Finding Linux for download

[Rob Hunter]

Hi All,
Bunch of related questions here :
1. What is the latest free version of Linux out? Or if they all are then whats the latest version?
2. Where can I download it from?
3. Can I put the latest version on a machine with only 2 GB (1.66 MB)? If not, what should I have that would be suffice? Currently I'm running 95 on there, which I want to scrap and replace with this. I recently bought a 512 MB, 80 GB, 2.53 GHZ machine and basically the ole 1.66 is an "experimental" machine now. Also where can I obtain instructions for replacing the 95 OS with Linux or is it a simple procedure that someone can answer here (I've never done this before).
Thanks for any help in advance guys.
Please e-mail me at : [e-mail]
Rob
[ January 13, 2003: Message edited by: Michael Ernest ]

[Barry Gaunt]

Your best source of general Linux info is here.
-Barry

[Greg Harris]

all of them are free... unless you want to purchase a boxed distribution that comes with an installation manual and/or other applications.
go to www.distrowatch.com to check out the lastest distributions and choose one from there. you might want to try mandrake, redhat or suse.
2.0 gig is probably not enough to do a full-install of redhat 8... but it will fit if you just install one desktop (gnome or kde).
however, if you really want to learn how to use linux... i would suggest not installing a desktop environment and just working from the command line.

[Rob Hunter]

How much would you recommend would be comfortably good on the system I described then? Do you perhaps know how much it would cost for me to upgrade from 2 GB to say 10 or more? Thanks.

[Bhupinder Dhillon]

Originally posted by Greg Harris:
however, if you really want to learn how to use linux... i would suggest not installing a desktop environment and just working from the command line.

Why do you people try to scare away new pontential users to Linux? The best thing for a new user is to install all the GUI stuff so that they don't get scared and run back to windows. There's plenty of time to learn all Linux has to offer once the user is convinced it can do all that windows does and then some.

[Greg Harris]

Originally posted by Bhupinder Dhillon:
Why do you people try to scare away new pontential users to Linux?

sorry, i wasn't trying to scare anyone away! that is how i got started with linux... my old machine would not support the desktop because i did not have enough RAM, so i just used the command line to write c++ programs.
now that i have a really fast machine, i can run kde... but i use the command line to do most of my configuration.
my theory is: the desktop is good... but if you do not start with the command line, you might not learn how to use it at all... especially now that some of the linux distros have such a good gui interface.

[Bhupinder Dhillon]

my theory is: the desktop is good... but if you do not start with the command line, you might not learn how to use it at all...
That's somewhat true but then again normal windows users don't know what their operating system can/can't do and they don't want to learn. To them, all that matters is if they can play audio/video files, play games and surf the net. Windows makes it easier to do all that stuff. Try to get a newbie to do all this on command line and they will never try Linux again - ever.
especially now that some of the linux distros have such a good gui interface.
That's exactly why a newbie should start with a desktop so they feel right at home and if he/she wants to learn more they can do it later. This is also why Linux seems to be gaining desktop market share - good/easy gui interfaces.

[Rob Hunter]

Thanks for the responses guys. Greg is more on the right track in this case though. I'm a newbie to Linux but not to programming and OS's. I really dont care too much for all the whoo-haaa of videos, games, and the sort. I'm more interested in the functionality of Linux. As I pointed out earlier, the system I'm putting Linux on is somewhat (understatement) limited so I cant likely do all that much anyway. Besides, my new XP machine would handle any friendly interaction when it comes to video, games, and the sort anyway . I'm just looking at the programming side of things and command line will do just fine for me at this stage. But hate to bother again but no one answered my last bunch of questions. Thanks guys for the responses though.

[Layne Lund]

I'm running Red Hat 8.0 on a 6 gig harddrive. The drive is pretty much full, but I installed everything, most of which I don't use. I would guess that 6-10 gigs is plenty to get you started with Linux. I haven't kept up on hardware prices lately. You should visit www.pricewatch.com. They list reasonable prices from various merchants.
[ January 13, 2003: Message edited by: Layne Lund ]

[Bhupinder Dhillon]

1. What is the latest free version of Linux out? Or if they all are then whats the latest version?
Mandrake 9.0 and RedHat 8.0. I don't know about the others.
2. Where can I download it from?
RedHat Download | Mandrake Download use the bottom link on mandrake.
3. Can I put the latest version on a machine with only 2 GB (1.66 MB)?
2 GB is more than enough for RedHat and Mandrake for most installations (I doubt you'll be installing every available package).
See the recommeded requirements for Mandrake and RedHat
Also where can I obtain instructions for replacing the 95 OS with Linux or is it a simple procedure that someone can answer here
Both sites have installation instructions on download page or somewhere in documentation.
(I've never done this before).
Don't worry both distros have easy to use graphical installation process.

[Rob Hunter]

Perfect! Thats what I was looking for. I guess the 400 MB is what I'll be doing since everything else is in the 1.5+ GB range. Thanks again.

[Greg Harris]

But hate to bother again but no one answered my last bunch of questions.

i replied to the message you sent directly to me earlier today... click on "my profile" at the top of the page next to "register, search" and you should see the repsonse.
however, it is pretty much the same as what everyone else has said.

[Tim Holloway]

I just read the specs off the Red Hat 8 box. They're recommending a minimum P200(text), 64MB RAM (text) or 128MB RAM(GUI) and 1.5-2GB disk for desktop, though by careful pruning you can cut it to a 400MB minimum. I noted that about 104MB RAM is consumed by an idle GUI desktop using the factory settings.
I *AM* running Red Hat 7.2 very happily on a P166 in text mode with 48MB RAM. That machine is the one that burns my CDs and does tape backups. I think it has a 2GB + 1GB hard drives.
The machine I'm typing into is a P400 that replaced an earlier P233 and has about a 10GB HDD.
Two things to consider:
1. Red Hat still supports the 7.x series of OS's. You don't necessarily need Red Hat 8, especially where security fixes and bug fixes are concerned.
2. Linux is not Windows. It's not a big amorphous clump of stuff that comes out all in one lump. The collection of programs that make up a Linux distribution come from many groups of people all over the world working on many different schedules. In fact, distros like Red Hat necessarily must be less than the absolute latest, because they are required to compile a collection of apps, ensure that they all play well together and construct an RPM that will install according to spec and without conflicting with the rest of the system. When you want the latest version of something, you can go to its website (or a mirror), download it and build it yourself - if you're brave enough.
In fact, the reason I keep buying Red Hat distros is because I want something that installs as a unit with (more-or-less) up-to-date security. When I accumulate too many software updates that have to be added post-install I start anticipating the NEXT release!

[Gregg Bolinger]

Originally posted by Greg Harris:
all of them are free...

Not SUSE. They have a Trial version that is free. But they stopped distributing their Free version after 7.2 I think.
And now Mandrake is filing Chapter 11. They will probably stop giving it away also. Oh well.

[Greg Harris]

Originally posted by Gregg Bolinger:

And now Mandrake is filing Chapter 11. They will probably stop giving it away also. Oh well.

WHAT?! i had no idea... hmmm, i was going to give mandrake a try on an old computer i just aquired - i guess i better get a copy soon.
as for SUSE, i forgot about that. i have not used it before, but we used it at our linux user group the other night to demonstrate CUPS and it looks pretty good.

[Layne Lund]

Originally posted by Rob Pike:
1. What is the latest free version of Linux out? Or if they all are then whats the latest version?

Linux itself is open source and free for everyone. The different companies that distribute a version of Linux only charge money for technical support, as far as I know. At least this is the way Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, set it up to be used.

[Navi Singh]

i would suggest not installing a desktop environment and just working from the command line.[/QB]
Hi! Greg,
That's what i had in mind.I did some initial practical's using telnet.I had a userid,psswd from a friend for a unix o/s.
Can u suggest anyplace where i could brush up my basic's on Linux/Unix, using telnet or something else.
Thank's in advance.
-Praveen.

[Greg Harris]

i do not know of open telnet servers... however, if you are in college (or know someone who is), you can probably find a campus telnet-server that you can login to and practice basic unix commands.
my school's email server is unix based and i can telnet to read my email... i have also made my home machine into a telnet server and ftp server... but i am not giving public access to that!
my best suggestion is for you to obtain a linux distrobution, install it and learn on your own machine. if all you want is command-line, then you can install it on a very small partition on your windows machine.

[Gregg Bolinger]

CYGWIN is a good place to start learning Unix shell commands without the hassle of installing Linux.
You need a good high speed connection thought. But it will install from the on-line server. Just follow the intructions on their web page.
I use it quite a bit on my XP box for testing misc things before taking them over to Unix.
[ January 25, 2003: Message edited by: Gregg Bolinger ]

[Navi Singh]

Hi! Folks ,
Thank's for the help and for the site "cygwin.com".
Q)How to "Create a new file".There are various sites(tutorials) which show u how to copy,remove etc.But all of them assume a file(of any.extension) is already present.
Q)the command "clear","less" does not work.
Any suggestion's..
--Thank's once again friends.
-Praveen.

[Navi Singh]

Hi! Friends ,i have the first problem solved.
regarding creating a new file.
However the 2nd Q) still remains.
--Thanks
--Praveen

[Arvind Varma]

I'm not very much familiar with Linux system admin. Can anyone suggest me good books/sources?
thanks