pixiestix1103

Oh my gosh... i just saw the quote! yep, must be nice not to have to worry about that. soon, i wont have to either. remember? i am getting smart and switching over too. the sooner the better... :)

viruses? i dont believe i have any if you are asking, but again, i am running windows, so i guess you really never know. as much anti-virus software as i have bought, i hope not. :)

i have been trying for the past couple hours to burn the .iso images to cds, but i keep getting errors. i dont understand what is wrong, but i am about to head over to amazon.com and just buy the boxed version. i was really trying to get it to burn, and then to read, but it is just driving me crazy. i tryed with roxio easy cd creator, but i kept getting the message that my cd drive was not supported. come to find out, on the roxio website, i am definitely not the only one with that problem. hopefully, the software will come in soon, and i can do an easy install. i dont have the time to troubleshoot tonight... i will try to fix it tomorrow....

"Good luck. Nearly there now (576 + views and 48 replies, the world is holding its breath now - no going back)" Oh that is so sweet! :woops: and i definitely appreciate it... so much. nope, i am really excited, and when i get off work at 5:00, the fun begins... i am not really too worried about breaking anything anymore- as many people as there has been that have replied, i would much rather break it then to not attempt. plus+ a lot of the people replying say that it is quite fun to break their computer, so hey, if it happens, it happens.... B)

ChrisM: i believe the program is called "windows MD5 sum generator" or something like that, but i checked it out last night, and there is a "MD5 checksum" button on there. i understand about the string of numbers; they are listed on the website, and when i get off work, i will check to make sure the numbers match up. i have already downloaded the 3 cds from the website, and i will burn them to a cd some time today. should i burn all three on one cd, or separately? i figured that there would be a prompt asking for the second cd, so i was just going to do them separately. right now, they are just files on my desktop. i have tryed to open them, but it keeps saying i am unable to view iso images (.iso file extentions), so i will have to figure out why not... :D

oh ok, , i will check out that website. i am trying to take all the advice given to me, and burning to a live cd was just one of the suggestions. it is taking a while, although i dont mind, but now i am half way through the process. i also downloaded a "windows MD5 sum generator", also something else that was mentioned in one of the posts. i havent figured out what it does yet, but i thought that i might need it, so i got one of those too. i will google it. when i am done downloading, i will tell you what happens... :P

i was actually planning on buying just the mandrake linux 10.1 that comes in the box with the manual, (about $70.00) but right now, i was trying to download the "iso" from here:http://iso.linuxquestions.org/version.php?version=71. i wouldnt be suprised if i am not doing it right! i have started downloading "ISO 1" and there are 3. i guess i will try to burn them to a cd later when i have all of them downloaded, but it is taking a minute. i have to find something that will allow me to burn an "iso" to a CD-R or RW. if you are looking at the website and are realizing that i am not getting it from the right place, or not downloading something right, feel free to tell me to stop. i was trying to take the advice of running it from a live cd first, so i can check it out...

yes, i just realized that i dont have a program that supports burning the file extention "iso", so i might have to get nero or something... havent thought or that...duh! yep, just defrag'ed yesterday so that part should be ready (for the dual boot). ChrisM : "check your MD5sums"- you have to let me know what that is...

Ok guys, another question... before i go and purchase mandrake 10.1, say i want to go and download linux, say from here: http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29 or somewhere else, could i download the installs to something like a CD-R or RW and then just run it from the cd? if so, how exactly could i do that? i mean, i want to buy the cd, and the manual and all that, but there are some websites that will let you burn to a cd i guess to try it out or something, and i dont know exactly how i would do that. and another thing, what happens if i completely wipe everything out, what do i do then? i wont exactly be able to hop on the internet and get one of you guys to help me, so i will just be stuck. and that would be very bad! :) i mean, i dont even know how to partition my hard-drive yet cause i have never had to do that before... this is so complicated! i cant wait till i am settled with my new os. maybe i can get a tutorial? i will google it when i get a chance... thanks everyone for all your advice... maybe one of you can come over and watch me to make sure i dont break anything!? just kidding... thanks again.

Hey ChrisM, what is with the lost/broken link? :unsure:

"....statistically about 1 in 50 fails within 3 years. IBM's DTLA series had 1 in 10 failing within 18 months (and yes, I have one of those, still running, always running, for almost 3 years.. if I ever turn it off I don't expect to be able to turn it on again...). " ok, i was just wondering something aRTee... i dont have an IBM, i have a dell, but i rarely ever turn my computer off. i work for a BIG health insurance company in the US, and our IT department tells us to NEVER shut our computers off. to get to the point, i dont shut the one i have at home off either cause from what i understand, it gives my computer a better change to aquire viruses. i dont know if this is true, but this is "my" first computer, and i thought that that was what i was supposed to do. if you can tell me different, that would be great, cause i never understand why i would need to keep my computer turned on and running at all times. i would hate to one day have to restart for something, and then realize that i am never going to be able to turn it back on. i guess this is a crazy question, but it caught my eye... do you always keep yours running?

"BTW that's actually how I installed my linux machine at work, so if IT ever wants to check the machine or whatever, I can just take out the bootfloppy and hey presto, good as new, completely (IT-)standard pc... " ***Oh my gosh! you are so crazy... very, very cool though aRTee! *** Anyways, don't worry guys, i haven't changed my mind or anything, and as far as courage goes, i have that covered too. if you wanna know, i have just been reading posts on this website lately - "getting my feet wet" i guess you could say, just in case. not really because i am worried, just because i don't understand most of the terminology yet, and it would be hard for me to ask any more questions not knowing how to say it. for instance, some of the posts on this website go SO over my head, but i will go and look it up so that i know what the people are talking about. i have noticed that the people here are extremely intelligent, and it sure does help out people like me, but i am not the type of person that will sit there and let someone do all the work. I wanna know what i am doing, and why, so that later on, i can help out someone like me. i am learning a lot- thanks to the people in the forums. I doubt that i will have a hard time, but if i do, i really want to be prepared. i am very excited about making the transition, but i am being very patient... it will happen soon though. speaking of learning something new, anyone want to tell me what a "second HDD and Partition Commander/System Commander Personal Edition" is? i am thinking a second hardrive and something that helps do the partitioning of the 2 hardrives, but i thought that i wouldn't need anything like that because i can somehow do it myself. i am hoping that the manual explains everything, because i think without it, i will have throw my computer out the window! i am just a normal kid (19yrs.), i can't be learning to put my computer back together just yet, i just bought it!

Thank you so much for the reading suggestions... I know you prolly dont believe me, but I will end up buying all of them and reading them cover to cover. I am not a techie, by any means, but I love computers, and I love reading books that will show me how to do different things. Right now, I am reading books on terminal emulation and protecting network security, and I learn something new everyday. I have windows xp as you have prolly read and I have about run out of things to do with that. I am fed up with M$ period, and having to virus proof everything is driving me crazy. It is unbelievable the amount of work that I have put into that computer, and I just bought it about 10 months ago... again, thank you so much for the advice... I really appreciate it.

Thanks so much... I would not have known what to do. You guys on the board are so nice and helpful, you should see some of the other websites that I have been to that are supposed to be really good, that really dont help you at all. So, as far as these patches go, yep, I am prolly gonna need some help with it when the time comes... prolly sometime next week. Pretty complicated stuff :). Should I go ahead and download to XP or will I wait till I install linux? And which one specifically do I need? All of them? I read the iinformation from the link, but like I said, I am not really more than a novice... on windows, I am pretty talented, but I have never worked with anything complicated. I am learning to program a little, but still, this is my first year of college, and haven't made it there yet... :) Thank you again, everyone is so nice, and such a big help.

My plan is to at first do a partition of Windows XP and Mandrake Linux until I get good and ready to fully switch. I didnt know exactly what info you wanted but I hope this is it: OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation System Model Dimension 2400 Total Physical Memory 256.00 MB Available Physical Memory 59.62 MB Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB CDROM: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B DISK DRIVES: MAXTOR 2F040L0 DISPLAY ADAPTORS: INTEL 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV GRAPHICS CONTROLLER IDE ATA/ATAPI CONTROLLERS: INTEL 82801DB ULTRA ATA STORAGE CONTROLLER PROCESSORS:INTEL CELERON CPU 2.40GHz If you specifically ask for something else, I am sure that I can find it... Thanks...