one but i need to uninstall Fedora remove partitions etc but i dont know how to.

The reason i want to uninstall Fedora is that when i try to boot from CD-ROM it boots into Fedora so if i can remove it i can install Debian 4.0 and have a look at that

thanks for all the help

goto your BIOS settings on boot up, usually pressing F1, esc or the likes,
.

Make sure your cd rom drive appears before the HD in the boot order list - you should now be able to boot from CD

When installing Debian, it gives options for editing the partitions on the disk, so no need to do it before install.

Still didnt work this is the boot settings in my BIOS

First Boot : CD-ROM
Second Boot : HDD-0
Third Boot : Disabled

and when i put the Debian dvd disc (debian-update-4.0r2-i386-DVD-1) in its saying "Booting From APATI CD-ROM : Failure....."

do you think i might have the wrong DVD disc had no problems installing other Linux and also can i just burn it to a normal dvd using a standard Image Burning Program like i did with the other on ?

EDIT

Just check release of Debian on there is ive notice i might of only downloaded the update disc like a ****.



See i only downloaded



i didnt know there was 3 DVD's there was only one for other Linux OS do you think this could be the problem.

No its not a problem.

If you have a good net connection, I would recommend the Net Install disk. Its a small iso, and will allow you to download only what you need during the setup process. Its a lot better, imo, than downloading and burning 3 dvds.

So i need the 3 ISO or the Net ISO ?

I dont mind downloading all 3 ISO's it wont take me long but the Net ISO how does that work is it just like using a DVD Disc ?

If your happy to d/load the 3 dvds, then go for it.

The net install is a single CD rom, it will setup a basic system, then connect to debian servers and download everything else it needs according to what you tell it you will be doing.

I will download the 3 DVD's i know it will take long but then ive got them all the time and also the update disc do you think it wouldnt boot because it was a update disc and not a install disc ?

in the pc i was trying to boot from and install it on was a XP OS before

The update disc is for performing an update of an already installed system.

If you have a good Internet connection I would recommend a netinstall since then only the packages you need will be downloaded and you will automaticly get the latest available package.

/LinuxSam

Maybe this will help most of those who are migrating to linux.
This site lists all the stuff that you need to migrate to linux from windows.

www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html

Hey! Where ya been?

Some more links for the Linux rescue disk is right here.
http://www.hrlug.org/rescuedisk.html

You can even go thru ubuntu or mepis,linspire,fedora,suse live cds.Ubuntu live disks have option for command line tests as well.More on...live cds and CDs later.

There is site called linuxdoc which is having lot of information but it is currently being undertaken by adware site,so i'll loook for the alternative resource.

Red hat linux version 9.2