I just installed Ubuntu Linux on a 25-ish GB partition of my 160 gig drive... it turns out it isn't so bad, missing some of the functionality of Windows, and the command-line based structure (UNIX stuff) is confusing me somewhat. I kept my XP install, of course, because I still play games from time to time ( ) but Ubuntu seems capable enough to serve as a 'work' OS.

I went through a fair amount of trouble to get this install even started (because my hardware never seems to work), and if I get around to it I'll post some solutions that other people might be looking for. In the meantime, does anyone know of any guides, or have any tips and tricks for a newbie-Linux user? I'm trying to learn the ropes, and that command-line format is the first thing on my list, so if anyone has any good books/websites for it I'd be much appreciative.

Written from Ubuntu 6.10 :)

in linux, you use / instead of \

and remember, sudo is your friend :love:

Uh... ok

I guess I'm sticking with the regular GUI for a while.

but command line is so pimp! you can even write scripts in Perl :love:

I still need to partition my hard drive and install Ubuntu on it, but I am not sure I can spare the space, I only have 40 gig left.

40 GB is plenty. I've got a 60GB hard drive on my server pc (All the file access and data backup is on the 160GB drive) in three partitions, each 20GB in size. Partition 1 is Windows XP, Partition 2 is Windows Vista, Partition 3 is free.

I'm just worried that I only reinstalled this computer last christmas and I have already filled up 40 gig (it has a 80 gig hd), so wasting some of the spare 40 gig might leave me short. I might stick a spare HD in as a slave to save some stuff on, I must have a fairly decent one kicking around somewhere.

Buy a new hard drive and transfer your data from the old drive to the new. Hard drives don't cost that much, really. :hello:

You're right, but a new pc will beckon next year, so I might as well put up with parts that I have kicking around.

Even so, if you get a new hard drive to put into the current machine (It could be a 60GB - 300GB, totally up to you) you could always turn it into a server machine which is a lot of fun. :hello:

Hello, Linux? jk

Linux requires 2gb plus a 512mb swap; a few for applications (a bunch are already included - OpenOffice, GIMP (open source versions of Office and Photoshop, respectively) so you can probably get away with 8-10 GB...

Fedora Core 6 on a partition on my server pc :love:

If the command line scares you, then you don't have to use it if you don't want to. But the command line is very good, its useful because you can do all sorts of things with it, and do scripts and stuff, I find it very useful.

Ubuntu got a great community.

You can chat in #ubuntu at irc.freenode.net

There are wikis, forums, mailing lists, documentation, commercial support, etc.

http://www.ubuntu.com/support

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/