Time for the swtich has come.

[Scot L. Harris]

On Thu, 2005-01-27 at 22:06, Kyle Lagonegro (Student-Lagone37) wrote:
> I'm finally fed up with Windows and Microsoft in general.  I just signed up to this mailing list and am making the first steps to moving over to Linux.  From what I have read Fedora is the way to go.  So now I must download, but before I make the switch I have some questions:
> 
> 1) Is it a good idea to do the dual particion so I keep WinXP for a while?  Because frankly I want it gone as fast as possible...
> 

If you are ready for the plunge I have always felt it was best to wipe
out windows and use the whole disk for linux.  If you setup a dual boot
system you may find that you won't spend the time to find equivalent
programs native to linux for the day to day tasks that you do. 
Virtually everything that windows does linux can do.  

What you want to do is assess the programs and tasks that you need to
have and do some google searches to find appropriate linxu
applications.  You may find that many come standard with Fedora, others
you may need to pull from other repositories.

> 2) I'm hooked up to a LAN connection through my college, does Linux come with a web browser like Windows does, because if so I should have no problems with anything, I'm just worried about putting it on and not having the ability to get on for help.
> 
Several different ones including Firefox.  No problem there.

> 3) I have a bunch of drivers and such that came with the computer, will they work for Linux, or are they only formatted for Windows?  The disks don't say windows on them at all, but I'm not sure.
> 
Most likely you won't need those disks.  Most of the drivers are built
in to linux.  The one area that is problematic is wireless drivers but
there are several native wireless drivers available as well as
ndiswrapper that lets you use the windows driver for your wireless card.

All of this depends on the particular chip set in the wireless card.

> That's it for now, but trust me when I say you will all be hearing from me a lot...  Hehe.
> 
> One question about this forum, is there a way to stop them from mailing everything to me, I'll just go to the site to check responds and such...
I believe you can set that option at the forum web page.

When you do require help please provide info about your particular
system and include relevant error messages and log files.  Keeps us from
having to read your mind.  :)
 
Good luck.  
-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

A furore Normanorum libera nos, O Domine!
	[From the fury of the norsemen deliver us, O Lord!]
		-- Medieval prayer