Question on installing Linux or WinLinux

[Hannu]

Hi,

For all you linux experts, i have a question about installing either RedHat Linux or WinLinux. Im a little confused as to how deep linux goes into the system. First off, Can i use a regular INTEL based proccessor and mother board and just install Red hat linux ? OR do i need a sunsystem computer? or does WinLinux only work on intel machines? I have a slower PC that I'd like to check out linux on and was wondering how much system juice is needed for it. the pc is a 866MHz with 196 MB Ram. i appreciate any help you can offer.

[Salvage]

Linux runs on x86 architecture, just like Windows.

Your computer should be able to run it fine.

[LeatherMan]

Linux runs on x86 architecture, just like Windows.

Linux runs on all PC architectures, even Apple's PowerPC.

Any 866Mhz PC should be powerful enough for even the most basic Linux install, however I suggest checking the recommended minimum specs and component compatibility for the distro you're considering before you start.

[Hannu]

Whats better WinLinux or RedHat linux 8? (keep in mind i am more used to windows environments.)

Im also wondering, can i Make an image of windows, and an image of linux on the PC and then go back and forth with an imaging program on the floppy drive? And.. one more question can i leave a second partition as Windows type the whole time i swap back and forth??

[Shug]

I'm pretty sure with ANY linux distro you can leave Windows on a separate partition and use a bootloader to choose what OS you want to boot into on startup.

Note it's usually a better idea to install Windows first, then the linux distro.

[Hannu]

Which linux package is the best in your opinions?! i clicked on the http://www.linuxiso.org/ link and i see about 16 different distros. What is easiest to learn, but also powerful?

[Ghostly apparition]

I made a post on these forums a while back titled-- Linux?-- its on page 3
of these forums. All the linux users were very helpful and there are some links
there ya might want to check out.

[Hannu]

Oh Great, Thanks ghostly, i read it and downloaded that Knoppix program that runs from CD. Works great! and boots up as fast as windows does for me. Its cool to mess around with. konqueror broswer is fast too It found all my hardware, including my net connection. thanks again! its perfect for people who want to check out what linux is quickly.

[Ghostly apparition]

yup thats what I did.

[Hannu]

How does one go about using Wine? i finally found it in knoppix by using "RUN >> WINE" and i got to configure it, but how do i use it to run windows based programs, like for example something simple like notepad, and then something more advanced like thievery or so.? there isn't much wine documentation with knoppix that ive seen.

i tried running notepad with RUN >> wine -fmanager /mnt/hda1/windows/notepad.exe, it pops up a box saying its trying to run that file with wine, but it does nothing.

[Ghostly apparition]

As far as i know there are some things with knoppix that you can't do. I
haven't actually tried to use wine, but I know that from within knoppix you can't
alter any windows files. maybe if you actually created a partition and ran it
off the hard drive but I'm not certain. Linux people? any input here?

[Hannu]

well i found out that wine is built into knoppix, and if you do RUN >> wine /mnt/hda1/windows/notepad.exe it works.

I also made a file association for all exe files to open with wine. and that works too, for the smaller, less complex files anyways. bigger files just seem to do nothing or errror out after some period of time.