Thinking Bout switching to Linux...

[hrhrhrFOOT]

I am thinking about putting together a linux box.
It's not really going to be anything fancy, just enough so that i can learn linux. I have 3 configs i am thinking of. Here they are:

A celeron config:
1x MSI MS-6368L Socket 370 Micro-Atx Mobo $57
1x 1 ghz 100fsb celeron cpu $38
1x Directron YC2A-P2 case $29
1x Maxtor 20GB 7200 RPM HD $59
1x PC2100 DDRAM Already have it
Total: $183

Would this work?

OR

1x
Gigabyte G-MAX series TA1 Slim PC / Barebone System, w/ PSU, Support VIA C3, USB 2.0, LAN, Audio & Video barebone comp. $149
Link to it is here (http://http://www.directron.com/gigabyteta1.html)
1x Maxtor 20GB 7200 RPM HD $59
1x PC2100 DDRAM Already have it
Total: $208

This one should work.

OR

1x
Shuttle : HOT - 591P Super Socket 7 Baby AT Motherboard, 3PCI, 3ISA, 1AGP. $24
1x K6-2 500 MHZ CPU $20
1x Directron YC2A-P2 case $29
1x 8GB HD from someplace Already Have it
or if that doesnt work
1x Maxtor 20GB 7200 RPM HD $59
1x Geforce4000 PRO 32MB Already Have it
1x PC2100 DDRAM Already Have it
or if it doesnt support it
2x DIMM 64 mb $60

Total: $73(!!!)-$184

So...cheap...$73 minimum, $192 max. If it doesnt
support the ram and the HD i already have, i wont bother. Probably wont be able to do much, but hey it should let me learn linux.

The distro i want is gentoo. I like its features and
it will be my first distro. I will learn it
or die trying :D

Or maybe go to another distro. Which distro is
like gentoo except more newbie friendly?

I know this is a lot of questions, but i really hope you will answer them. I'm tired of windows. I want to learn linux.

[hrhrhrFOOT]

Thanks but uhh i just editted my msg. I wanna see if linux would work with the configs i specified.

[Fryguy8]

hardware that you don't interact with (processor, hard drive, motherboard, memory) you won't have any problems with no matter what (with the exception of some IDE controllers or RAID setups). The problem comes up with sound cards and video cards and ethernets. Try to stay away from onboard stuff here. Any geforce card works fine, soundblasters work fine, and almost any NIC will work w/o problems.

BTW, I might recommend staying away from gentoo for a first distro, and go with something that's a little bit easier to get up and running yourself.

[templest]

gentoo is a bit... uhh... 'nerdish' as from someone that tried gentoo as his THIRD distro, take it from me... It's be... good times trying to get installed. although I think they just released a 2 disk distro for the more new to linux. go with that. if you really want something easy go with mandrake or redhat, they're kind of bloated but I would extreamely recommend them for a first install. both install kind of like windows and are pretty easy to set up. the only thing i would worry about on those boxes is the vid card the sound card and the CD drives. See if they are supported. (have linux drivers you can download).

also: I would go with the biggest HD if I where you. :p since you will most likely want to install everything that comes with the distro to test everything out.

this is just my opinion. but as far as I can tell you wont have any trouble with those PC's.

[DavidSulc]

Instead of Gentoo, I would suggest Debian. Debian is hard to install, but I think it'll be easier than Gentoo.

It also has a "portage" system (apt-get), is probably easier to install and has a bigger user-base.

Just an opinion...

[Fryguy8]

I started with debian and it's a great stepping stone IMO. Gentoo is VERY hard to install if you don't know anything about linux. I had no problems with it, but only because I'd done LFS for a year, and there are many similarities

[hrhrhrFOOT]

Ah. Got it. I will go with either debian or gentoo, probably debian first and gentoo second. I like portage and dont like bloatage. Hey that rhymes!

Well, anyways, thanks for all the help. I'm thinking to go with number 2. However, the low portability may detract from overall quality. Number 3 is probably the one i wil elect to use since it is only 73 dollars. In conclusion, I have two followup questions:

Which of the configs would be best for me?
How big a hard drive should i get? An old 1 gb hd? A 20gb hd? Something in between?
Does Wine or WineX work with diablo and warcraft II & III? If so, can i still play bnet on it?
And finally, are there any games like warcraft or starcraft available for linux? If so, where might I find them?
Sorry for the barrage of questions.

[Fryguy8]

You need/want more than 1gb in my opinion. I typically set aside 5-6gb for a linux partition, although not that much is necessary.

I'd go with the last system just because it's the cheapest and you'll be able to do what you want with it, and you already seem to have a large chunk of it.

[hrhrhrFOOT]

All right then. It's been decided upon! I will go with the third one. I love oldies anyways :D

Thanks for helping me everyone, especially fryguy. Off to the gentoooo I gooooo!
:D :D :D

[templest]

hehe...

Does Wine or WineX work with diablo and warcraft II & III? If so, can i still play bnet on it?

lol... I just finished playing Warcraft III right now and decided to check back and see if you needed any help. WineX runs any blizzard game just fine. only one note. don't do the auto update (log onto battle.net through the game and get the install from the server). It will crash at 99% (Diablo II does, don't know about Warcraft III since i didn't want to risk it). You have to go to the actual website and look for the patch there. (www.blizzard.com but you already know that ;) ). and another distro comes to mind that can really get you prepared for a gentoo installation... I don't know why I didn't mention it since I'm using it. slackware. It will run great right off the bat and since it's a "hobby" type distro it will require playing around with. But not so much as to get you scared. just enough for you to learn a great deal about linux. Too easy of a distro will basically deter you from learning anything about the OS in general. But if that's just what you want go for debian, It's a really great OS.

[hrhrhrFOOT]

(log onto battle.net through the game and get the install from the server). It will crash at 99% (Diablo II does, don't know about Warcraft III since i didn't want to risk it). You have to go to the actual website and look for the patch there. (www.blizzard.com but you already know that ).
hehehe yeah i know that because it happens on winblows, too. Also, i didn't quite get what you were saying in your last couple of sentances:
Were you saying that debian was a distro that is too easy and that slackware was harder and therefore better?
Or were you saying the opposite?
Sorry, but i didn't understand it.

[funkytaz10]

try JAMD it is not bloated and it is a strip down version from RH9...
only one cd to download,has aptget and is really easy to install....

I am also a newbie and believe me it is good...

i tried mandrake first and red hat 9 second but on my PII 375mhz it was too slow...

Jamd rocks, has a lot of standard things and the rest you can aptget...

my 2 cents

funkytaz10

p.s. i am running it on 7GB which is enough (for the moment)

[Trogdor]

Originally posted by DavidSulc
Instead of Gentoo, I would suggest Debian. Debian is hard to install, but I think it'll be easier than Gentoo.

It also has a "portage" system (apt-get), is probably easier to install and has a bigger user-base.

Just an opinion...

I used to like Debian, but I don't now. The last release was forever ago, and it has really gotten bogged down in developers' egos. It made some good technological advances (like packages themselves, and the APT), but I don't think anymore will happen. Go for Gentoo, unless you are not ><NERDCORE><

[hrhrhrFOOT]

Yeah i read about JAMD in another topic. It seems good. I'm just wondering whether to go with Gentoo or JAMD. I want optimal speed.

[templest]

slackware is tougher... but not so that you will want to kill yourself. Just enough for you to go "hmm... this bash code is pretty neat, with the command 'cat' I can make my computer play techno". where'as debian you go: "wow... I can run WinAmp skins on XMMS". It's the way you want to use your computer. If you want everything setup and ready to go, get the 8 debian CD's or create on yourself with that one program that's on the website. or if you want to learn more about how linux works and you feel like hacking at the keyboard for 5 days straight trying to log on the the FastTrack network get slackware. Personally, after many distro's I sticked with slackware, It feel really rewarding to use :cool: . And the tears of joy when you get Hardware Acceleration on Quake 3 Arena are priceless. :p but everyone has their own choice and their own way they like things. I'm just giving you the facts. you decide what you would like best. ;)

EDIT: Slackware runs damned fast. It's not bloated. It wont run wonders on a Pentium 133 but it runs well on any computer made after 1998 :) Plus it comes with many different Graphic interfaces so If GNOME or KDE are too much for you you can just use BlackBox or fmvw (I think it's called) that come in the CD.

[undeadska]

I will second the vote on JAMD for first distro/speed. I have installed this on a couple of machines and gotten some pretty top notch performance because its setup for i686 processors. Package installation is minimal and works well with WineX. Support is also very good from the JAMD website (can get feedback from the actual creator of the distro).

On a side note, I use auto update from Bnet on MDK9.1 and JAMD without an issue. :cool:

[randrade]

I no longer waste time with Linux. I've learned a lot with my Linux box, which I've had since January. It was a bumpy ride with several sleepless nights. Linux is a fun OS to play with, but isn't meant for serous work. If I need to print a document, I NEED TO PRINT A DOCUMENT, not fiddle with settings from ad-hoc drivers that supposedly work with my unsupported HP printer.

If the power goes out, I need to get back in business as soon as it comes back up. Last time it happened, I found myself wasting time mounting stupid drives instead of working....

[Rickdog]

I would stay away from socket 7 and anything slower than 2 gig or xp2100+. I gave away two socket 7's one running a 550 and the other a 500 K6-2. Life is short, play hard. Building an obsolete slow running machine now is beyond me, you will wonder why you did it while you are constantly waiting for it and it will drive you bonkers, believe me, I have built a few, I got rid of them to save my sanity.

I have tried many, many distros, and the only ones I ever got to run X on the 6 or 7 machines I was running a while back, including socket 7's, were redhat and mandrake.Trying to get devices to work with the "complicated" versions of linux to get X running turned me off in a hurry.

[freakmn]

I would recommend using a CD-based distro at first, to get used to the environment. Knoppix is the most popular of these.

When/If you are ready to install a distro to your computer, you can use Knoppix, but I would recommend SourceMage (www.sourcemage.org). I've found it to be easier to install than gentoo, and it serves the same purpose. The only thing I have seen lacking with it is the amount of packages(programs). There's only ~2200 packages (this may seem like a lot, but some are libraries). But it works great for me. It, like Gentoo, downloads and builds everything from source, so it will take a while to get set up. This optimizes the build, leaving out what you don't need, and customizing all programs for your processor type. I'd try the 0.6 iso, as it's the latest stable iso. Directions are at the site, but once you get it installed, I'd do the following:


scribe update #updates the list of programs
cast linux #optional, but installs a custom kernel(the base of any linux system) that is made specifically for your hardware.
#To compile the kernel, you need to know specifically what hardware you have.
sorcery queue # queues for install any outdated programs
cast --queue #installs programs in queue
cast xfree86 openbox #installs GUI


Then you should have a working system.

[hrhrhrFOOT]

rick, i really dont think that will be a problem. NVIDIA cards generally work with linux, right? And mobo compatiblity is that much of an issue, right?

I just found a mobo/cpu combo for $30 with a fan,mobo and cpu. take a look at it:

heres the link (http://store.yahoo.com/surpluscomputers/cosoatxmowdu.html)
Now, if i bought a cheap case from there for like #10, i'd have a comp for $50 O_O
Damn thats cheap. And, i cant build a fast comp cuz im on a REALLY tight budget.

[Jata]

Templest:
I've considered Slackware before after getting fed up with RedHat and it's RPM dependencies. I then skipped over to Debian and it's lovely apt-get but the packages available are quite old. Gentoo isn't an option because I've got a 56K and if I was going to do it I'd want to do a stage 1. I'm current;y running RH9.0 but am painfully aware that I'm not really learning Linux, just using it.
Now I know the information is proabably there if I looked but I'd appreciate advice from someone who's used it so please don't flame me.
What has Slackware got to offer in this department ( software installation ) and how does it compare?

[twilli227]

Jata, if you are having problems with rpm dependencies, then check out apt4rpm or APT-RPM from here:
http://freshmeat.net/

And check out this thread:
http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105188&highlight=apt

If will solve all of your rpm problems.

[Jata]

Cheers mate, I'll look into that. Sounds good. I'll report back. :cool: