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Thinking again, about my niece’s hint that she’s interested in trying out Linux I’ve just gone hunting for more helpful info for newbies. The tutorial site I got to first was http://www.linux.org which has some excellent pages of easy to understand explanations about trying out linux. It even recommends the idea of a dual boot, which I found last year when I was considering it, to be an idea that was treated hesitantly (not very recommended). Now it seems it is described as the best way to get your feet wet with your first Linux experience.

Dual boot means that you keep your Windows operating system on your computer, and add a linux one. Then when you boot up the computer, you choose which one you want to enter, then with a click you are loaded into either your Windows OS or your Linux OS.

Problem is, to decide which Linux to try out first. I went with Mandrake 9.1 for my first effort, then ended up with Suse 9.3, and less than a year later was ready to dump Windows 98 altogether and go with the Suse alone.

While clicking on the Distros link on Linux.org, simply because I was thinking of a spare OLD computer I have downstairs that doesn’t seem to be able to take my Mandrake or Suse, I decided to see what there was in the smallest distribution (distros) that would work with Windows. Just to give my niece more options, and perhaps to find one that would work on the OLD 486.

Well! Nice surprise. There’s a long list of these “minimal distros” as they are called. Some fit onto a floppy disk and can be run in RAM. So you really don’t mess up your computer if you decide that one is not for you. You get to pick up and handle as you do when you shop in person in a shopping mall. If you like it, you keep it (if you’ve downloaded it), and if you don’t - just delete.

I haven’t had time to try any of these out yet this morning, but I’ve downloaded a few;

AmigoLinux looked a little complicated as I have to figure out which of those files, out of quite a few, I need to download, so I by-passed it for now. Maybe another day.

CoLinux - I downloaded this one, as it says it is suppose to work together very well with Windows. It just fits into a folder of it’s own and is very cozy with Windows. We’ll see. It is at http://www.colinux.org.

Topologi-Linux http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net/index.php?menu=1 - looks good, and I liked the helpful information pages, but when I tried to download it nothing happened. It was a little large, so instead of trying again, I skipped that. I may go back to it again.

MuLinux - http://mulinux.dotsrc.org/mulinux.html - is suppose to be extra good for those old DOS/Win98, ready to toss out computers. But it isn’t maintained or kept up at all, so it isn’t going to keep improving. However, this is truly a small file. It almost downloaded like a graphic, so I’m going to try this one especially on the OLD 486 box downstairs.

If you have valuable stuff on your current computer, and you hesitate to mess it up with something totally new, try this route first. If you haven’t got an older computer, maybe someone else you know is about to throw one out. Ask if you can have it to experiment on. Install one of these minimal linux distros, and explore. If it breaks - it breaks. (shrug).

What will happen most likely is that you’ll suddenly have a new hobby and a new passion!

P.S. I have been getting floods of comments that are PURE SPAM. Until I figure out how to deal with that, I have disabled all comments on these blogs. Those who are my friends will know how to reach me. Spammers - God will deal with you!