A Linux Addict is born....

[times_r_shitty]

There's that word again. Scripts seem to be a big part of Linux, that and compiling. It seems a very command-line affair to do anything to a Linux system. Is this a correct view? It seems that you don't install anything without the command-line. Perhaps I am overlooking something.

Well, I'm far from a 'nix expert. I've made serveral abortive attempts to migrate to Linux, beginning with Mandrake 5.1. However, I believe that the ubiquity of the command line in Gnu/Linux is one of it's strengths. Scripts, which I've developed little ability to write, enable you to get a lot of work done in one fell swoop. Actually, egg-head types utilize script a lot on Windoze as well, its just not as common. Also, most of the things that can be done with scripts as well as just typing commands in the shell can be done in X with a point and a click. Of course in the case of repetitive or highly complex tasks, the point and click way is much much slower than simply writing a bash script.

All in all, I am very tempted to just back up my personal stuff from windows, and wipe it clean......then do an install. I just hope I don't run into the partitioning headaches and the "it won't boot by itself' thing that also seems so common.

You could always just get another cheap Maxtor HD and put Linux entirely on that. I believe that is safer than sharing a drive with windows. My current desktop triple boots with winME, winXP-pro & Knoppix/Debian. I've eliminated a lot of the partitions that used to be devoted to M$, and increased the disk space allotted to Gnu/Linux. My /home directory (which is now a separate partition) is 80 GBs.

Here's a point that some other people may have touched on, but I'm going to say it again. Knoppix is the perfect distro from which to learn Linux. The reason that I say this is because with Knoppix, you are free to take chances. You can configure files, compile kernels and what not --- and if you blow the system, so what. You can reinstall it in 20 minutes. I know that at my level of inexperience, if I installed Slackware or FreeBSD on my system, I'd be afraid to touch it, for fear that I'd have to go through the nightmare of reinstalling it again. With Knoppix you can destroy the OS and then say, Hmmm that didn't work --- let me make myself a sandwich while Knoppix reinstalls, and I'll try something different.

[Hunkah]

For a few more dollars you can buy a removable HD Bay and a couple trays. Put one HD (good one) as your daily HD and a smaller one in to frig with. That is what I have done. I can do stuff on the hard drive and not worry about messing with my good HD.
I don't trust dual boots. One might eventually mess up the other.

I now have my good system booting to Fedora with a 10GB HD and a Win98 on a 4GB and an 80GB Win2k. My 20GB is used to hold OS images as a back up. When I get sick of using fedora I will be testing another Knoppix HD install. Each are secure from the other!

[fourtrackmind]

Thanks for the reply, times.

You could always just get another cheap Maxtor HD and put Linux entirely on that.

Where do I find these drives? Googling just leads me to a bunch of bloated sites, that tell me a new HD is going to run me almost $200 for like 6 gigs. That's not cheap to me. There are dozens and dozens of sites that have their own idea of 'cheap'. Seems I remeber Office max having 10 gig HD's for little over $100.....but they only have USB HD's these days, and they are too expensive.

When Walmart.com can sell a whole computer with no OS, and a 20 gig HD for $199, I can't see paying $200 for the HD alone. My thought was also to get a second HD, and simply switch out which HD I want to use........until the above mentioned price problem.

Hunkah,

Thanks for your reply as well.

For a few more dollars you can buy a removable HD Bay and a couple trays.

To you, I post a simmilar question: Where should I look to find this stuff?

Thanks people!

[schunn99]

A good site that go to find prices on hardware is Tigerdirect.com. They have maxtor,western digital and many others for around $60 for a 20 gb all the way upto a 250 gb for $250. They have a maxtor 60 gb for $70. They have an maxtor 80gb for $80

hope this helps
sincerly,
schunn99

[Hunkah]

I am sure that there are "discount" stores that sell computer components only. Sometimes going to the "high-end" "fancy-big-doors" office depots are the wrong places to get cheap parts. Try refurbished in your search. Some larger companies will lease systems for a couple years and then give them back. It is a bigger tax break (at least here in Canada) to lease.

Sometimes you can get parts from the places that re-sell off-lease systems.
There are others, like online auctions and such. But drive bays are around $25.- Canadian for the whole kit, and as little as $15.- for a bay.

[Schopenhauer101]

Thats what i did. I bought a maxtor 160 gig, but i did'nt live happely every after anyway...
Im still trying to mount the "¤"¤%/()="@#!! thing without any results. If anyone by any chance could help me out a bit i would be extremly happy. You can find it all in this forum here:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...asc&highlight=

Take care!
Björn.