I need to go linux from window

**miscos** · 04-20-2003, 12:33 PM

I have a small network of windows, mostly used for internet-surfing (my lan share internet through ICS of gateway winxp machine). All clients have web-browser/yahoo- msn instant messenger/ ms word/excell etc and acrobat reader. I want to install linux in my client computers with above functionality i.e. web-browsing/ some office package/ chat clients/ acrobat reader etc.
I am still reading and reading to know if Knoppix is choice for me and if I can start linux from cd and can use my harddisk to install the above applications with a proper conf file!

**garyng** · 04-20-2003, 12:44 PM

are you sure you want to move to linux for the desired application set ? Sounds very window specific to me(like MSN messenger/Office) which would take quite some effort to make them available under linux, if possible at all.

**John** · 04-20-2003, 05:46 PM

KNoppix can do all that well, the problem you might have is resizing the Windows partition using cfdisk which is used in the Knoppix HD install.

**good_karma69** · 04-23-2003, 05:03 PM

You can get the same functionality with Linux, but perhaps Knoppix isn't the best choice for you here. Don't get me wrong, its a great distro, but you may be better off with a distribution like Mandrake, Red Hat or SuSE.

With hard-disk installations of Knoppix, you dont get much choice of packages when you install, whereas with others, you can choose what you want to install. Take a look at www.distrowatch.com for a comparison of different distribution.

Knoppix's strength lies in the fact that it loads from cd without touching the harddisk, and can made an easy Debian-like installation, from which an experienced user can customise it.

I'll probably get flamed for saying that Knoppix has these limitations, but I do believe that it is probably safer to stick with easy desktop-orientated distros for newbies.

**MichielioZ** · 04-26-2003, 01:03 PM

Mandrake, SuSe and Redhat are deffinitely made for newbies...
(as is Xandros, Lycoris and Lindows

)

Problem remains : If you're REALLY new to linux, you just perform a "normal" setup of one of those distributions... This means you end up with about 3 office suits, 3-4 messengers (with probably only gaim supporting MSN) and lots of applications you just don't use...
In other words : you still have to KNOW about those applications before you're able to determin which one best suits your needs...

In this scenario, Knoppix is as good as any other newbie distro, or even better...
If you know which software you want (or don't want), just run something like Synaptic on your HDD-install and you'll get all the options you could think about.
(APT with it's .deb files is MUCH easier then .rpm's for newbies !)

Everybody has been (or is) a newbie... for me, Knoppix (and Morphix) were the first distro's to show me how powerfull linux can be for newbies...

**ktheking** · 05-01-2003, 01:31 AM

for msn =>

check out http://amsn.sourceforge.net =>it's like a real msn

I'll bet you ,you can even make a script for it to launch the installation of it,as well as running it. (i tried it and it even works hen installing it under knoppix account) - like the one for shockwave plugin -

greetzzzz....