See ' man hier ' (don't type the quotes)

--Short answer: /bin, /sbin, /usr/local/bin, sometimes /opt. Depends on the distro and the package(s) you install. Rarely, something will install in /usr/X11R6/bin as well.

' echo $PATH ' == Which directories are being searched for executable files

' whereis ls ' == Tells you where "ls" lives on your system.
' dpkg -S /bin/ls ' == Which (installed) package owns ls ( I just learned that one today myself! )
' dpkg -L coreutils |grep bin ' == List contents of package coreutils, and only display lines that contain "bin"

--I too got tired of Win problems; but if you have some $$ to spare, I highly recommend Vmware. Recompile your kernel (or install Ubuntu - Workstation has precompiled kernel modules for that distro) and create a VM for Windoze, a VM for Knoppix live-cds, a VM to test Linux installs, a VM for your dog...

--It's kind of addicting. Except for games and stuff that requires realtime display, much easier than running 'Doze on the bare hardware, and far easier to backup. But you should have a decent processor (600MHz+) and a good amount of ram (384MB or better; actually I'd say 512MB is a good start) and especially disk space.

--If you install to HD, yes you can say "everything goes on hdb" and tell the installer that /usr should go on /dev/hdb6, /home goes on hdb7, etc.

An example using my system:
Code:
' fdisk -l /dev/hda /dev/hdb '

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1         638     5124703+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2             639        1021     3076447+  8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda3            1022        1022        8032+  83  Linux
/dev/hda4            1023        9729    69938977+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            1023        1086      514048+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6            1087        2131     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/hda7            2132        2784     5245191   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hda8            2785        3355     4586526    83  Linux
/dev/hda9            3356        9729    51199123+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 81.9 GB, 81943142400 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdb1               1         204     1638598+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hdb2   *         205         206       16065   83  Linux
/dev/hdb3             207         207        8032+  83  Linux
/dev/hdb4             208        9962    78357037+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5             208         239      257008+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6             240         848     4891761   8e  Linux LVM
/dev/hdb7             849        1471     5004216   83  Linux
/dev/hdb8            1472        9962    68203926   83  Linux

' df -h '
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda8             4.4G  3.2G  1.3G  72% /
/dev/hdb7             4.7G  2.7G  2.1G  58% /home
/dev/hde6              15G   13G  2.2G  86% /mnt/drived
/dev/hde8              12G   11G  1.2G  90% /mnt/drivef
/dev/hde7             8.7G  6.3G  2.5G  72% /mnt/cdtemp
/dev/cdtemp2lvm/cdtemp2lvm
                       13G  9.6G  3.2G  76% /mnt/cdtemp2
/mnt/cdtemp2/cdtemp.mnt
                      8.9G  463M  8.5G   6% /mnt/cdtemp2a
/dev/hdb8              66G   48G   18G  74% /mnt/bkps
/dev/hda9              49G   37G   13G  76% /mnt/bkps2
/dev/hdc6             107G   89G   18G  84% /mnt/bkps3
/dev/hda6             8.1G  6.0G  2.1G  74% /mnt/vm98
/dev/extralvm/extralvm
                      7.5G  4.0G  3.6G  53% /mnt/extralvm
tmpfs                 253M  4.0K  253M   1% /dev/shm
--You can go to www.vmware.com and trial Vmware Workstation for 30 days to see if it fits your needs. (Standard disclaimer, I have no affiliation with Vmware but I really like their work.)

Quote Originally Posted by bfifteenv
Hi,
I'm a total noob at this whole Linux thing. I got tired of persistent problems with Windows, so I wanted to try out Linux for a while before I breakdown and buy a Mac.

Anyway, I downloaded Knoppix and it seems to be running fine from the CD, I don't want to do a HD install until I am sure that I want to stick with Linux. I have a lot of expensive engineering software that I would like to still be able to boot up in Windows and run so I don't want to make a permanent switch just yet, but I'd like to really get a feel for Linux.

I want to download and try a few Linux Apps that aren't on the Knoppix Live CD that I am using. If I download and install those, presumably they will go on one of my harddrives somewhere right? Can I specify which drive - like can I make 1 of my hard drives (I have one that I can reformat now, it is empty) my Linux drive and make the other off limits to any Linux apps? Can I setup all my programs to use that drive as a default - so like Mozilla will automatically dump things (like my history folder) there? Should I do anything to that drive before designating it for that purpose (if I can)?

I searched but searching "download" or "harddrive" or "applications" turned up a whole lot of stuff that didn't apply.

Thanks!
[/b]