Linux Mint is a good choice. It is a newbie distro based on Ubuntu which is the most popular distro. It even uses Ubuntu's repositories.
You could also opt for Ubuntu 8.10 and that would give you another installation option, not available in Mint or any other distro. It is called WUBI which stands for Windows Ubuntu installer and it pops up when you stick your Ubuntu disk in the drive inside Windows. You can also download it as a small exe file and it is even simpler if you have highspeed internet. It only works for one of the *buntus. It installs Ubuntu from inside Windows onto your c drive as one large compressed file. It de-installs from the Windows control panel. It modifies your Windows bootloader by adding Ubuntu as the second boot option with Windows being the default. There is no partitioning or formatting. It can later be converted to a full installation. It works just like the real thing except that it is affected by Windows fragmentation and hibernation does not work. The compressed file is mounted as if it was a drive and it boots just like Ubuntu. You do anything inside of the WUBI installation that you can do in regular Ubuntu. The biggest problem with this is Windows. If Windows crashes or hard boots it can corrupt files and since the file is so large it is more at risk than other files. It is a good way to get your feet wet witout risk, though, and is worth vconsideration. A second problem is that it is Ubuntu and not Mint. Mint includes restricted drivers and codecs by default whereas this is a separate installation with Ubuntu. This should not be your over-riding consideration. Roy Linux: Fast, friendly, flexible and .... free! Support Open source. <*,)}}+< Only dead fish go with the flow! ________________________________ From: MuskokaCowboy <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, January 5, 2009 11:38:23 PM Subject: [LINUX_Newbies] Looking for a recommendation re: Linux on a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop Hi Guys: I have been lurking for a few months and am now considering installing Linux on my Dell laptop. I am not a total newbie to Linux. I installed Mandrake Linux on an old computer a couple of years ago and played around with it for a while. My laptop has a AMD Sempron 2.0 GHz processor, 2 GB of ram and a 320 GB hard drive with XP installed. I have a home wireless network. I mainly use this computer for web browsing, email and bittorrent and I often use VNC viewer to remotely control my desktop computer which is also running XP. I do occassonally (maybe 2 days per month) need to run Windows business programs on this computer (Quickbooks, Simply Accounting etc.). Based on the messages that I have read I am thinking of installing Linux Mint but would consider any other recommendations. I am wondering if I should run a dual boot system for the times when I need Windows or should I just go with Linux and use something like Wine for those times when I need to run Windows apps. I am also looking for help on how I should partition the hard drive. Thanks for your help in advance and also thanks for running this group to help people like myself. Dave __________________________________________________________________ Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to Yahoo! Answers and share what you know at http://ca.answers.yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [email protected] & you will be removed.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
