Hi pr-man and welcome!
 
At this point, I wouldn't even think of installing Linux to your hard drive. Try one of the many Linux Live CDs to begin with. This is a complete Linux operating system which runs entirely from the CD and will have no effect on your Hard Drive or Windows. This way you can check out Linux without all the pressures of partitioning and such. Of the many Live-CDs I've used, I like the Mepis live CD and the new Ubuntu. Download the ISO file and burn the image to a cd. Then go in to "setup" that is your bios, and change the boot order to boot from cdrom before Hard drive. Then insert the live cd and reboot!
 
Let us know how you come out or if you need further help...
 

pr-man, I just noticed the number of posts you have! You're from next door at NTCompatible? Given that, I'm sure my detailed directions for burning and booting were completely unnecessary! Sorry...

no thank you for the advice I just wanted to cover my bases.
 
By the way when I red you post I actually was Ubuntu Live CD LOL I really liked the look of it in the screenshots. Now if I can run the OS from the cd etc I am assuming I can just test out the OS and not install any linux software etc correct?
 
hehe also just to make you jealous I picked up that lappy in mint condition for just $500 shipped, I couldnt believe my luck

Seems like you should be able to get almost everything working. Check this out.
http://www.richsawin.com/vaio/
 

Originally posted by pr-man:

Quote:hehe also just to make you jealous I picked up that lappy in mint condition for just $500 shipped, I couldnt believe my luck You're right, I am jealous! Wow!

Hey out of Fedora Core 3 and Ubuntu which do you recommend as better? I havent had a chance to take a look at mepis yet.
 
 

One thing which you could try which does not require a partition of the hard disk is to install coLinux. (See http://www.colinux.org/ )
It is not itself a distribution, but a way of running a Linux distribution as a task within either Windows XP or Windows 2000. The task shares the cpu with Windows, so it is not the thing if you need power computing. I now use it much more than I do dual booting.
 
I am currently running mine with Fedora 2, but there are other distributions available.
 
John
 
P.S. If you go for this look at the snapshots at http://www.colinux.org/snapshots/ rather than 0.6.1 which is rather dated.

Out of the three, I've not used Core three yet. Do you have a copy of Partition Magic? If Core three, it would be better to use it to set up your partitions. I've not installed either Mepis or Ubuntu in a dual boot scenario, but I understand Ubuntu is really good with dual boots. Mepis is very straight ahead and understandable though I haven't set it up in a dual boot either.
 
All will be user friendly to install. Ubuntu uses Gnome desktop environment and is clean and unencumbered by a bunch of needless and duplicated apps.
 
Mepis by default gives you KDE desktop environment, though other DEs are easy to configure with apt-get.
 
Fedora three, (I would think), will be a lot like Core two but with refinements. Core one and two were excellent in my estimation, and Core three should please as well.
 
Of potential interest, (and I know there will be Debian based distro users who may disagree) I think Fedora has a slight edge with utilities that are more user friendly for the new Linux user. You'll get plenty of easy to understand and configure utilities with Fedora that will make hardware and preference configuration a breeze.
 
The good thing about Linux is, you try one out for a while, then the other two, and settle on the one that is most to your liking!
 
I would be hard pressed to recommend any one over the other. All are good choices.
 

I will always recommend a debian based distro over rpm. So I'll say ubuntu. I'm biased.

Simply Mepis is Debian based also right? Screenshots of it look nice.

Yes, and if you like it and want to play with it for a while (if it works on your lappy) the you can do a hard drive install and see how it responds on the drive.

I've heard nothing but great things of Mepis it would be a great choice from what I've read, and yes it's Debian based. Don't you need to pay for a subscribtion though or is there a downloadable ISO? I'm interested in trying sometime.

As with most distros, Mepis prefers to be supported financially, though they offer versions a little less than current for download at no charge.

Thanks DapperDan. That may be enough for me to try it out I'm always looking for a good debian based distro to recommend. I have no problem paying for a good stable desktop or recomending it to someone who isn't technical enough to run debian/sid. I use sid because I like messing with all the latest stuff, fixing
things when they break, and it puts me in a better position to help my friends and family that use linux. If I can get them on a debain based distro it's easier for me to help.

guys check this out. the new Debian distro Unbutu is free and they will send you as many shrink wrapped copies as you want to distribute to your friends at no charge and free shipping . I just ordered 10
 
http://shipit.ubuntulinux.org/