Very New

[Guest Norsksvaerd]

Hello everyone,

 

First of a little info about myself. I've a very experinced computer user, Software/Hardware wise. A couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of trying out a linux OS, but never went through with it. So for the last 11 years I would guess I've been using Windows based system, and consider myself very experinced with them. So a couple of days ago I decided to try out a linux system so I may jump into the open-source band wagon being a developer myself.

 

Well I've spent the last 3 days doing research and such on which distro I wanted to use and have choosen my poison. As you could probly already tell, it's Mandriva, 2005LE 3CD x86-64 Public download to be exact. I am running a AMD64 system so that isn't a problem.

 

Now before I jump into all this, I've read a few things about installing this but really havn't found much of a foothold before I jump into the deep end without floaties on.

 

So without further ado, I'll start by giving my system specs the asking a few questions and such seeking advices and what I should and shouldn't do.

 

System Specs:

AMD64 1.8 3000+ Athlon

Asus A8V Ai Series mainboard

2x 512 DDR400 memory(1024mb)

2x80gig Seagate Raptor 7200rmp hdds running in Raid0

Nvidia 6600GT AGP 8x 128mb videocard

Soundblaster 24bit 7.1 such and such can't remember exact specs at the moment

Linksys Wireless-g with speed booster(WMP54GS)

19" LCD Samsung(SyncMaster 930b)

Samsung CDR/CDRW Burner

Sony DVD/DVDR burner

Raid is setup with 2 partitions, first being windows xp pro(non-64bit) and the second being empty(going to put mandriva on this partition)

 

 

Now a few things, I've been worried about. I've been reading the linux doens't like raid and have found a few things about fixing these problems but they all seem very confusing being a linux noob and all.

 

Also I've read there have been problems getting LCD and Linksys wireless cards to work right, also what about 64 bit drivers or can I use the 32 bit drivers in the 64 os(Windows does not allow this in it's 64bit version, it isn't backwards compatible with 32 bit drives, you have to use 64 bit)

 

Also if I need to use 64bit linux drivers where can I find them for the devices I have.

 

I use this computer for just about everything, between developing software, modding games, playing games, developing webpages and server plug-ins.

 

I know the games I play aren't linux friendly so that isn't a problem, only reason Im keeping windows.

 

I'm also looking for a good tutorial on installing the version of mandriva I downloaded and how to get everything working and some linux(mandriva basics)

 

If you linux guru's have any further questions or if I think of anymore I didn't put down here, I'd love to hear from you.

 

Thanks inadvance, hoping to enjoy my linux experince.

[johnz]

I'm also looking for a good tutorial on installing the version of mandriva I downloaded and how to get everything working and some linux(mandriva basics)

welcome to the board Norsksvaerd

i jumped in the deep end about eleven days ago now and can provide a useful link

http://shots.osdir.com/

if you ckick on "Mandriva Linux 2005 Limited Edition" in the list to the right hand side you will see all the installation screenshots for that flavour, theres about 70 plus screenshots for you there.

[Guest Norsksvaerd]

Thank you, I will review this. Again thanks for providing this link to help me further understand the linux process.

[steppenwolf1984]

Welcome to Mandriva....you'd be hard pressed to find a distro that installs as smooth as Mardrake/Mandriva......wait'll you get a load of the partition tool! I just repartitioned my laptop with it to install two other distros....

[daniewicz]

Here is a Mandrivia how-to site put together by one of our own (aRTee)

 

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/